The City is huge. Really large. More properly called a city state than a city, perhaps even a country, the City has lost its many names in the sands of time just as the multitudes have gotten lost in it. Consuming towns, villages and farmsteads wholesale as it grew, it has even a forest (Forest Quarter), mining colony (Dwarven Quarter) and stone quarry (Blackrock Hills) in its midst, along with several rivers and canals of varying sizes.

On a local level, most people walk, ride or purchase a ride on one of the stagecoaches that are always by the city’s roadside for hire (1 gp to anywhere within the fiefdom). When crossing from one fief to another, however, it is more common to use one of the many Teleportation Circles scribed across the City in Mage Guild-run “teleportation stations” that is designed bring the traveller straight to Sender Hub, from where he can take another circle to any other fief.

The use of a station is carefully monitored by Circle oculli. Only those with a teleportation token is able to use the circle: a day token (lasts from sunrise to sunset) costs 10gp, while a night token (from sunset to sunrise) costs 25gp. Monthly and annual tokens are also available for sale at 300gp and 3500gp respectively, and may be used day or night. Portals flicker in and out of existence at five minute intervals; anyone standing on the portal with the correct token on them when the portal opens is sent to or from the Sender Hub.

Fiefdoms

Here are some of the popular fiefs, each about the size of a standard medieval city. Each have their own garrison of city guards, and usually have a castle within their domain as well. Taxes are directly collected by the governing lord, who then passes it on to the Royal Castle.

• Temple District
• Poor Quarters
• City Prisons
• Merchant’s Lane
• Docklands
• University
• Pleasure District
• Gnomish Quarter
• Dwarven Quarter
• Forest Quarter
• Blackrock Hills
• Undercity
• Sender’s Hub
• The Castle

Politics

The City is ruled by the Queen Agnes III: her castle sits in what can be roughly considered to be the centre of the City, while the rest of the City is divided into multiple fiefdoms, each ruled over by a particular duke, earl or baron. The Queen’s rule is absolute in the City, and her word is law: simply put, to contradict her in any way, shape or form is to die.

Races

The most common race in the city are humans, though there is a normal representation of other humanoids. There isn’t much discrimination beyond the usual ancestral prejudices, but other than that most races get along quite well with one another.