The capital of the Kingdom of Thalossa, sharing the kingdom’s name, is a vast and teeming metropolis at the realm’s heart. Built around Castle Ardentia, which rises from a crystalline lake, the city is divided into great districts that reflect the kingdom’s structure: nobility, faith, commerce, and common life.
The Tower of Dawn (knightly training fortress) and Tower of Dusk (seat of the Mage Guild) both lie in the countryside outside the capital, ensuring their orders remain semi-independent from noble intrigue within the city proper.
- Centered around Castle Ardentia, the gleaming fortress on its lake-isle.
- Home to the royal palace, the crown’s administrative halls, and the estates of the highest noble houses.
- A heavily guarded district where commoners are rarely admitted.
- Notable Sites:
- Castle Ardentia – Seat of the monarch and symbol of human unity.
- Hall of Nobles – Where feudal lords gather to counsel (and plot).
- Crystal Causeway – The only bridge to Castle Ardentia, patrolled by royal guards.
- The bustling heart of commerce, overflowing with merchants, traders, and adventurers.
- Known for its sprawling bazaar, guildhalls, and taverns where caravans from beyond the Wall sell rare spoils.
- Notable Sites:
- Grand Bazaar – Endless stalls selling both honest goods and black-market wares.
- Adventurers’ Row – Inns, smithies, and potion-sellers catering to mercenaries and explorers.
- House of Coin – Banking guild where fortunes rise and fall.
- The religious and funerary district, dominated by chapels of the Order of Last Light.
- Here, priests consecrate the dead, ensuring souls pass the Veil. Pyres burn night and day.
- Poor citizens often bring bodies here, begging for rites to prevent plague.
- Notable Sites:
- Sanctum of Passing – Grand cathedral of the Last Light.
- Ashen Courts – Rows of pyres where the dead are cremated.
- Shrines of Minor Orders – Chapels to knightly orders who hold garrisons in the city.
- A smoky, clanging sprawl of smithies, armories, and warehouses.
- Produces the arms and armor that sustain Thalossa’s expansion.
- Also a place of squalor, as workers and refugees crowd the slums around the forges.
- Notable Sites:
- The Great Foundry – State-run forge producing weapons for the Crimson Standard.
- Runebinders’ Quarter – Where human mages inscribe runes into steel and stone.
- The Charred Alley – A labyrinth of illicit forges creating unlicensed rune-gear.
- The largest district, home to most of the city’s population: laborers, artisans, and farmers.
- Markets, taverns, and alleys bustle with life, but crime is rampant where the Order’s patrols thin.
- Notable Sites:
- The Riverside – Docks along the lake where goods flow into the city.
- The Red Fang Den – Notorious thieves’ guildhall hidden beneath a tavern.
- The Commons Forum – A speaker’s square where agitators, prophets, and radicals vie for attention.
- Tower of Dawn – A fortress-keep located a day’s ride from the capital, where recruits of the Order of Dawn are drilled into knights.
- Tower of Dusk – A vast, rune-etched spire housing the Mage Guild, its libraries, and its forbidden vaults. Standing apart from the city, it ensures magical study is contained should disaster strike.
- Royal Roads – Stone highways radiating from the capital, patrolled by the Crimson Standard, linking the countryside to outlying villages and forts.
The City of Thalossa is:
- The cultural heart of humanity, where nobles, priests, and knights vie for influence.
- The engine of expansion, feeding armies and expeditions beyond the Wall.
- The symbol of mankind’s survival, a shining beacon amid a world of plague, monsters, and ruin.