9.7 KiB
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City Name
Crest: A crowned phoenix rising from a black mountain against a crimson sun
General Information Realm Temerian Empire Population ca. 320,000 Dominant Culture Imperial Temerians Local Demonym Ravean Ruling Authority The Emperor (currently Temerian III) Key Features Founded c. 1E 412, on the ruins of older settlements Known For Imperial bureaucracy, art and architecture, seat of power Landmarks Palace of the Phoenix, Hall of Chains, the Grand Aqueduct Military Presence First Legion (The Emperor’s Shield), elite honor guard units Temples Sanctum of the Veil, Temple of the Eternal Flame Trade Goods Paper, fine wine, marble, enchanted steel
Overview
Raveas rises over the northern coast like a monument carved from iron will. Built upon ancient foundations and shaped by imperial precision, it is a city of order, ritual, and pride. Its white cliffs fall into the deep waters of the Ravean Gulf, where black-sailed warships prowl and volcanic steam wreaths the distant silhouette of Tor Ravenes. The air smells of salt, ink, and sanctified stone.
Every avenue, temple, and aqueduct serves a purpose. Bureaucrats march with the same certainty as the legions. Here, law is not debated - it is declared. And it is in Raveas, more than anywhere, that the Empire becomes myth made marble.
History
Raveas was raised from ancient bones. Founded atop the sunken remains of a pre-Shattering civilization, the city was chosen not merely for its strategic coast or fertile basin, but for the grim omen of Tor Ravenes, the volcanic island that looms in the gulf beyond. Legend tells of the first Emperor, who heard voices in the island’s steam and founded his seat where “the gods once wept fire.” That place became the Palace of the Phoenix - and Raveas was born from its shadow.
Through the ages, the city has endured as the heart of the Temerian Empire. It withstood the devastation of the War of Secession, when its gates held against the rebel lords of the eastern marches. During the time of plagues, smoke rose from the lower districts for weeks, and the stone masks of the Fire-Tenders became a common sight in the streets. The Three Days Revolt remains a wound on the city’s memory: a bloody uprising from the Lower Basin that ended only when the First Legion swept through with fire and steel, restoring order at great cost.
But Raveas is not merely a city of endurance - it is one of ambition. It witnessed the unification of the Twelve Houses, the forging of the first imperial codes, and the coronation of every emperor since Temerian I, the Unifier. His descendants still walk its colonnades: Temerian III, the current Emperor, rules from its heights. Alongside him rise names etched into the bones of the Empire: Empress Elissa the Binder, who tamed the rebellious west; High Inquisitor Aven Vorren, whose silent halls remain feared; and Architect Kallimor, whose works still define the city’s skyline.
Geography & Layout
The city spirals outward from the Palace of the Phoenix, rising through layered terraces marked by class and purpose. At its heart lies the Forum of Ash, ringed by the ministries and ancestral shrines.
The Upper Quarters house the Twelve Noble Houses, vast academies, and theatres, while the middle ring - home to scribes, guilders, and merchants - buzzes with regulated bustle. The river Alser divides Raveas horizontally, with the Marble Docks and the Market of Chains to the east and the smokestacks and smithies of the Lower Basin to the west.
From the heights of the Scholar’s Promontory to the slums of the Black Steps, the city is a study in control, surveillance, and splendid austerity.
Governance & Law
Raveas is ruled directly by the Emperor, advised by the Imperial Chancellery and enforced by a complex network of ministries. Law is codified in the Temerian Codex, and justice is a solemn affair.
Confession replaces trial in many cases, extracted in the subterranean Hall of Chains. Public ritual shaming is preferred for minor offenses, while political crimes are answered with execution - or disappearance. Spies of the Emperor's personal secret police monitor both the lower wards and noble estates, ensuring loyalty through silence.
Land ownership, trade rights, even marriage contracts are matters of law, not sentiment.
Society & Culture
Discipline is the civic virtue of Raveas. Spontaneity is regarded with suspicion, creativity is channeled into architecture, and excess is permitted only through sanctioned spectacle. Even joy is orchestrated.
Social mobility exists but is rare. Nobles of the Twelve Houses sit at the peak, followed by magistrates, guildsfolk, citizens, bond-servants, and slaves. Foreigners are allowed trade but barred from land ownership unless granted imperial favor.
Fashion is severe - black and crimson dominate, with veils for noble women and military braid for men. Festivals include precision marches, firelit recitations of ancestral names, and choreographed displays of civic unity.
Religion & Education
Though the Empire is officially atheistic and does not venerate spirits, Raveas is deeply religious in structure and favors religious freedom at the same time. The Creed of the Veil holds sway in doctrine and ceremony, preaching silence before the unknown. Ancestral worship, however, is a near-universal practice: shrines to family lines grace every noble hall and peasant hearth. The Shrine of the Line Eternal is second only to the Emperor’s own sanctum in reverence. As long as religious practice do not undermine the public order or, worst of all, the Emperor's rule, everyone may worship how ever they like, as long as it is done in private.
Education is tightly regulated. Nobles are sent to elite academies like the Imperial Academy or to be educated at the university in Algeas, while other citizens may earn entry to guild schools or bureaucratic colleges. Arcane practice is restricted to licensed alchemists and ministry-sanctioned scholars. The Circle of Magi from Anderon holds a specific embassy at the Emperor's throne and, since it became a major sponsor of the empire's war efforts, is allowed more leeway in practicing their arts. Especially since slaves are plenty, Setting/Magical Traditions/Blood Sorcery does not run out of fuel here.
Trade, Craft, and Industry
Raveas is the beating heart of northern trade and the bureaucratic brain of the Empire. It exports laws, treaties, censuses, and wine from its surrounding vineyards. Its docks are flooded with goods from across the Empire - spices, textiles, stone and ores - but also with tribute and slaves from subjugated territories.
The *Crimson Docks serve as both port and customs hub, while the *Market of Chains remains infamous for its regulated slave auctions, whispered dark wares, and heavily watched coin exchanges.
Raveas issues its own coinage and enforces tariffs with surgical precision. It is less a city of goods than a city of order - where value is weighed not just in gold, but in writs, contracts, and decree.
Military & Defense
The First Legion, also known as the Emperor’s Shield, is stationed in a fortified wing of the palace. They are clad in ceremonial black-and-gold armor, trained for both warfare and ritual spectacle. City defenses include triple-layered walls, internal checkpoints, and a labyrinth of catacombs that allow silent troop movement. The Ministry of Fortification ensures no street is out of reach.
Parades are regular and meticulous, often commissioned by victorious generals. The Emperor’s secret enforcers—rumored to operate from beneath the Forum—monitor unrest with ruthless efficiency.
The Emperors personal secret police is said to employ many agents and eyes in the city, especially focused on understand what the noble houses are up to.
Points of Interest
The beating heart of the Empire lies within the Palace of the Phoenix, a monument of fire-veined stone perched at the city’s summit. Both fortress and sanctum, it is closed to all but those bearing ancestral writs or imperial summons. Its vast halls echo with law and lineage, while hidden corridors coil around secrets that have never seen daylight.
From the palace, the Grand Aqueduct stretches like a rib of the old world, channeling steaming springwater from the volcanic heart of Tor Ravenes. Reforged in the Second Era by the famed Architect Kallimor, it remains a marvel of both magic and stonecraft—its arches etched with ancestral names and the seals of the Twelve Houses.
Beneath the central square lies the Hall of Chains, where justice is whispered, not declared. Prisoners descend into silence and emerge only in memory or confession, their fates carved into stone before the court of inquisitors. Above, in the Forum of Ash, the city gathers in solemn ritual. Braziers burn at all hours, statues of former Emperors gaze across tiled stone, and decrees are read with ceremonial weight.
To the east, shadowing the docks, sprawls the infamous Market of Chains. Here, slaves are traded under regulation and dark rumors. Behind its public façade, rarer goods and darker indulgences change hands under imperial blind eye, making it both feared and necessary to Raveas' enduring power.