Re: Magnimar info
Arts & Entertainment
In an attempt to elevate the city-state beyond merely an aggrandized trading post, the local government has done much to encourage education and the arts. The majority of its contribution to citywide enlightenment goes to the Founder’s Archive and Museum of Ages. Occupying a small campus just north of Usher’s Hall, several grandiose structures house the histories, findings, and private collections of some of the city’s most esteemed citizens. Of particular note are three of the museum’s permanent displays: the ancient Eye of Rakzhan, the Gemstone Regalia of King Chadris Porphyria III (much to Korvosa’s disdain), and the Lions of Siv.
Beyond these halls of learning, Magnimar also hosts several esteemed—and not so esteemed—houses of the arts. While the Summit’s Triodea presents the grandest performances in western Varisia, the most popular public venue is easily the Serpent’s Run. The city’s largest structure, this gigantic hippodrome hosts decathlons, horse and dog races, displays of magic, circus performances, and—on rare occasions—small-scale naval engagements and mock-gladiatorial battles. Capable of seating a crowd of more than 5,000 cheering onlookers, its uppermost rim bears the shape of a gigantic serpent circling the entire arena—an homage to the heroics of the city’s most beloved founder.
Business
First and foremost a trade city, Magnimar owes its prosperity to the countless foreign merchants who readily make use of the city’s reputedly safe and free port. Enforcing no taxes on harborage or imports, the city welcomes business from all lands and makes the bounty of Varisia available for trade. As a result, several of the most prestigious trading coasters, mercantile families, and shipping concerns do regular business in the city, with some having even established offices and private local shipyards. The most notable of these include a remnant embassy of Andoran’s deposed Rousseau family, offices of the Hook and Hammer traders, and a lavish regional headquarters of the infamous Aspis Corporation.
Religion
Magnimar welcomes religions from all corners of the world, so long as they don’t pursue any ongoing crusades or violate city law. The churches of Abadar, Iomedae, and Pharasma have the strongest citywide followings, along with Desna well-represented among the Varisian population. Asmodeous and Calistria are also openly followed by many of the city’s scheming merchants, thieves, and betrayers, while a small sect of Gozreh’s devotees maintain and worship in the city’s various parks. Tradition and local legends surrounding the Arvensoar have also attracted a number of celestial mystery cults, which practice strange rituals outside the public eye. Assemblies devoted to the empyreal lords Soralyon, Ashava the True Spark, and the Horseman of War are all known to gather in the city.
Monuments
Two architectural marvels dominate the Magnimarian landscape:
the ancient Irespan and the modern Arvensoar.
The Irespan
Visible for miles out to sea, the ancient basalt bridge known as the Irespan dominates Magnimar’s coastline. Jutting from a prominent foundation upon the Seacleft, the Giant’s Bridge, as it is sometimes called, soars more than 300 feet above the city below, giving the eclipsed area its name: the Shadow. An obvious remnant of ancient Thassilon. The Irespan has been a source of wonderment, mystery, and ill-fortune. Although the founders of Magnimar chose their community’s location primarily for its natural harbor and proximity to the Yondabakari River, the ancient rubble of the Irespan that once littered the surrounding beaches proved an opportune source of building materials for the fledgling community. Today, many of Magnimar’s oldest and most elegant structures boast foundations, supports, and statuary constructed of Irespan basalt.
The Arvensoar
The tallest structure in Magnimar and a wonder in a city of architectural feats, the Arvensoar stands approximately 400 feet tall, climbing the entire length of the Seacleft and extending nearly a hundred feet above. In the simplest senses, the great tower is the garrison of the city’s watch and small military, as well as being a quick city-controlled connection between the Shore and the Summit. Beyond these mundane uses, the tower is a symbol of the city’s unity, ambition, and history.
Well positioned to defend the city, the Arvensoar boasts eight trebuchets capable of firing over the city and even past Outcast’s Cove—though Fort Indros and the Wyrmwatch are far better positioned to defend the city harbor—and provisions to supply the city through at least a week-long siege.
Lesser Monuments
Along with the stone sentinels that dominate the Magnimarian skyline, several lesser monuments adorn the city. Some are mere decoration, but others are much more. These are but a sampling of Magnimar’s best-known and most magnificent landmarks.
The Battle of Charda: A statue depicting the first and most famous battle between Magnimar’s navy and Riddleport’s pirates.
The Celwynvian Charge: A gift from the elves, this two-story tree-shaped sculpture is crafted from white wood and crystal. Real leaves bud and fall at the appropriate times of year.
Champion’s Walk: A statuary-lined avenue leading to Serpent’s Run and depicting the field’s greatest champions.
The Fifth Wind: A massive stone weather vane visible along the docks.
The Floodfire: A beacon warning ships away from Kyver’s Islet.
Founder’s Honor: A monument to the city’s heroic founder.
The Guardians: An arch depicting local twin heroes.
Mistress of Angels: A sculpture of city leader Ordellia Whilwren, known for seeing celestial messengers upon the Arvensoar.
Our Lady of Blessed Waters: A bronze, strangely verdigrisfree statue of the spirit said to linger within the Seerspring.
The Wyrmwatch: A lighted guard against dangers from the sea.
The City
While the Seacleft and Irespan break the city into three obvious sections, the cityfolk and the government recognize 18 local communities: seven upon the Summit, ten along the Shore, and one in the Shadow. Each of these communities has
its own distinct atmosphere, venues, and local personalities. Presented here is an overview of those districts and their most prominent features.
The Summit
The wealthiest of Magnimar’s communities are found upon the Summit, along with the seat of the Magnamarian government, its most prestigious centers of learning and the arts, affluent businesses, and numerous meticulously kept parks and statuelined avenues.
The Alabaster District: Formally called the Stylobate, the colloquially named Alabaster District is home to Magnimar’s richest and most affluent citizens. Segregated from the lower districts by steeply canted, marble-inlaid walls, only a few prominent avenues allow ascendance to the statuary-lined streets above by way of long, well-guarded stairs. At the northernmost point, commanding a strategic position over Maganimar’s coast, stands Fort Indros. Bristling with ballistae and trebuchets, the lofty fortress deters all but the most brazen pirate attacks.
The Marble District: The residents of the Marble District hold only slightly less prestige than those in the Alabaster District. Well-appointed townhouses, small villas, and even the walled estates of several old Magnimarian
families—most notably the Kaddren, Scarnettis, and Vanderales—find majestic views atop the Fogwall Cliffs.
Bridgeward: Although much of Magnimar’s industry and trade takes place along the Shore, the dusty blocks that surround the Irespan ring with the noisy work of sculptors, jewelers, woodcarvers, and all manner of other artisans who work in rare mediums—even magic. One of Magnimar’s best-known local industries is the Golemworks, a series of unremarkable, crow-haunted warehouses near the north edge of the Irespan. Nearly 30 years ago, local wizard Toth Bhreacher discovered that the stone of the Irespan proved particularly useful in spellwork. Since then, his studio has grown into a sizable and prestigious workhouse, dredging fallen segments of the Giant’s Bridge from the Varisian Gulf to craft a range of constructs and simpler creations for wealthy buyers. Nearby stands a 10-story, cylindrical monument called the Cenotaph. Created as a memorial to Magnimar’s most beloved founder, Alcaydian Indros, the monument was meant to be an empty tomb honoring the local hero. As years passed and Indros’s family members and friends passed on, an inordinate number requested to have their bones entombed near or within the monument. Begun as an honor to the great man, then a vogue, the practice has become a tradition and post-mortem status symbol for all who can afford burial beneath the stones of the surrounding Mourner’s Plaza or in the later-constructed catacombs beneath the memorial.
The Capital District: Surrounding the bustling square known as Founder’s Honor and the towering sculpture called “Indros cul Vydrarch” spread the high marble columns and ornate facades of the heart of Magnimar’s government and political arena. Here, the elaborately sculpted Usher’s Hall serves as the meeting place for the city’s Council of Ushers. Anyone who wishes to meet with a councilmember must first meet with Jacildria Quildarmo, the hall’s Seneshal of
Dates, a power-mongering, pinch-faced secretary who revels in her authority. Near the Usher’s Hall stands the impassive gray stone fastness of the Pediment Building. While the impressive upper halls, replete with stern-faced gargoyles and grim judges, serve as the home of the Justice Court and the Halls of Virtue (each judge’s personalized audience hall), beneath lie the sweltering halls of Magnimar’s only prison, the Hells. Only the city’s justices and most infamous
criminals know how deep the prison’s claustrophobic floors run, but rumors tell of one of the deepest halls where guards no longer patrol, sealed in response to an unpublicized uprising and left to the worst of the city’s convicts.
Naos: The home to many merchants and comfortable families, the city stretch along the Avenue of Hours is disparagingly called the “New-Money District” by local nobles. Despite the disdainful comments of the elite, Naos is one of the most welcoming and well-kept parts of Magnimar. Upon Starsilver Plaza—where abalone shell inlays create a scene of thousands of stars—stands the Triodea, the most renowned playhouse and concert hall in Magnimar. This one building houses three performance halls: the Grand Stage for operas and plays, an acoustically perfect concert hall called the Stonewall, and the Aerie—a raised, rooftop stage for soloists.
Naos is also the home of two of the city’s most eccentric citizens, esteemed hunters, explorers, and Pathfinders Sir Canayven Heidmarch and his wife Sheila Heidmarch. The world-traveling adventurers have recently retired to Magnimar, but have not been content to settle into the quiet life, opening their sizable manor to their society. The first Pathfinder chapter house in Varisia (just north of the Triodea) welcomes all members eager to explore the still relatively unknown land. Visiting members of the Pathfinder Society are welcomed to the manor by comfortable lodgings, a well-stocked library of far-flung lore, and its owners’ sagely advice. Aside from their home, the Heidmarchs also curate the Lord-Mayor’s Menagerie, a public park where they display many of their taxidermy trophies and live captures, most notably a blinded ruby-eyed basilisk (its eyes also on display), the viable egg of a millennia wyrm, and “Prince Mandali”—a seemingly tame 14-foot-tall ape.
Vista: High-class shops, restaurants, businesses, and the offices of globe-spanning mercantile concerns spread between the Avenue of Honors and the Seacleft. The Aspis Corporation—a conscienceless shipping, trading, and money-lending venture of Chelish descent—keeps its bronze-faced Varisian headquarters here.
Directly upon the Seacleft stand several estates of the city’s more daring nobles, but even the most lavish of these are outshined by Defiant’s Garden, diplomatic resort and home of Lord-Mayor Haldmeer Grobaras. Although the lord-mayor has traditionally kept a simple residence among the people, Grobaras moved into the lavish city-owned estate under the pretense of wanting to be more intimate with his work—and certainly not to take advantage of the small castle’s eight fully staffed floors of sumptuous salons and comfortable lounges, usually reserved for visiting diplomats.
Grand Arch: The largest of the Summit’s districts, Grand Arch stretches from the Twins’ Gate to the heart of the upper cliff. Many of Magnimar’s middle class and simple shop owners live comfortably here, but a surprising number of the area’s homes stand unoccupied much of the time—the homes of foreign merchants and travelers whose business takes them elsewhere but who desire comfortable living upon their return. Just within Twins’ Gate stands one of the city’s larger monuments, the Guardians: 200-foot-tall colossi depicting the young heroes Cailyn and Romre Vanderale facing each other with touching weapons held high, forming a giant arch.
The Shore
The majority of Magnimar’s working population lives along the Shore. Comprising more than just the coast and dockside portions of the city, the Shore extends from the base of the Seacleft out to Kyver’s Islet and Ordellia, south of the Yondabakari River.
The Bazaar of Sails: A destination for traders the world over, the Bazaar of Sails is the largest free market in Varisia. Anyone with merchandise to sell is welcome to set up a tent, booth, or wagon among the hundreds of other ever-changing shops that fill the dockside plaza. Crops from local farmers, Varisian artifacts, Osirian spices, Chelish fineries, Andoran quartos, and more exotic goods from a hundred foreign ports fill the market, with the offerings of any day varying with the season, trade winds, and tides. As merchants eagerly trade, competitions, rivalries, and all manner of criminal temptations arise. Although the market welcomes all comers, the ever-changing crowd, shouts of exotic traders, and generally raucous bustle make the place a nightmare for the local watch to patrol and mete out justice. Fortunately, the Princess of the Market, Sabriyya Kalmeralm, takes care of policing her own. The daughter of the first Prince of the Market, Nazir Kalmeralm, who disappeared nearly 28 years ago, Sabriyya is well-loved by most of the bazaar’s regular traders and her “court”—a sizable gang of toughs and money collectors. While many in the city still see her as little more than an exceedingly public gang lord, those who frequent the chaotic maze of stalls and shops know the service she provides.
Dockway: The shouts and bustle of countless traders, fishermen, and foreign travelers stir the choppy waters of Outcast’s Cove through all hours of the day and night. Along the seaside district of Dockway, salt-blasted storefronts and cramped businesses cater to the typically rough seafolk, while exotic inns and taverns serve as familiar welcomes to visitors from afar. The best known of these seaside sanctuaries is the Old Fang, a taproom and cheap inn built right on the docks and covered in barnacles and peeling white paint.
Lowcleft: At the bottom of the Seacleft lies one of Magnimar’s most vibrant districts. Numerous small playhouses, pubs, brothels, hookah bars, dance halls, and a wide variety of other entertainments make Lowcleft—or “the Rubble,” as locals typically call it—a home to the city’s artistic and avant-garde community. Among the best known of the district’s nightspots is the Gilded Cage, a garish nightclub built into the face of the Seacleft and run by Jayleen “Morning Dove” Mordove, a former prima donna of the Triodea who retains her connections to the city’s artistic elite.
Keystone: Seerspring Garden, a park boasting a spring of crisp, clear water, marks the center of the Shore’s central district. While impressive and intimidating buildings line the four avenues radiating out from the area’s eart, behind them lie the townhouses and close streets of Magnimar’s common people. The fortress-like temple of Iomedae stands here, sounding the daily call to glory and preaching of honor, sacrifice, and spiritual rewards to the layman.
To the south of Seerspring Garden stands Magnimar’s most esteemed school of wizardry, the Stone of the Seers. The spring that still bubbles at the heart of Keystone is said to have once been home to an oracular water spirit who departed decades ago but promised to one day return. In the tradition of that strange sibyl, Master Leis Nivlandis began a school of the arcane with a focus on abjuration and divination magics.
The Marches: The entrance to Magnimar for many traders and travelers, the Marches’s Castlegate is where those locals who would bring their wares to the city must first pass. Many simple and largely contented folk live in this sizable district, but despite its size and population, the Marches receive little extra in the way of city funding to maintain the area and protect its people. While this has caused a rise in Sczarni theft and cons, the churches of Abadar, Erastil, and Iomedae all maintain presences to aid the city and perhaps win a few converts.
Beacon’s Point: Comprising the western rim of Outcast’s Cove and ending at the statue-studded point called the Wyrmwatch—a lighthouse said to overlook the spot Alcaydian Indros battled the Vydrarch—Beacon Point is a raucous home to traders; sailors; and hardworking, hard-living families of all sorts. Numerous warehouses, shipping concerns, and other businesses fill the area, as do numerous simple but boisterous festhalls and taverns.
Rag’s End: Only the poorest and most deprived of the city’s working class make their homes in the cramped, maze-like knot of alleys called Rag’s End. Temporary laborers, crippled dockhands, drunks, and the sorely out-of-luck scrape by on coin earned from begging, performing odd and often demeaning jobs, and the charity of the city’s sympathetic religions.
Silver Shore: The wealthiest district below the summit, Silver Shore is home to several well-to-do business owners, council members, and nobles who seek to live close to their work, the people, or the beauty of the river. At the northernmost part of the district stands a spherical building of metal and glass shaped something like a diving helmet, a curious diversion called the Aquaretum. The proprietor, Nireed Wadincoast, opens this home and personal collection of large aquariums, captured fish, embalmed sea creatures, and sunken discoveries to any with a silver piece and the time to tour. Although an expert on life beneath the water, his tales of whole cities lying at the bottom of the Varisian Gulf are largely discounted as “typical gnome enthusiasm.”
Kyver’s Islet: This small island at the mouth of the Yondabakari river is given over almost completely to lumbermills, shipwrights, and noisy workshops best situated away from homes and quieter businesses. From the northernmost point of the islet rises the Floodfire, a small lighthouse that warns ships away from the shallow waters and half-submerged sandbars of the river.
Ordellia: Long a hotbed of dissension and governmental criticism, Ordellia perhaps best embodies the untenable spirit of freedom and leaderless rule Magnimar was founded upon. Many in the district consider themselves a town apart from Magnimar, taking pride in organizing their own small community militia and council apart from the city’s. The unofficial “capitol” of Ordellia is the Rose and Rake theater, an open-air, circular playhouse known for its scathing social satires and ribald political commentaries.
The Shadow
The area directly beneath and to the west of the Irespan holds but one city district, formally known as the Underbridge. Due to the eclipsing bridge above, light only reaches the streets below for one hour in the morning and two in the evening.
Underbridge: Seedy taverns, poorly run brothels, and ratinfested gambling dens compete with salt-blasted tenement buildings and cheap flophouses in Magnimar’s most dangerous district. While the Magnimarian government champions cleaning up the Shadow as one of its most important long-term goals, many council members realize that the vices of the slum attract a certain amount of business to the city and that truly clearing away the “bridge trash” could significantly impact the local economy. Although the submerged rubble and jagged, ruined pylons of the Irespan make sailing beneath the Giant’s Bridge a treacherous prospect, a few docks line the trash-strewn Underbridge shore, serving as the entry point for all manner of contraband. At the end of one such dock slumps the Friendly Merchant, a dilapidated tavern frequented by thugs, con-men, deviants, and worse. The friendly merchant himself, Siov Cassimeel, eagerly rents out his private dock for exorbitant prices, but offers discounts to the Night Scales and generally keeps his ears open for the thieves’ guild.
This message was last edited by the GM at 00:42, Sun 17 July 2011.
