Ceradel

The city of Ceradel sits atop a range of sheer cliffs known as the Shards of Memory, looking out over the ocean at the furthest Northern tip of the Thunderstroke range, past the desolate Mirror Flats. The cliff faces rises like a mountain, nearly 500 meters from the crashing waves, angled just slightly outwards to make scaling near impossible. Huge open caverns at the base of the cliffs house the intricate stone dockyards of Ceradel, and vast subterranean shafts carved through the rock allow grand elevators to ferry cargo up to the city proper high above. Combined with the impassable peaks of the Thunderstroke mountains to the South, Ceradel is one of most defensible cities in all of Aeldryn. Why the original inhabitants chose such an incredibly inhospitable location as their home is something lost to history.
Referred to as the City of Glass, Ceradel consists of hundreds of tall spires, most constructed with wide concave sides facing out towards the water towards the sunrise. The facets of these towers are comprised almost entirely of huge, glass windows, often multicoloured and featuring intricate designs. The result is that when the sun rises upon the city, the towers catch the light, shining like beacons visible far out over the waves, a truly breathtaking sight for approaching vessels. Many have remarked with awe that from a distance, the city appears like a crystal crown, alight with fire atop the vast cliffs. Over the centuries, underground excavations have seen structures built beneath the city as well, with great windows carved out of the face of the cliffs. This means that the sheer rock below the city now gleams with patches of reflected light as well, with city planners arranging them to spell out glyphs of vision and light and similar meanings. Facing out over the waters on one side, these networks of structures open into to the massive elevator shafts on the other side, creating a kind of vertical highway connecting the entirety of the city.
The famous towers are a reflection of Ceradel's trade and values. The city trades in high-quality glass, mirrors, and gemstones, making use of exotic materials found within the mountains and nearby Mirror Flats to create products of peerless (and sometimes magical) quality. Telescopes and spyglasses, mirrors, jewelry, and alchemical equipment are all coveted exports from Ceradel. But this city is also a center of learning, particularly in the fields of optics and astronomy. Numerous, more modern towers, are fitted with grand observatories at their peak, allowing for revolutionary studies of the night sky. Highly exclusive universities here are at the forefront of scientific inquiry in certain fields. In fact, the huge elevator shafts, called the liftways, that connect the city with its lower reaches and the dockyards necessary for trade, are themselves a truly outstanding feat of engineering representative of the knowledge and understanding gathered within the city. In the past, Ceradel has also been a staunch ally of the Scholariat, willing to shelter scholars from persecution, even from other city-states of the Saldim Federation. It is perhaps partly as result of this history that the city, reclusive though it is, has also become known as a centre of learning on the continent.
With such a reputation, it is perhaps surprising that Ceradel is, like other cities of the Salidm Federation, actually a theocracy. Moreover, unlike other places in the Federation, it is actually a monarchistic theocracy. Since shortly after its founding, Ceradel has been ruled by the Dalaylai family. This royal family, in turn, also serves as the high priesthood, positioning them as both political and religious leaders. The reason for this is actually rather practical, for the Dalaylai family are the only ones able to commune with the Unity, that divine force worshipped in the Doctrine of Reflected Truth.
The Unity is interesting in that it is not a specific, recognizable deity, but rather something that is considered to be a reflection of all divine virtues into one. According to scripture, it has no personality or agenda or explicit teachings. Rather, it is that which reflects and therefore illuminates the goodness in all others. This itself is not uncommon, for there are many religions that worship abstract concepts or ideals. Unusually, however, priests of the Unity are able to draw upon it for divine power, similar to how they would from an actual god. In some mysterious way this is mediated through the Dalaylai family, who alone appear to be able to commune with whatever presence serves as the source of this power. At different points in history, the Unity has been seen as compatible with the Bright Pantheon (as kind of gestalt worship of all those gods at once), or as something potentially heretical. Fortunately for Ceradel, its isolated and defensible location has allowed it to weather any religious crusades from neighbouring city-states, until by virtue of simple persistence it is now accepted as a full, if distant, member of the Saldim Federation.