History
For thousands of years after the
Age of the Five Emperors, the South was peopled by
ausrani caravans. Then, about seven thousand years ago, the archdruid
Caishen magically bred the first of what would be known as the
caisheni. The fertile caisheni strains reproduced and spread out from the
Carentan Forest where they were first created.
In the time of Caishen 6,800 years ago, the only towns in the world were the gnomes'
city of Tanatra and the few settlements of the fey in
Cernoa. The rest of the world was controlled by nomadic caravans of
ausrani. Five thousand years ago, some of these caravans
began to settle down.
By c. 3650 B.C., a few tribes of
caisheni and their
ausrani allies, having come into contact with the early
Godossean settlements, began to form villages of their own. One of the earliest was at the present site of Indrasen, which has a natural deep water port, as well as fertile marshes (at least before they were drained in the early decades). Indrasen was named for a caisheni folk hero from the time of the
Massacre at the Crossroads two thousand years before the first settlement. Indras is said to have been a tabaxi who rescued caisheni from persecution, running an underground railroad out of the north to ships who would moor at the present site of the city.
The Nimrys Market
The Stonemarket in the
City of Tanatra is known to be the best place in the world to find stone, gems, and metals of all kinds. The Fairy Market in Mathghamein (capital of
Cernoa is said to be the best place in the world to find the strange, unearthly, and weird. But neither of those famous market squares can compare to the Nimrys Market in the Merchant's District of the City of Indrasen. It's said that the Nimrys Market is so big that it's the best place in the world to find anything at all.
Only citizens of Indrasen can own a stall in the Nimrys Market, which has led over the years to elaborate financing schemes using gullible Indraseni as the local front and potential patsy. Some families have gotten very rich buying up centrally-located stalls and renting them to foreign merchants. At this point, stalls in the market center are so expensive that only heavily financed enterprises can generally afford to buy one. Many of the local nobles amplify their already swollen incomes by owning and renting stalls in the central Market. Less expensive stalls can be found at the periphery and these are often affordable to artisans and craftspeople.
The price of a stall has become so exhorbitant in the inner rings of the Market that smaller investors have begun buying shares of stalls as part of joint financial ventures. Trade is shares of stalls takes up an entire alley worth of stalls in the 'financial services' streets of the Market. Indrasen is so large, with so much overseas and international trade and so much foot traffic through the Market that merchants can still make large profits from having retail storefronts in inner Nimrys.
The law requiring Indraseni ownership of storefronts only applies to the Nimrys Market. In other areas of the city (including the docks and outside the walls) non-city residents can own property.
It is commonly understood that the Nimrys Market stands on an ancient crossroads that has been used since
Ausranic times connecting the inland territories with the rich fisheries of Indrasen's harbor. It is the oldest part of the city by tens of thousands of years. For millennia it served as a convenient seasonal gathering place. It only made sense that when towns
were re-invented by the ausrani five thousand years ago, a city would eventually grow up around the famous seaside crossroads. Being in the heart of what was by then
caisheni territory, it was the first city founded by that sprawling menagerie of animal-
ausrani hybrid tribes.
The Great Library
See the
Lamplighter Society.
The Sewers
Beneath indrasen is an extensive and thorough system of fitted stone sewers with ten foot high arched ceilings. Because the city was built near low ground, there is only one level to the sewers and they are often damp.
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