Eodur (Ay-ah-door)

History. In simple terms, Eodur is the oldest city in existence. No one is absolutely certain of its exact date of founding, but scholars generally put it somewhere between 11-14,000 AC, making it at least 13,000 years old.
Like many of the oldest settlements of Archaios, Eodur was once an elven city called U'ir, meaning "Eternal". When the world was young and the races of dwarves, men, and elves were only just finding their footing after the Great Diminishing, tribes of nomadic elves settled at the base of a massive pillar of pure mithral. The primitive elves could sense a great connection to the cosmos through the spire and through it learned the ways of magic and communing with the outer planes. Over a great span of time, more and more elves came to this place and eventually formed the first permanent settlement on the continent.
The elves came to know this event as the Awakening. The elves newfound insight and powers drew a great deal of attention, and for some time they repelled all manors of assailants who would take that new power away: dragons, giants, fellow elves and early men, and even illithid freshly arrived from the Far Realms. But U'ir held strong for thousands of years as the crown jewel of the elven empire. It wasn't until a great calamity befell the united elven empire did the weakened and divided elves loose the city to a burgeoning human civilization.
In the hands of the expansionistic humans, U'ir was renamed Coronam and grew to new heights, becoming a great beacon of wealth and prosperity. During the centuries that followed, Eodur would change hands numerous times as different kingdoms rallied massive armies to claim it for their own. Finally, it fell under the control of the Logios Empire and became its capitol. It remained under their control for nearly two centuries before Antecea annexed it in 435 AC.
When the Antecean Empire collapsed and the elves had their Resurgence, Eodur was one of their first lost territories to reclaim. Unfortunately, their ownership was short lived as the conclusion of the Second Abyssal War allowed a new human warlord to retake the city and its modern name was adopted. From there, Eodur proved invaluable in getting humanity back on its feet and saw a new age of growth and prosperity, though it still saw much conflict. The new great cities of Kentro all wished to take Eodur under their influence, as control of Eodur meant control of trade throughout the province. This constant back and forth was the rule of the day until the Twilit War.
In 800 EP, a powerful sorcerer utilized the Mithral Spire's trans-planar connectivity to pull a chunk of the Shadowfell into the Material Plane. The mage's intentions were never fully learned; some speculating he did it for a simple ransom while others suspect he had hoped to offer up the city as tribute to some powerful spirit. Regardless, he was ultimately stopped, but the city's governance was decimated. The resulting vacuum almost resulted in a provincial war, but miraculously, the great cities of Kentro were able to reach a deal: They would share rulership of Eodur amongst themselves; each having an equal say in how the city would be run and how trade would be facilitated.
The Great Unity Deal, as it came to be called, resulted in a new age of commerce and prosperity, as cities separated by upwards of 1000 miles were able to meet halfway and trade goods, services, and knowledge freely amongst themselves. The deal also led to the construction of the Unity Highway, a province spanning series of raised roadways (based off the one that spans the Ardlands in Horizon) that greatly increased trade and connected the rest of the region with more isolated cities like Oasia and Nessbrim.
The Deal was far from perfect, and Nessbrim and the rest of the Anhangian cities have removed themselves from the arrangement, but by and large, Eodur still acts as a powerful symbol for the unity and influence humanity can achieve when they work together.
Layout Eodur is divided into 7 main wards (each with their own sub-divisions): 6 radials surrounding the inner ward. Each ward has its own wall system acting as dividers. These wards borders, as well as the outer wall, have been torn down and rebuilt countless times as the city grew and expanded. Presently, from the Mithral Spire to the outermost wall, Eodur has a radius of about 6 miles. It's population sits at around 2 million permanent residents.
The Slaadi Invasion Security has been significantly tighter in Eodur ever since the Festival of the Sun incident. Access to the Mithral Spire was limited to city officials exclusively and security personnel on site was tripled, with minimum guard patrol groupings of four. Unfortunately, this played directly into the Slaadi's hands.
For months, Heralds of Aevilok were securing hidden places in abandoned buildings, sewer systems, old crypts, cellars, and more. From there, they began the arduous process of forming planar portals; ripping and tearing at the fabric of reality until they could reach through the material plane and into Limbo, the elemental plane of chaos. They did their best to mask their work; using the increasing amount of ambient wild magic to mask their activity, but Aefaren Thrangur and MAGI were able to detect that something was amiss. However, they were unable to identify anything specific until it was too late.
Once the last portal was constructed, they were opened simultaneously and hundreds of slaadi poured into the streets of Eodur with the goal of converging on the Spire. The garrison was prepared, but unfortunately, no amount of preparation would have been sufficient in repelling the sheer number of Slaadi brought to bear, who were able to carve their way through the city's defenders and reach the Spire.
When the Spire was lost, the strategy turned to evacuation, as the army retreated and fell back into the city and began covering civilian escape. Fortunately, the bulk of the slaadi seemed primarily interested in the Spire, though many did break off to pursue the retreating defenders. Even so, the spontaneous evacuation was chaotic and messy. Ultimately, four main groups emerged, each heading in a different direction along the Unity Highway towards one of the other major city-states.
After a couple days of relentless combat, most of the remaining defenders and their refugee groups were out of the city. There was even some consideration of a counter-attack when, almost instantaneously, a massive flare of magic exploded from the Mithral Spire. When the light dimmed, the entire city had been encapsulated by a dome of swirling, multi-colored, crackling magic. And from it, the army of slaadi surged forth with renewed vigor. Now the hordes spill down the Unity Highway and crash against the walls of the other Kentran cities, which have slowly but surely fallen one by one. If there is anyway to halt the advancing tide, it has yet to be found...

Organizational Structure Eodur is administrated by a small council of representatives called the United Council which acts in lieu of a hereditary monarchy as is the case with most other cities.
Each city: Ceadun, Aedelden, Oasia, Furcenburg, Estmere, Northguard, and Mudan (Nessbrim intentionally abstains) has a councilman that sits on the High Council. The representative of Eodur itself is known as the Chairman. They are:
    Chairman Gregor Licette - Eodur
    Councilman Christopher Florus - Ceadun
    Councilwoman Daisy Freedman - Furcenburg
    Councilwoman Samantha Atkins - Aedelden
    Councilman Stanford Radigast - Estmere
    Councilman Rian Stanford - Mudan
    Councilwoman Hanna Kaminski - Northguard
    Councilwoman Mila Fernandez - Oasia
The organization MAGI (magical analytic and governance initiative) was formed at the same time as the United Council to manage and govern all things magical. MAGI is a conglomeration of independent mages and organizations from across the continent including representatives of groups like the Lunar Forum and Circle of the Enlightened. They are sanctioned by the Council to manage all things magical and control the flow of magical items and spellcasting/enchanting services.

Type

Capital

Population

2 million