The Emerald City

The Emerald City is the seat of Elvish power in the Spice Coast. The city is spread out over the shorelines of the Emerald Lake of which it resides. The city is so named for the emerald color the light reflects off of the city from the nearby lake which itself looks green from a distance.   The Ezel, the name the elves have given for themselves within the city, are largely diabolists in the service to one of a number of different archdevils of the hells. Once they were one tribe among many, but much have changed since the kinslaying nearly a thousand years prior. Together with the assistance of their fey allies, the Court of Jackfruit, their faction has acheived total dominion over the surroundding area, and placed many of their fellow elves, fey, lizardfolk, tengu, and others into bondage.
Within the Emerald City, plots loom, factions vie for power, and the individual noble families of the Ezel scheme for supremacy. Regardless of rumors of enraged dragons, slave uprisings, sinister forces beneath city streets, or a house working against the Ezel's interest, the Ezel believe that their dominion can only grow in the centuries to come.

Structure

The Emerald City is ruled by a series of noble houses, granted their rank through bargains with specific infernal lords. Each of these houses in turn is ruled by an elderly patriarch or matriarch, or several, those who made good bargains with the devils of the pit. 
House LiaFainu: Perhaps the most prestigious of the Ezel Houses, they made the original bargain with the Archdevil Mephistopheles. Patriarch Ava-Lerya is perhaps one of the oldest elves alive, having lived through large stretches of the age of darkness. Many of the Elves of house LiaFainu specialize in binding, and practice infernal bonds upon their fey servitors, twisting and corrupting treants, fey, and others into their eternal servants. Some even whisper that a young and enterprising Ezel has even managed to bind a Green Dragon to their will. 
House Tar-Culu: While Drow were not among the original infernal bargainers, they joined the Emerald City in 3518 after making contact with the Ezel during an exploration of the underdark caverns beneath the Emerald Mountains. The Drow exiles fleeing from the own homeland subsequently joined with the Ezel, and made a pact with the ArchDevil Mammon to live well and in prosperity. Their Matriarch Maltaina is by far the youngest of the elders, as just over fifteen hundred years old, but possesses a cunning eye for finance and business. Many of House Tar-Culu manage the sale of the spice harvested from the spice fields, and many businesses within the city are run by their scions. 
House Duin: Pledged to the ArchDevil Moloch, house Duin acts as the actual slavers of the Emerald City. They maintain a standing army of elven soldiers to keep their workers in line, and push harsh deadlines to see that their quotas are made. Their Matriarch Nenrya is said to still personally lead soldiers on the battlefield, and is fueled for life purely by Moloch's will for suffering. 
House Celusindi: The ferrymen of the Spice Coast, the formerly woodland elves amongst the Ezel now command the rivers around the Emerald Lake as highways with which to serve their completed products to larger markets. Their people maintain a number of waystations across the Emerald Rivers made from the former homes of the Tengu and Lizardfolk they now enslave. They serve the ArchDevil Glasya, and their Patriarch Uinen is said to be a bastard son of the ArchDevil herself. However, the ferrymen have a secret. A large number of their ferrymasters are now under the thrall of an Illithiid hive, found somewhere within the Spice Coast. These mindflayers plan to usue the ferrymen to grant them access to the Emerald City, where they may enslave the slavers of the spice coast. 
The Court of Jackfruit: Though not a house of the Ezel, the former summer fey nonetheless command the respect and dominion of the other houses due to their alliance with house LiaFainu at the outbreaking of the Kinslaying. The Court of Jackfruit has made a bargain with the ArchDevil Geryon, who taught them secret rituals to bind many of their fellow fey in it's names. The Fey of the Court of Jackfruit act as ambassadors, spies, and religious officials for the Emerald City, though their true loyalty lies with the fallen Satyr Mullotuth, the Patriarch of their house. They were closely with the Sapphire Raja to maintain peace in the region. 
House Onna: An offshoot House LiaFainu, made by the intermixing between their house and house Tar-Culu, they are sometimes referred to as the first inhabitents of the Emerald City. They are the newest house within the city, though their elder and Patriarch Valarindi, who wed a member of the Tar-Culu faction is one of the original pactmakers among the Ezel. They focus primarily on the enrichment and beautification of the city itself, and the maintenance of the Emerald City and largely obstain from business surrounding the spice trade itself. . Their patriarch has not been seen in nearly a decade however, and many now question just who is in charge of House Onna. Many in this family serve the ArchDevil Baalzebul, but others are loyal to lord Mephistophelese.

History

The seeds of the Emerald City's uprising began as early as the Age of Darkness, when Lamashtu sundered her bonds and escaped into the heart of the infinite green. There the elves who responded to the threat of demonic incursion were divided on how to deal with the growing evil. One group, known to some as the Alijae, made a deal with the ArchDevil Mephistopheles, granting alliance and subservience in return for help against the demon scourge, a deal which was promptly granted. 
When Lamashtu was eventually contained, many of the Elves among the Alijae attempted to find a way out of their contract with the ArchDevil. Many others however did not. Elven society continued to evolve over the centuries and millenia as the elves of the region cultivated large sections of the Spice Coast. However factions were developing within the Alijae, not just in the worship of Mephistopheles, but to his archdevil allies, Mammon, Belial, Glasya, Baalzebul, and Moloch. 
By 3264 a number of elderly elves, among the first who had made a bargain with Mephistopheles decided the time was right. Seducing, coercing, or dominating their fey companions, a group of elves initiated a coup d'etat against the rest of Elven society in the region, initiating a kinslaying near the city then known as Kaskazini. The massacre that followed causued permenant damage to the forested area, and many today refer to it as the forest of hell. 
Over the next century devils were summoned in large quantities to the Spice Coast to subjugated the remaining Elvish population, cities were burned, people were enslaved, while the Elder Council of the Ezel solidified their holdings with additional offerings to their infernal masters. Their bargain complete, the construction of the Emerald City began in earnest. The Emerald City is a monument to elven ingenuity, mastery of magic, and greed. It was built on the labor of those who were in chains. 
In the nearly thousand years since the event, many of the original victims of the kinslaying are still in bondage, and many of the original bargainers among the Ezel remain within the Emerald City, seemingly immortal as part of their bargains with the hells. The use of the original name of the elven people the Alijae is banned within the Emerald City, and sedition against the Ezel is punishable by eternal enslavement.

Founding Date

3264 PCR

Alternative Names

The Ezel

Demonym

Ezelians

Location

The Spice Coast

Neighboring Nations

• The Seven Cities of Nephysis