Demon's Rest
Demon's Rest is the second largest city in the Mersan Union. It is well known for the gold mines along the Savanna River, and ample tracks of farmland surrounding the city in all directions. The city is highly prosperous from its trade port on the Savanna River, trading along the river with other Mersan cities, and with the nearby Recfreran town of Clarkhill. A series of ferries between the two cities marks the largest trade route between Recfrere and the Mersan Union, and during the winter, on the rare occasion the river freezes, commerce continues across the ice. The city's name gives it an ominous reputation to many, and speculation on the true source of the title is a popular past time among the residents and visitors alike.
The central district of the town rests a mile away from the docks upon the Savannah River, built atop a series of four small hills, between which are gullies and valleys that make up the majority of the poorer districts. Two of the higher elevation neighborhoods even have their own smaller walls and neighborhood guards, and wealthier human neighborhoods. The third is best known as the Birdtown, where the snallygasters live. The fourth has the hotels and inns that welcome higher class travelers from across Emicara. The exception to the rule is the dwarves, who have burrowed into the four hills, building their own underground communities, similar to the ones they left in the mountains, although they do remain under Mersan jurisdiction.
Government
The people of Demon's Rest each have an equal share in the decision of who rules them. Every adult in the city gets to vote for mayor every six years at the same time as votes for Presider. When elected, the mayor of Demon's Rest has the final say on judicial and budgetary affairs within the city. He also is the de jure commander of the City Guard and militia, but in practice, the local commanders have more power, simply answering to the mayor when needed. The bureaucracy of the city is managed by the mayor, and he appoints those needed to run the infrastructure and other departments. Due to the size of the city, mayors have since come to rely upon advisory councils and neighborhood leads to understand the issues of the day.
Defences
Demon's Rest is protected by six regiments of the Army of the Union, well staffed and protected. A large castle has been built by the docks, known as Fort Toccoa. It oversees any threats from the river, and saw ample action during the Savanna Wars between the Mersan Union and Recfere. The walls themselves are patrolled by the town militia and guard, which contains eleven regiments of militia who are called up upon rotating cycles, except when the city itself is under direct threat of siege, when all can be mustered. The regiments are less equipped than the Army of the Union but still receive regular training and drills, and they enforce the law as needed.
Industry & Trade
The primary export of Demon's Rest is gold and gold related products. The forges of the town work constantly to refine the gold mined here into proper bars and ingots for distribution and storage. The majority of the bars are typically immediately purchased by the Union itself, to be held in the treasury until such time that they can be converted into coinage. The presence of wealth has led to the large amount of guards, private mercenary groups, and Army of the Union regiments that protect the city. As such, many mercenaries are up for hire in this city, as it tends to attract those who find large amounts of gold appealing. The remaining industry and trade in the city satisfies local demands and supply, both for food and construction materials, as there is also a small local quarry and a thriving farming infrastructure.
Infrastructure
Demon's Rest has had centuries to develop to its current point, and spans over six square miles, including farming area outside of the town walls. The town has numerous places for the refinement of local crops into foodstuffs to help feed the growing population of the city. The roads are paved and well lit with gas lamps and offer good drainage and sanitation to the people. A handful of the wealthier homes in the city even possess running water for baths and drinking. The docks are extensive, and built into the hillsides of the town, mostly located outside of the primary walls. From these docks, the ferries travel back and forth, and trade barges head down the Savanna River. The town even possesses small shipyards where these barges are built.
Assets
As a major trading city, Demon's Rest possesses a large marketplace down by the docks, and another smaller one within the city walls known as the Gully Market. The Gully Market offers the typical wares and trading goods required for a life in the town, while the one at the docks is best known for exotic luxuries and bulk trading goods and supplies. Smaller neighborhood markets exist upon the tops of the four hills, consisting of brick and mortar shops that sell refined luxury goods and furniture. Usually a very limited supply of magical items is provided.
Hotel Hill is a location on top of one of the four hills that make up the interior of the city. Atop this hill are over a dozen inns, boarding houses, and hotels that offer accommodations to travelers and traders staying in Demon's Rest. Most of them offer food and lodgings to anyone staying in the town, assuming they can afford the fees. They also provide carriage service around the city and between Hotel Hill and the docks district. The largest hotels even possess their own ferries for travel to Clarkshill in the Kingdom of Recfere. Also present on Hotel Hill are the primary high elf banking houses to allow the wealthy and travelers to access their money and accounts.
Guilds and Factions
Due to the size of the city, the government of Demon's Rest is much larger than that of other towns and communities in the Mersan Union. Control over the mayor's office is a heavily contested field, and electoral candidates often have to appeal to multiple special interest groups each with their own agendas and goals for the fate of the city. These include the banking houses, the dockworker's union, the wealthy of the hills, the farmers and the valley residents, and the dwarf and snallygaster minorities. Most elected mayors find it difficult to win election if they do not appeal to at least two or three of these groups directly, which can of course raise the hackles of the others.
The banking houses are predominantly high elves who call for lower taxes, and less government purchase of the city's gold output. They believe that they should be more involved with the gold, and that it should be private hands that provide minted coinage internationally. They have deep pockets and offer great wealth to any candidates that back their agendas.
The dockworkers' union holds the fate of the city's trade and commerce in their filthy hands. They call for higher pay for ferry and dock workers, curtailing of abusive work hours and treatment at the hands of the owners and managers. They represent a large voting block, and are not afraid to call strikes and shut down services until their demands are met.
The "hill rich" as they are often called, and they have earned this name. They own most of the docks and trading interests throughout the city. This also includes more middle class artisans that make a living off of their skilled labor and trade to the wealthy. These individuals universally call for lower taxes and less government meddling in the affairs of business. They are in constant opposition to the dockworkers, and the two factions are frequently at odds.
The farmers and valley residents, on the other hand, are the humbler folks who have called this region their home for centuries. Some of the independent farmers surrounding the town can trace their family line back to the original founders of the city. They are widely considered to be traditionalists and occasionally find themselves arrayed against both the hill rich and the dockworkers alike. These are people who simply want to continue with their lives with as little change and disruption as possible, and they look down upon those who work for wages, rather than earning their own livelihoods.
The dwarves of Demon's Rest make up a large segment of the city's residents, and they are the primary workers in the mines in the hills around the city. Although they do not own these mines, they have taken a personal investment in them, and are frequently competing among themselves for who works in the best and most productive mine in town. The clans of dwarves here are fractious and divided, and rarely unite to a common interest, as they stay loyal to family over ideology. It is rare that a mayoral candidate can pull them all together, and different groups will align themselves with whichever other group holds their interests at heart.
Lastly, the snallygasters are an enigmatic faction. It is hard to say who they will support, as they are the most isolated of the minorities within Demon's Rest. They mostly work as laborers, but popular opinion is that the snallygasters are behind all organized crime within the city. They offer security and protection from the crimes that do occur, and typically when a snallygaster is hired for security purposes, their clients won't be a victim again, as long as they keep paying. They are constantly in conflict with the high elves and banking houses, as both offer protection, in different ways.
History
Demon's Rest was founded during the days of the Nameless Empire. According to legend, the community was founded by less than forty settlers, fleeing from spirits that had overrun their home. They created this town as a refuge to give them rest from the demons that had plagued and haunted them. The town remained isolated and small throughout the days of the Nameless Empire, and rarely was dragged into its wars and conflicts. When the last war of the Nameless Empire occurred, the town consisted of less than two hundred people, and it was spared the fires of destruction.
Demon's Rest quickly became one of several Mersan towns and communities struggling for resources in the aftermath of the war, and they joined the Mersan Regency willingly when it was formed. The town provided little to the rest of the Regency, and later the Union, except for a meager amount of food that was produced by local farmers. If anything, the simple way of life that was created when the town was founded continued. The town's first growth occurred with the construction of Fort Toccoa after the First Savanna War. The initial town was created to protect the workers on the castle, and docks were established to help provide supplies and troops to the Mersan colonies on the other side of the river. Fort Toccoa and the rest of Demon's Rest would be heavily fought over and raided during the remaining three Savanna Wars, although the fort itself never fell in battle. The town was the main supply and jumping off point for campaigns on the northern banks of the Savanna River, and was thus the most heavily protected town in the Union.
Almost ninety after the final Savanna War ended, Demon's Rest finally entered into the history books. A group of dwarves traveling along the Savanna River looking for salvage and supplies from the conflicts, stumbled across a vein of gold in the hills east of the original town. Immediately, the town's population began to swell as people traveled from all over to get rich from the discovery made here. Humans, dwarves, and snallygasters alike all arrived in Demon's Rest, turning the town into a boom city, as more and more veins of gold were discovered. The rush lasted only a year before things stabilized, but in the mean time, the city's population grew nearly twenty times in size.
The wealth of Demon's Rest continued to grow as deeper and deeper veins of gold were found during the following centuries. Although production would occasionally be stopped for political or safety reasons, it always resumed. This wealth attracted interest from enemy armies during the Great War, the Arcadean War, and the War of the Pig. The secure walls of the city and Fort Toccoa held off these assaults whenever they would occur, maintaining this vital city for the Mersan Union. The seemingly bottomless wealth of Demon's Rest helped provide for the financing required for the Union's armies during these wars and the invasions and raids that followed. Today, Demon's Rest continues to be the bedrock of the Mersan economy.
Founding Date
187 BF
Type
Large city
Population
97,400
Inhabitant Demonym
Rester
Location under
Owner/Ruler
Owning Organization
Characters in Location
~40,000 Mersan Humans
~20,000 Jorgan Humans
~20,000 Snallygasters
~15,000 Mountain Dwarves
~2,000 High Elves
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