Azure District
Azure District is Sunáthüma’s true waterfront. Consisting of two sections, Azure District also houses the majority of the city’s slums and lower-class citizens, although they aren’t quite as desperate a catch as those forced to live in Shadowshore. The western section of Azure District is primarily concerned with the city’s internal waterways, while the eastern section is home to the city’s booming whaling industry.
Azure District’s representative nobles are the Ioannides. The family has held the post of harbormaster for many generations, although rumor holds that old Kimon Ioannides getting on in years and none of his children particularly want the job when he passes on. Rumors also hold that the Kellani family has designs on this post, but with relations between these two families being as choppy as they are these days, it’s unlikely that such a transfer will occur while old Kimon still lives.
Pets and Guardians
Whereas the majority of Sunáthüma’s trade occurs in the Merchant's District, Azure District remains a close second. In particular, the trade of exotic animals is a lucrative (and often dangerous) facet of this district’s East Market. Most of these creatures are destined for lives in the north as pets, but a few of them are more dangerous. This trade is one of the few the Azure Watch monitors (after a particularly tragic incident involving an escaped wyvern)—as a result, the black market and smuggling trade for dangerous animals does a booming business.
City Watch
The Azure Watch is concerned primarily with keeping Sunáthüma’s whaling operations running smoothly. Whalers are generally allowed to get away with more as a result; the watch figures that they’re at sea most of the time anyway. An arrested whaler is almost always returned to his captain’s ship for punishment or confinement there rather than taken to the district’s undersized jail. Members of the Azure Watch tend to be a bit more strict with other criminals, but transfer them to Sunrise Garrison (see page 14) if they require long-term punishment.Citizens
If you’re from Azure District, you probably spent a fair portion of your youth at sea. You have friends or family that work in the whaling industry, and may have spent some time on a whaling ship yourself. You likely worship at the Azure Cathedral, a temple dedicated to Mazu (the goddess of ships and sailors), Poseidon (the god of the sea), and Njord (the god of sea trade). Alternately, you could worship all three, in which case you have access to the domains of Luck, Strength, Travel, and Water. Clerics who worship all three of these deities may be of any alignment.Demographics
Industry & Trade
Guilds and Factions
- The whaling guild maintains order among the competing whaling vessels who service the area.
- The Pearldiver's guild ensures that no one oversaturates the local luxury goods market, and regulates the harvest of pearls from nearby oyster and mussel beds. Also, they set prices so magically created or farm raised pearls don't outcompete natural ones.
- The Ropemaker's and Fishmonger's guilds control the market for these goods so that it's difficult, if not impossible, for an independent person to break into these businesses.
- The Dredger's guild bargains prices with the city wards on behalf of their guild members, so that these hardworking laborers are fairly compensated for their dangerous work.
Points of interest
- (A3) Ioannides Manor (district representative)
- Best Bait and Deserts (bait and bakery)
- (A4) Dredger’s Guildhall
- Nate’s Nets (nets, fine fishing equipment)
- The Empty Grave (tavern)
- The Bloodthirsty Pelican (tavern/inn)
- (A5) Kellani Manor (minor noble)
- Bizwor’s Balms (medicine and seasickness cures)
- Pearl-diver’s Guildhall
- The Gull’s Nest (brothel)
- Ropemaker’s Guildhall
- Azure Garrison
- (A6) East Market (general goods, seafood, animals)
- The Mermaid’s Secret (brothel)
- Whaleworks (fine scrimshaw art)
- (A2) Azure Cathedral (district church)
- The Sunáthüma Sleigh Ride (tavern/brothel)
- Finback Whaling
- Inker’s Guildhall (tattoo artists)
- Sunáthüma Whaling
- The Drunken Dolphin (whaler tavern)
- (A1) Whaler’s Guildhall
- Red Sea Whaling
- Fishmonger’s Guildhall
- Azure Lighthouse
Azure District
LG Large town
Corruption +1; Crime +2; Economy +2; Law -2; Lore +0; Society +1
Qualities notorious, organized crime, strategic location
Danger +25; Disadvantages
DEMOGRAPHICS
Government Autocracy
Population 5,300 (76% Human (Hellenic, Ostmen, Hantzu), 9% Halfling, 5% Elf, 3% Cecropon, 2% Wyvaran, 1% Half-elf, 1% Kitsune, 3% other)
Noteable NPCs- Brynjar Dannson: The high-priest of the Azure Cathedral, Brynjar is a soft-spoken man who tends the district church along with his twelve acolytes. Brynjar is known to have a powerful temper.
Captain Searc: Master of the Whaler’s Guild, Captain Searc is a gruff, grizzled man who made his fortune as a whaler. Now too old to captain his own ship, he represents the whalers and fisherfolk of the city.
Hildreth Kellani: Matroness of the Kellani family, Hildreth was once an adventurer (some say a pirate) who is thought to have not quite abandoned the questionable pastimes of her youth. She is rumored to be quite ill.
- Kimon Ioannides: Lord of Ioannides Manor and representative of Azure District on the Dawn Council, Kimon is an aging noble whose children have either gone missing or have no real interest in continuing the family’s traditional post as harbormaster.
- Modolf Hveidynja: This obese and almost maniacally cheerful dwarf runs the Dredger’s Guild, the organization charged with keeping Sasserine’s waterways and canals clear of obstructions and filth.
- Rowyn Kellani: Eldest daughter of the Kellani family, and the most likely to take over control of the estate when her mother Hildreth passes on.
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