Emon
Emon stands defiantly against all who would
threaten Tal'Dorei and its people. It is the cultural
and political heart of the Republic of Tal’Dorei, as
well as a nexus of commerce, entertainment, travel,
education, and adventure.
Emon is accessible only through its heavily patrolled gates and by skyship. The denizens of the city are generally well protected from outside attackers and sieges.
68% human, 7% dwarven, 6% elven, 19% other
Government Emon is the seat of the Tal'Dorei Council, the nation’s highest governing body. Though the council originally served under the Sovereign of Tal’Dorei, the nation’s final sovereign was killed when the Chroma Conclave attacked Emon. Following the death of Thordak the Cinder King and the rest of the Conclave, Emon was rebuilt and the council reformed as the backbone of the new Republic of Tal’Dorei.
One unintended consequence of relying on magic to rapidly rebuild Emon is that the mages of Tal’Dorei now hold incredible influence over the fledgling council. Some fear that without a sovereign, the council will be unable to keep the arcanists in line, and Tal’Dorei will dissolve into magocracy.
The Tal’Dorei Council is best known for their policies that affect the whole of Tal’Dorei. It is often ignored that the council also governs Emon and resolves the day-to-day issues of the city. These are some current events both great and small affecting Emon today; these topics can add flavor to the discussions and rumors the characters hear around town, and could even inspire new adventures for them to take on.
Elemental Disturbances. Over twenty years have passed since Thordak the Cinder King was killed in the caverns beneath Emon. His wreckage in the Cloudtop District, as well as the Scar of the Cinder King, a swath of elemental destruction outside the city walls, have been tended to by members of the Fire Ashari, gradually healing the stubborn wounds of his influence. Yet the primordial fires that seeped from his body continue to linger in the caverns beneath the city where he died. Every year or two, an incursion of wild fire and hateful cinderslag elementals burst through the city streets, causing mass chaos, expensive damages, and life-or- death battles for the city guard.
Mercenary Mages. A generation ago, the fledgling League of Miracles hired hundreds, if not thousands, of mercenary mages to aid in the reconstruction of Emon and other cities across Tal’Dorei. These days, Tal’Dorei is rebuilt, and the few infrastructure problems aren’t enough to employ all the mercenaries left behind by the league. These out-of-work mercenaries now linger around dismal dive bars and make trouble for the locals. Most people would rather see them gone, but it’s hard not to feel sorry for their situation.
Walls and Slums. The city’s outer walls have fallen under heavy criticism from politicians and civilians alike in recent years. Many people are concerned that the walls’ true purpose these days is to separate the slums outside the walls from the “respectable” districts within them. Popular opinion is now that the great City of Fellowship should do more to help its less fortunate, but council politicians continue to stall. In private, Master of Commerce Vex’ahlia de Rolo fumes that she wants to help, but can’t cut through political red tape with her legendary bow and arrow.
While in antiquity Emon was the heart of a human empire, the city has grown to encompass people from all over Tal’Dorei, and all over the world. Its citizens include people of nearly all known races from Exandria’s many nations, thriving on the new innovations and ideas of its citizenry. It has been this way since the sovereignty of Zan Tal’Dorei, when the alliances she formed invited dozens of displaced elves, dwarves, orcs, and goliaths into her city. Since then, Emon has developed into a city whose people valued innovation and collaboration, especially in small, cohesive groups—virtues that some historians within the Alabaster Lyceum believe have given rise to the prominence of the modern adventuring party.
While Emon is becoming more commercial and the use of gold as currency has been ubiquitous throughout Tal’Dorei’s history, many communities within the city are still close-knit enough to use the barter system. During the reign of Drassig, the humans of Emon adopted a dwarven oath called rudraz, an intimate promise between two people to repay a deed or trade. Though the rudraz is not a contract, the dwarves believed that an oathbreaker would be forever barred from passing beyond the Brightguard Gates of Hilmaire, the gates that allow dwarves to pass to the afterlife. Humans in Emon treat the rudraz more lightly, often using it to seal matters of business or politics rather than personal promises, but breaking this oath still carries massive social repercussions. Few look kindly upon a person with the epithet “Oathbreaker.”
Emon has mostly recovered from its destruction at the talons of the Chroma Conclave and Thordak’s subsequent occupation. A number of Tal’Dorei’s most significant factions played a role in Emon’s rebirth, and their members enjoy positions of prominence throughout the city. Emon was rapidly rebuilt to its former glory, due to the expensive but effective intervention of mercenary mages serving the League of Miracles. Thanks also to the Clasp’s underground networks and established hierarchies, Emonian society and culture was able to bounce back more swiftly than any other major settlement in Tal’Dorei.
And the Tal’Dorei Council, formerly an advisory council to the sovereign, is now the ruling council of the land. Folk heroes and career politicians alike sit on the council. Over the past two decades, the council has, with many missteps, enacted the will of the people—allowing Tal’Dorei to transition from a monarchical power to a republic without war or insurrection.
However, the swiftness of Emon’s rebirth has put the Tal’Dorei Council in a precarious position. Not only are they socially indebted to a criminal faction—one whose members now command immense celebrity among the common folk—the council now owes vast amounts of gold to mages of the League of Miracles. League conjurers created thousands of tons of stone and steel, and each one of their transmuters rebuilt everything from taverns to townhouses and sewers to stately manors as quickly as a hundred laborers. Thordak’s hoard of plundered wealth has dwindled to nothing, repaying the league, and they have done the same in cities across the land. Some members of the council have already caved to pressure from factions within the Clasp and the League of Miracles, and subsequently turn a blind eye to the crime and magical abuse that run rampant throughout the city. Barely a single human generation old, the young republic is already struggling under the weight of ruling in a just and noble manner.
The Republic of Tal’Dorei has no standing army, and doesn’t elect a Master of War—a military commander-in-chief—to its council outside of wartime. In peacetime, the Master of Defense is responsible for the acquisition of mercenaries and adventurers for tasks which require the use of force. They also have the ability to conscript existing militias and town guards into military service and call them to Emon’s defense at any time, though typically only while the Master of War is being elected.
The only standing forces pledged exclusively to the defense of the realm are the elite forces of Fort Daxio . Mobilizing the armies of Fort Daxio to Emon’s aid generally requires the city to withstand a week-long siege. However, in case of internal strife, there are stables positioned every fifteen miles along the Othen Trail, allowing Daxio’s legendary outriders to arrive at Emon in a mere two days’ time by switching out their exhausted steeds.
Emon is encircled by 60-foot-high stone walls that stretch from the eastern fields to the western shore— though a number of discussions in the Tal’Dorei Council have revolved around the strategic irrelevance of great stone walls. They didn’t protect Emon against the Chroma Conclave over twenty years ago, and they wouldn’t have done much against an army of cultists and winged gloomstalkers had the Whispered One led an army against Tal’Dorei. As skyships grow more popular and affordable around the world, even the council’s Master of Defense is considering demolishing the city’s walls—making the strange case that such fortifications are prized more for their historic and cultural value than for their strategic importance.
These walls are patrolled by lightly armed and armored members of the Arms of Emon, the city’s official watch and constabulary. They are divided unofficially into the Arms upon the Wall and the Arms on the Streets, the latter of which are assigned to patrol the city streets to dissuade petty criminals and respond to violent crime.
Hundreds of miles of tunnels of varied provenance run beneath Emon. Most are the forgotten remnants of paved-over neighborhoods and secret passageways made by thieves’ guilds during the reign of Drassig. Others are the lairs of tunneling monsters. The origins of others still are lost forever, for they have already long since been turned into sewer passages to whisk away the refuse of Emon’s citizens.
The vast majority of the tunnels closer to the surface are known to the Clasp and used to rapidly move about the city unseen. Somewhere deep in this network of unlabeled roads is the Clasp’s secret headquarters, where all manner of thieves, cutthroats, fences, and spies gather beneath their banner. Though the Clasp operates in major cities across Tal’Dorei, Emon has always been their home, and saving their neighbors from Thordak’s reign of terror gave the Clasp the dubious benefit of a heroic reputation.
However, the Myriad crime syndicate from Wildemount has spent over two decades relentlessly clawing their way into the Clasp’s territory across Tal’Dorei—dismantling their networks, poaching their clients, and assassinating their informants. The Myriad hasn’t managed to completely eliminate the Clasp’s hold in any of the cities they’ve targeted, but that hasn’t stopped them from bringing the ongoing power struggle to the Clasp’s doorstep. Myriad agents bargain in shadowed alleys, gamble in upscale taverns, and lurk in the very tunnels that the Clasp relies on, waiting for their chance to unseat the Clasp once and for all.
Emon is not a tourist destination for its climate—the city is known for sudden, pounding rainstorms just as much as for its beautiful, sunny days. The city is blessed with cool summers and warm winters, thanks to its proximity to the cool Ozmit Sea. Though snow rarely falls on the city itself, it relies on springtime snowmelt from the Cliffkeep Mountains to fill its reservoirs throughout the year.
Emon is made up of the following districts:
Abdar’s Promenade. The Promenade is an open marketplace district and massive bazaar that dominates eastern Emon, named for the legendary spicemonger from Marquet who helped fund the construction of Emon. To this day, the name of Abdar is synonymous with both generosity and business savvy. Nearly everything a person could want can be found within the tents, carts, warehouses, and shops of the promenade. Its intertwining roads stretch for miles, and it has dozens of tiny neighborhoods, each with their own distinct cultures and identities. The promenade is heavily patrolled by the Arms of Emon, for its sunny reputation is shrouded by an equally significant reputation for literal back-alley criminal deals.
Central District. This is the largest residential district within Emon’s walls. It houses most of the city’s merchant class, including traveling traders, ship captains, and guild journeymen. The Central District is a patchwork of thousands of personal homes, tenements, and guildhalls of all shapes and sizes, peppered with small taverns and inns on nearly every street corner.
These neighborhoods lay clustered together among tightly set streets, occasionally broken up by park grasses or the Ozmit Waterways that snake through the region between the promenade and the port. Visitors to the Central District are advised not to go out at night; the wide disparity of wealth from home to home here has seen a recent rise in crime, and the city watch seems reluctant to find a constructive solution. Residents who know the lay of the land have an easier time at night and can help visitors avoid the most dangerous streets.
Cloudtop District. Out of all of Emon’s districts, the Cloudtop has, in some ways, changed the most over the decades. In Drassig’s time, a monstrous fortress loomed over the manors of his sycophants. In the age of Zan Tal’Dorei’s descendants, countless mages transfigured that decadent citadel into a sleek, elegant palace. By the time the Chroma Conclave came, decadence had once more crept up on Emon, and though the Palace of the Sovereign remained much the same, the Cloudtop District was once again a nest of luxury and the throne of the social elite. The latest additions in that era were skyship platforms, so that the wealthiest and most connected in Tal’Dorei could travel in exclusive luxury—soaring through the skies rather than enduring arduous journeys over land or sea.
All of that was reduced to slag by the advent of the Cinder King. Thordak made the Cloudtop District his home, and the palace itself his throne. His very presence caused magma to surge from the caverns beneath Emon, where previously no fires burned. Thordak ruled there for only a matter of months, but those few months were enough to annihilate unknown millions of gold pieces’ worth of art and creations of untold value—though the greedy dragon took care to command his minions to save the most beautiful works for his treasure hoard.
Today, the Cloudtop District is rebuilt, though the most stubborn elemental influences of the Cinder King linger in Thordak’s Crater. A new castle called Cloudwatch Palace has been built atop the city of Emon, and it contains the chambers of the Tal’Dorei Council, as well as grand dining halls and guest quarters for visiting dignitaries. Much of the castle is a museum, displaying what regalia and objets d’art survived the wrath of the Cinder King. The private chambers of the palace also contain a number of teleportation circles that leading councilmembers can use to return to their homes at night—particularly if they live in far-off cities such as Whitestone.
Temple District. Some say that this northern district contains more temples than in the rest of Tal’Dorei’s cities combined. This is a flagrant exaggeration, but at first glance, most people believe it. Emon is a city of many people, from many different places, with many different faiths. Even folk who worship the same gods worship them differently, and have built their own temples. Legend has it that shrines and temples used to be built all across Emon (and there are still some small sanctuaries elsewhere in the city), but a cleric of the Dawnfather declared her temple the greatest in all Emon. Her boast was met with scorn from a nearby church of the Stormlord. Their clerics, always eager to rise to a challenge, built an even greater temple across the street, and soon, people of all faiths were building the most magnificent structures they could, all in one tiny corner of Emon.
Today, cathedrals to the Lawbearer and the Plati- num Dragon stand at apex among smaller temples to the Dawnfather, the Stormlord, the Wildmother, and the Matron of Ravens. All Prime Deities have at least a moderately sized house of worship here, and even some of the Betrayer Gods are worshiped in secrecy. Anyone who seeks shelter here, be they rich or poor, can find sanctuary in the Temple District. Even the faithful of gods of strength, such as the Stormlord and the Platinum Dragon, have mercy for those who need the aid of others to help them stand on their own.
Travelers and sailors come to leave tokens and gifts at shrines to bless their journeys, while people of all walks of life seek the graces of the Change- bringer before undertaking risky endeavors. The meek search for wisdom in the great halls of the Knowing Mentor, as the artists and wistful folk give praise to the Arch Heart. However, not all folk are drawn toward religion, nor trusting of it, and temples past have been exposed as frauds—or worse, cults who venerate power.
Recently, an off-kilter faith to a lesser idol called the Traveler has found purchase in the Temple Ward—primarily in the form of puerile graffiti in back alleys. Other quasi-religious spiritual entities have small cult followings in the Temple Ward. They are generally allowed to flourish to whatever degree they can, so long as their beliefs don’t advocate for any behavior that would break the laws of Emon.
Erudite Quarter. This district is home to members of the educated upper-middle class and destitute academics alike. Several institutions of higher learning have their stately campuses here, ranging from well-to-do boarding schools to Tal’Dorei’s most premiere academic and arcane institutions.
Beautiful towers in ancient Syngornian style stretch to the sky across a cityscape of centuries-old halls of learning and student boardinghouses. Here, the finest schools and colleges draw the wealthy, the gifted, and the brilliant—and none more so than the Alabaster Lyceum, often lauded as the largest and most accomplished institute of arcane study on the continent. Though the district’s walls were shattered and its libraries crushed during the invasion of the Chroma Conclave, the Erudite Quarter has thankfully been mostly reconstructed, thanks to the efforts of the Lyceum’s staff and students.
Members of the Lyceum, under the direction of Headmaster Thurmond Adlam, performed the reconstruction themselves not simply because they sought to project an image of good work ethic and self-sufficiency, but because the heads of their colleges distrust the League of Miracles. Their motives and sources of funding are, in the eyes of the Lyceum, too opaque to be trusted. Their suspicion has often been derided either as elitism over the diverse array of mercenary mages the league hires, or as sour grapes over losing out on countless lucrative reconstruction contracts.
Military District. Since Emon has no standing army, the Military District is one of the city’s small- est wards. Nevertheless, it has the capacity to house and train a vast number of soldiers if an army needs to be levied from the people of Tal’Dorei. The Military District is mostly filled with several prisons and jails, including the infamous Black Bastille, as well as tightly locked barracks and instructional facilities for the Arms of Emon.
Cemetery District. This smaller section of the city is filled with graveyards and small religious sanctuaries so that people with means to purchase a gravesite or a mausoleum can bury their dead in whatever luxury they can afford. Countless gravestones line the rolling hills of the district. They are sectioned off from the roads by tall iron fences, with mausoleums of more affluent families dotting the grassy hillsides. As surface space grew limited in centuries past, the city excavated a network of catacombs called the Undervaults. Upkeep, expansion, and general safeguarding of the sites are all over- seen by the Gravewatchers, a guild of gravekeepers that have held political and social hegemony over the district for generations.
Their attempts to expand the Undervaults have had mixed results over the centuries. Most new excavations meet without incident (likely because the Clasp has learned to keep their tunnels far from this district). However, excavations in recent decades have broken into the Crystalfen Caverns, an eerie cave system filled with mind-bending inscriptions and horrific beings. The breach was promptly sealed off.
Yet the sealing of the caverns did not stop some members of the Gravewatchers from seeing an opportunity to gain fame and glory. Most who ventured into the caverns were never seen again, and those who have returned shudder unspeakably of the horrors they escaped. Still, passage is occasion- ally granted to the Clasp or adventurers willing to pay the Gravewatchers for entry to the dangerous realm below.
Port of Emon. Emon is bordered on the west by the Ozmit Sea and is generally sheltered from the worst of its storms. The vast Port of Emon allows hundreds of thousands of gold pieces’ worth of goods to flow through the city every single day. Well over a hundred ships fill this port at any given time, and the dock crews are ever working, carrying crates and goods away to Abdar’s Promenade, or to empty vessels for exportation. The northern sector of the Port is mostly allocated to the Everline, a powerful fisherfolk’s guild. They frequently feud with the Onyx Banner, Emon’s most powerful shipping guild, over which docks they are permitted to use. Both guilds keep their hands clean, but it’s an open secret that both hire adventurers and mercenaries to trash the other’s ships and warehouses to intimidate them. Adventurers in need of fast cash who don’t mind dodging the Arms of Emon can find good work as muscle for either of these two guilds.
Outwall. During the reign of Drassig, a massive city of tents and hovels grew outside of Emon, filled with those too poor to pay Drassig’s extortative taxes. By the end of the Scattered War, the slum had grown to a third of the city’s size, and nearly half its population. Even during the reign of Zan Tal’Dorei, these slums continued to grow, as refugees of the Scattered War tried to earn enough money to find stability within Emon’s walls.
Though their conditions were still meager when the magnanimous Zan Tal’Dorei ended Drassig’s iron rule, the city’s denizens chose to remain, having created a community with its own culture of inexpensive living and brotherhood in poverty, away from the bustle of the city’s inner streets. A microcosm of Emonian society now exists within the city of Outwall, including its own trade square, shrines for worship, and makeshift farms on the outskirts. As early as two decades ago, Outwall was called the Upper Slums—a derogatory name given to it by Emon’s Cloudtop elite. People within Outwall tried to transform the term “Upper Slums” into a symbol of civic pride, but it never stuck. The name Outwall eventually emerged after community leaders demanded an audience with the Tal’Dorei Council in an event that came to be called the Outer Wall Debates—for they demanded the council convene in the slums’ own town square.
These days, Outwall is becoming a trendy place to live, thanks to its vibrant culture and relatively inex- pensive housing. Its locals are fighting hard to keep young people with money to burn from the Central District from gentrifying their home. It hasn’t come to violence yet, but the angrier members of the Out- wall community clandestinely meet with adventurers to burn down the stylish houses and mansions that are driving out local residents and businesses.
Southgate Farms. Inspired by the civic action of the people of Outwall, the farmers of Southgate were able to break from the ugly name of “slum” in the past decade. This community of farmers and ranchers, formerly known as the Lower Slum, exists outside Emon’s southern gates. It first formed when a large refugee band from Othanzia was barred
entry into the city in the midst of the Scattered War.
Instead of dispersing, they decided to lay down roots while Drassig’s armies were out fighting a losing battle against Zan Tal’Dorei. These squatters eventually formed a community of farmers who petitioned Zan Tal’Dorei for land in exchange for providing produce and grown goods to the people of the city.
Thanks to the aid of the First Sovereign, the descendants of those Othanzian refugees have become one of the most significant sources of fresh food for the people of Emon. Frustrated by being saddled with the name of “slum,” and inspired by the Outer Wall Debates, the leading families of the Lower Slums demanded recognition by the Tal’Dorei Council as well. They were met with little debate, and these humble farmers are now a respectable part of Emonian society—even if they live outside the city’s defensive walls.
This southern region of the city is also home to a famous site of modern history: Greyskull Keep, the former base of operations for Vox Machina in Emon. This fortress was gifted to them by the Last Sovereign as thanks for saving his life. The various heroes of Vox Machina have moved on to other homes (and now typically gather in Whitestone for holidays), and they allowed the keep to be turned into a museum of their heroic exploits.
Shoreline Farms. Less respectable than the Southgate Farms are the communities along a stretch of murky shore north of Emon. These people of Outwall have tried for decades to turn terrible, salty land into effective farmland, to mixed results. They have successfully cultivated the few vegetables that grow in saltwater-soaked soil, leading to bountiful harvests of savory quattet gourds and the hard-to-grow brineroot. However, the farms’ distance from the city gives them little protection from dangers that city folk think little of. Adventurers are always wanted to protect the farms from petty criminals and wandering monsters, but the farmers have little to pay. Generally, only utterly novice adventurers find their start in a place like the Shoreline Farms—but all heroes have to start somewhere.
The Grotto. This sprawling series of underground chambers composes the Clasp’s headquarters beneath the city of Emon. It’s rumored that over a dozen entrances to the Grotto are concealed amidst the labyrinthine tunnels, which are both naturally occurring and a part of Emon’s sewers. That doesn’t even begin to get into the hundreds of other entrances and access shafts abandoned and filled in for fear of discovery. The very nature of the Clasp’s business is to keep shifting out of sight, and as such, the actual core of the organization moves from base to base between multiple subterranean structures, ever building further underground, or repurposing a long-abandoned hideout whenever necessary.
A number of both popular and historically significant landmarks can be found in Emon. They are keyed to the map of Emon.
1. Laughing Lamia Inn.
While the city is home to countless taverns and inns for the weary traveler or practiced performer, few are as grand and well known as the Laughing Lamia. Almost as old as the city itself, this fine establishment has traded hands numerous times over the years, and has expanded with each transition, leaving the massive, four-story institution a hodgepodge mass of odd rooms and themes, all centered around a raucous central tavern room filled with dozens of tables. Currently under the ownership of a brash and cheerful lass called Luthania Wells, this hot spot for traveling traders and adventurers alike rarely sees an hour in the day (or night) where there isn’t something interesting going on within.
2. Azalea Street Park.
Azalea Street, within Abdar’s Promenade, is one of Emon’s oldest neighborhoods, and is full to bursting with small businesses, quaint homes, and hole-in-the-wall restaurants, such as the Laughing Lamia. Amidst the chaos of daily life, Azalea Street is also home to a peaceful park overlooking the Ozmit Waterways. When the stress of constant battles becomes too much to bear, adventurers in the know take a moment to visit the Azalea Street Park and recover, maybe even swapping stories with other relaxing heroes. Legend has it that heroes who meditate among the flowers and drink in the sea air return invigorated by the spirit of the Wildmother. A statue of the Wildmother and Lawbearer dancing together graces a fountain in the center of the park. Once per week, a character can gain inspiration by taking a short rest in Azalea Street Park.
3. Anvilgate.
Made of stark black stone and adorned with intricate brass metalwork, this grand blacksmithy is one of the most striking buildings in Abdar’s Promenade. Decades ago, a restless craftsman from Kraghammer of the name Grahf Tiltkettle grew weary of solitary pursuits and worried that interest in blacksmithing would give way to the emerging trend of mass-production. Tiltkettle retired in Emon and dedicated his respectable fortune to ignite the spark of inspiration in those who wished to learn the ways of the hammer and anvil, hoping to instill the joy of the All-Hammer in a new generation. He funded the creation of Anvilgate, a massive, public blacksmithy where any folk who wished to try their hand at the smithing of metals could do so under the All-Hammer’s guidance.
Cheaper ores and materials were often donated by friends of Tiltkettle to aid the volunteer mentors in teaching their craft to the less fortunate, while folks who wished to bring their own ingots were welcome to do so. The location has become popular enough to begin expanding its facility to include kilns for ceramics and looms for weaving. While the tools are open for anyone to use on the premises, all are warned of the curse that will beset any wanton thief who steals from under the All-Hammer’s gaze.
4. Traverse Junction.
The most magically active structure in Tal’Dorei shines like a pyramid of pure sapphire in the bustling center of the Erudite Quarter, its walls thrumming with arcane energy. It is the Traverse Junction, and all visitors to the Erudite Quarter stop to see it when they visit.
In nearly every major Exandrian city, there are teleportation circles that link mages to other such circles around the world. Each and every one of these major circles has a twin in the Traverse Junction, a travel nexus for approved mages and world leaders. Any characters renowned in Emon or honored by the Alabaster Lyceum may make use of the Junction (for 50 gp, if they can’t cast teleportation circle), allowing them to travel to major cities such as Westruun, Syngorn, Kraghammer, and Whitestone in Tal’Dorei; Port Damali and Rexxentrum in Wildemount; Ank’Harel in Marquet; and Vasselheim in Issylra. The telemagi who curate the circles are always in search of new teleportation sigils to different lands; they are willing to pay a handsome sum for the ser- vices of powerful and magically skilled adventurers willing to seek out and catalog new circle sigils for their records.
5. Alabaster Lyceum.
The gleaming white halls and elaborate gardens of the Alabaster Lyceum signal to all who see them that they gaze upon the greatest institute of higher learning in Tal’Dorei— though numerous scholars in Kraghammer and Syngorn would heatedly dispute that claim. Regard- less, this place is the heart of homegrown academia in the Republic of Tal’Dorei, boldly striving to make a name for itself alongside the ancient scholarly traditions of Issylra, Marquet, and Wildemount. The Lyceum (for those who can afford the impressive tuition) is an unparalleled center for study and research of history, economics, alchemy, art, and—most of all—magic and the arcane. Many of Tal’Dorei’s greatest scholars and bards paid their dues in these halls, and the history of the Lyceum and its graduates are featured in all manner of superstitions and folktales.
6. Cloudwatch Palace.
In the wake of the Chroma Conclave's destruction of Emon, the towering palace that stood as home to the sovereign and the center of governance within the city fell to fire and ruin. In the decades since, construction began with the aid of the League of Miracles to construct a new palace to help house the Tal’Dorei Council and be a symbolic center for all major political affairs within the region. The Cloudwatch Palace now sits atop the once-smoldering hill where Thordak once claimed his roost, a symbol of Emon’s enduring will and optimistic hope for the future. Within these high-arched halls, countless chambers hold space for diplomats, meetings, and in the case of holidays, grandiose celebrations that draw the attention of powerful figures all across Exandria.
7. Thordak’s Crater. One last unsettling element of the Cloudtop District is the elementally scarred remains of Thordak’s Crater. Even after two decades of healing from the Ashari of Pyrah, Thordak’s fires still burn beneath the Cloudtop. The smoldering entrance to the caverns remains cordoned off from the public because of its unsightly appearance and sulfurous stench, and because fiery creatures occasionally try to claw their way out into the fresh air. The crater is often forgotten, but every few months an adventuring party makes their way inside to seek treasure or glory within the volatile caverns—and such expeditions are a favorite topic of conversation (and clandestine betting) among the politicians, political aides, remaining city nobility, and nouveau riche of Emon.
Why Thordak’s magic lingers enough to create these mindless cinderslag elementals is a mystery; but it seems to be limited to the crater, as the elementals cannot go beyond it without collapsing into inert slurry.
8. Emon Skyport.
This elevated port is complete with docking platforms solely for the use of skyfaring vessels. The original Emon Skyport was the first of its kind in Tal’Dorei, and its successor is every bit as revolutionary as the original.
The Emon Skyport was destroyed when the Cinder King claimed the Cloudtop District as his fiery throne, but like so much of Emon, it has since been rebuilt. Unlike other parts of Emon, this reconstruction was a joint venture between the Arcana Pansophical and the Alsfarin Union, a Marquesian guild responsible for the engineering and distribution of all skyships in Exandria.
Booking passage on a skyship isn’t cheap, but the privilege is available to everyone that can pay. Generally, one passenger skyship leaves Emon per week to each of the following locations:
• Vasselheim, Issylra (passenger ticket costs 2,500 gp) • Whitestone, Tal’Dorei (passenger ticket costs 900 gp) • Port Damali, Wildemount (layover in Whitestone; passenger ticket costs 2,000 gp) • Ank’Harel, Marquet (passenger ticket costs 2,500 gp)
Members of the Tal’Dorei Council can also usually pull strings to grant adventurers they hire free pas- sage when on vital business.
9. Tomb of the Last Sovereign.
Uriel Tal’Dorei II, the Last Sovereign, was slain by the noxious breath of the green dragon Raishan during the attack of the Chroma Conclave. Uriel’s wife, Salda, survived him and petitioned the reformed Council of Tal’Dorei to build their last sovereign a tomb befitting his benevolence and magnanimity. They complied, and the monumental Tomb of the Last Sovereign is now home to not just Uriel’s ashes, but to tribute from all who loved him. Those with wealth gave gold, while those whose hearts outweighed their purses gave more personal tribute.
Over twenty years ago, the Gravewatchers closed the tomb to all, supposedly to prevent vandalism, but have not reopened it after more than two decades. The Last Sovereign’s eldest daughter, Odessa Tal’Dorei, is furious. Despite her position of power on the Tal’Dorei Council, she is unable to dispute the act because of the power the Gravewatchers have as keepers of the dead. It has come to the point where she seeks to secretly employ adventurers to uncover the Gravewatchers’ true intentions—which involve the psychic influence of an aberrant creature of the Crystalfen Caverns.
10. Godsbrawl Ring.
Though the Temple of the Stormlord always has a fighting ring in its center, the annual Godsbrawl transforms the earthen, torchlit sanctum into one of Tal’Dorei’s most unusual tournament grounds. On the Day of Challenging, the god of athleticism’s holy day, the brawny priests of the Stormlord invite warriors and worshipers of the entire pantheon to the Godsbrawl, asking that each temple offer forth their greatest warrior to act as their god’s proxy in the tournament. The clergy of the Dawnfather and the Lawbearer send their champions, but rarely take it seriously, for they scorn the storm-priests’ notion of “might makes right.” Conversely, the champions of the Stormlord and the Platinum Dragon have a fierce—though friendly— rivalry, trading the title of Supreme Champion back and forth each year after a bloody (but rarely fatal) final round.
11. The Black Bastille.
Named for its ash-blackened walls, the ominous Black Bastille is a single-story prison within the Military District that holds Tal’Dorei’s most dangerous and irredeemable criminals. The compound has no windows, no open courtyards, and only one entrance: two imposing steel doors, flanked by watchtowers. During the reign of the Chroma Conclave, the prison was one of the first buildings attacked, setting hundreds of Tal’Dorei’s worst criminals loose to sow chaos across Emon. The Black Bastille has since been rebuilt, but dozens of its most deplorable inmates still run free, and the Arms of Emon are eager to recover them. Some include the human demon-summoner Felrinn Derevar, betrayer of the Arcana Pansophical; the half-elf pyromancer Illaman Falconsong, exile of the Fire Ashari; and the vampiric tiefling Ixrattu Khar, cultist of the Whispered One and Tal’Dorei’s foulest mass murderer
12. Walls of Tribute.
Anyone who wishes to uphold justice and keep the peace can apply to join the Arms of Emon. But before a recruit is given their armor and takes a vow to protect the city and its people, they must endure a grueling training regimen within the tall, featureless stone barricades of the Walls of Tribute, referred to wryly by recruits as the Quarry. There, they are trained in the physical aspects of peacekeeping, instructed on the habits of the city’s criminal underbelly, and drilled in the laws and ideals of Emon.
13. House of Discipline.
Emon does not have a standing army of its own. The skills imparted to the Arms of Emon are sufficient to maintain a rowdy populace, but they are carefully trained to use nonlethal force to restrain, rather than kill, all those whom they apprehend. Thus, when war comes to Tal’Dorei, the council appoints a Master of War and levies an army from the Arms of Emon, as well as the militias of its constituent settlements. They must report to the House of Discipline, where they are taught martial combat alongside the harsh realities of warfare. Those who endure their time in the House of Discipline are forged into an army ready to protect Emon and the rest of Tal’Dorei from the greater dangers of Exandria.
14. Gilmore’s Glorious Goods.
The broad, single-story façade of Shaun Gilmore’s wondrous magical emporium belies the extravagance of its interior. Within, the air is thick with a dozen competing perfumes, each more pungent than the last. The interior is impossibly large—certainly larger than its exterior walls would have you believe—and filled with seemingly endless rows of arcane curiosities and artifacts, many of whose cryptic functions have been lost to time. Everburning candles in an array of unnatural colors light the shop, casting tantalizing shadows over every bubbling phial and mystical orb. Those who enter the shop are first met by Gilmore’s long-time assistant Sherri, a half-elf draped in deep purple robes. If they are lucky, or particularly convincing, they may even meet the hero Gilmore himself.
Even rarer a sight than Sherri or Gilmore is the latter’s husband, a handsome elf named Darius. He is shy in public, a perfect counterbalance to Gilmore’s bombast, but is said to have a singing voice and skill with the lyre that can make any mortal weep. Whether or not his husband is present, Gilmore is ever eager to recount his part in the fall of the Chroma Conclave, often winkingly embellishing his role in the final battle with Thordak himself.
Gilmore’s Glorious Goods sells all manner of magic items. Its stock varies, but typically includes magic items of very rare rarity and lower for the price range listed in the fifth edition core rules. Additionally, there are always unidentified items in Gilmore’s vast back-room storage that he says he’ll “get to eventually;” these may include one or two long-lost legendary items. Artifact-quality items are beyond even Shaun Gilmore’s usual fare, but he might know clues to a specific artifact’s location, whether through his own extensive knowledge or his rumored relationship with the Tal’Dorei Council as an expert consultant on matters of arcane objects. Magic items are expensive, and those strapped for cash may inquire about sponsorships and quests done in Gilmore’s service.
Emon is accessible only through its heavily patrolled gates and by skyship. The denizens of the city are generally well protected from outside attackers and sieges.
Demographics
68% human, 7% dwarven, 6% elven, 19% other
Government Emon is the seat of the Tal'Dorei Council, the nation’s highest governing body. Though the council originally served under the Sovereign of Tal’Dorei, the nation’s final sovereign was killed when the Chroma Conclave attacked Emon. Following the death of Thordak the Cinder King and the rest of the Conclave, Emon was rebuilt and the council reformed as the backbone of the new Republic of Tal’Dorei.
One unintended consequence of relying on magic to rapidly rebuild Emon is that the mages of Tal’Dorei now hold incredible influence over the fledgling council. Some fear that without a sovereign, the council will be unable to keep the arcanists in line, and Tal’Dorei will dissolve into magocracy.
Current Events
The Tal’Dorei Council is best known for their policies that affect the whole of Tal’Dorei. It is often ignored that the council also governs Emon and resolves the day-to-day issues of the city. These are some current events both great and small affecting Emon today; these topics can add flavor to the discussions and rumors the characters hear around town, and could even inspire new adventures for them to take on.
Elemental Disturbances. Over twenty years have passed since Thordak the Cinder King was killed in the caverns beneath Emon. His wreckage in the Cloudtop District, as well as the Scar of the Cinder King, a swath of elemental destruction outside the city walls, have been tended to by members of the Fire Ashari, gradually healing the stubborn wounds of his influence. Yet the primordial fires that seeped from his body continue to linger in the caverns beneath the city where he died. Every year or two, an incursion of wild fire and hateful cinderslag elementals burst through the city streets, causing mass chaos, expensive damages, and life-or- death battles for the city guard.
Mercenary Mages. A generation ago, the fledgling League of Miracles hired hundreds, if not thousands, of mercenary mages to aid in the reconstruction of Emon and other cities across Tal’Dorei. These days, Tal’Dorei is rebuilt, and the few infrastructure problems aren’t enough to employ all the mercenaries left behind by the league. These out-of-work mercenaries now linger around dismal dive bars and make trouble for the locals. Most people would rather see them gone, but it’s hard not to feel sorry for their situation.
Walls and Slums. The city’s outer walls have fallen under heavy criticism from politicians and civilians alike in recent years. Many people are concerned that the walls’ true purpose these days is to separate the slums outside the walls from the “respectable” districts within them. Popular opinion is now that the great City of Fellowship should do more to help its less fortunate, but council politicians continue to stall. In private, Master of Commerce Vex’ahlia de Rolo fumes that she wants to help, but can’t cut through political red tape with her legendary bow and arrow.
Society
While in antiquity Emon was the heart of a human empire, the city has grown to encompass people from all over Tal’Dorei, and all over the world. Its citizens include people of nearly all known races from Exandria’s many nations, thriving on the new innovations and ideas of its citizenry. It has been this way since the sovereignty of Zan Tal’Dorei, when the alliances she formed invited dozens of displaced elves, dwarves, orcs, and goliaths into her city. Since then, Emon has developed into a city whose people valued innovation and collaboration, especially in small, cohesive groups—virtues that some historians within the Alabaster Lyceum believe have given rise to the prominence of the modern adventuring party.
While Emon is becoming more commercial and the use of gold as currency has been ubiquitous throughout Tal’Dorei’s history, many communities within the city are still close-knit enough to use the barter system. During the reign of Drassig, the humans of Emon adopted a dwarven oath called rudraz, an intimate promise between two people to repay a deed or trade. Though the rudraz is not a contract, the dwarves believed that an oathbreaker would be forever barred from passing beyond the Brightguard Gates of Hilmaire, the gates that allow dwarves to pass to the afterlife. Humans in Emon treat the rudraz more lightly, often using it to seal matters of business or politics rather than personal promises, but breaking this oath still carries massive social repercussions. Few look kindly upon a person with the epithet “Oathbreaker.”
Rebirth
Emon has mostly recovered from its destruction at the talons of the Chroma Conclave and Thordak’s subsequent occupation. A number of Tal’Dorei’s most significant factions played a role in Emon’s rebirth, and their members enjoy positions of prominence throughout the city. Emon was rapidly rebuilt to its former glory, due to the expensive but effective intervention of mercenary mages serving the League of Miracles. Thanks also to the Clasp’s underground networks and established hierarchies, Emonian society and culture was able to bounce back more swiftly than any other major settlement in Tal’Dorei.
And the Tal’Dorei Council, formerly an advisory council to the sovereign, is now the ruling council of the land. Folk heroes and career politicians alike sit on the council. Over the past two decades, the council has, with many missteps, enacted the will of the people—allowing Tal’Dorei to transition from a monarchical power to a republic without war or insurrection.
However, the swiftness of Emon’s rebirth has put the Tal’Dorei Council in a precarious position. Not only are they socially indebted to a criminal faction—one whose members now command immense celebrity among the common folk—the council now owes vast amounts of gold to mages of the League of Miracles. League conjurers created thousands of tons of stone and steel, and each one of their transmuters rebuilt everything from taverns to townhouses and sewers to stately manors as quickly as a hundred laborers. Thordak’s hoard of plundered wealth has dwindled to nothing, repaying the league, and they have done the same in cities across the land. Some members of the council have already caved to pressure from factions within the Clasp and the League of Miracles, and subsequently turn a blind eye to the crime and magical abuse that run rampant throughout the city. Barely a single human generation old, the young republic is already struggling under the weight of ruling in a just and noble manner.
Defenses
The Republic of Tal’Dorei has no standing army, and doesn’t elect a Master of War—a military commander-in-chief—to its council outside of wartime. In peacetime, the Master of Defense is responsible for the acquisition of mercenaries and adventurers for tasks which require the use of force. They also have the ability to conscript existing militias and town guards into military service and call them to Emon’s defense at any time, though typically only while the Master of War is being elected.
The only standing forces pledged exclusively to the defense of the realm are the elite forces of Fort Daxio . Mobilizing the armies of Fort Daxio to Emon’s aid generally requires the city to withstand a week-long siege. However, in case of internal strife, there are stables positioned every fifteen miles along the Othen Trail, allowing Daxio’s legendary outriders to arrive at Emon in a mere two days’ time by switching out their exhausted steeds.
Emon is encircled by 60-foot-high stone walls that stretch from the eastern fields to the western shore— though a number of discussions in the Tal’Dorei Council have revolved around the strategic irrelevance of great stone walls. They didn’t protect Emon against the Chroma Conclave over twenty years ago, and they wouldn’t have done much against an army of cultists and winged gloomstalkers had the Whispered One led an army against Tal’Dorei. As skyships grow more popular and affordable around the world, even the council’s Master of Defense is considering demolishing the city’s walls—making the strange case that such fortifications are prized more for their historic and cultural value than for their strategic importance.
These walls are patrolled by lightly armed and armored members of the Arms of Emon, the city’s official watch and constabulary. They are divided unofficially into the Arms upon the Wall and the Arms on the Streets, the latter of which are assigned to patrol the city streets to dissuade petty criminals and respond to violent crime.
Crime
Hundreds of miles of tunnels of varied provenance run beneath Emon. Most are the forgotten remnants of paved-over neighborhoods and secret passageways made by thieves’ guilds during the reign of Drassig. Others are the lairs of tunneling monsters. The origins of others still are lost forever, for they have already long since been turned into sewer passages to whisk away the refuse of Emon’s citizens.
The vast majority of the tunnels closer to the surface are known to the Clasp and used to rapidly move about the city unseen. Somewhere deep in this network of unlabeled roads is the Clasp’s secret headquarters, where all manner of thieves, cutthroats, fences, and spies gather beneath their banner. Though the Clasp operates in major cities across Tal’Dorei, Emon has always been their home, and saving their neighbors from Thordak’s reign of terror gave the Clasp the dubious benefit of a heroic reputation.
However, the Myriad crime syndicate from Wildemount has spent over two decades relentlessly clawing their way into the Clasp’s territory across Tal’Dorei—dismantling their networks, poaching their clients, and assassinating their informants. The Myriad hasn’t managed to completely eliminate the Clasp’s hold in any of the cities they’ve targeted, but that hasn’t stopped them from bringing the ongoing power struggle to the Clasp’s doorstep. Myriad agents bargain in shadowed alleys, gamble in upscale taverns, and lurk in the very tunnels that the Clasp relies on, waiting for their chance to unseat the Clasp once and for all.
Geography and Climate
Emon is not a tourist destination for its climate—the city is known for sudden, pounding rainstorms just as much as for its beautiful, sunny days. The city is blessed with cool summers and warm winters, thanks to its proximity to the cool Ozmit Sea. Though snow rarely falls on the city itself, it relies on springtime snowmelt from the Cliffkeep Mountains to fill its reservoirs throughout the year.
Emon is made up of the following districts:
Abdar’s Promenade. The Promenade is an open marketplace district and massive bazaar that dominates eastern Emon, named for the legendary spicemonger from Marquet who helped fund the construction of Emon. To this day, the name of Abdar is synonymous with both generosity and business savvy. Nearly everything a person could want can be found within the tents, carts, warehouses, and shops of the promenade. Its intertwining roads stretch for miles, and it has dozens of tiny neighborhoods, each with their own distinct cultures and identities. The promenade is heavily patrolled by the Arms of Emon, for its sunny reputation is shrouded by an equally significant reputation for literal back-alley criminal deals.
Central District. This is the largest residential district within Emon’s walls. It houses most of the city’s merchant class, including traveling traders, ship captains, and guild journeymen. The Central District is a patchwork of thousands of personal homes, tenements, and guildhalls of all shapes and sizes, peppered with small taverns and inns on nearly every street corner.
These neighborhoods lay clustered together among tightly set streets, occasionally broken up by park grasses or the Ozmit Waterways that snake through the region between the promenade and the port. Visitors to the Central District are advised not to go out at night; the wide disparity of wealth from home to home here has seen a recent rise in crime, and the city watch seems reluctant to find a constructive solution. Residents who know the lay of the land have an easier time at night and can help visitors avoid the most dangerous streets.
Cloudtop District. Out of all of Emon’s districts, the Cloudtop has, in some ways, changed the most over the decades. In Drassig’s time, a monstrous fortress loomed over the manors of his sycophants. In the age of Zan Tal’Dorei’s descendants, countless mages transfigured that decadent citadel into a sleek, elegant palace. By the time the Chroma Conclave came, decadence had once more crept up on Emon, and though the Palace of the Sovereign remained much the same, the Cloudtop District was once again a nest of luxury and the throne of the social elite. The latest additions in that era were skyship platforms, so that the wealthiest and most connected in Tal’Dorei could travel in exclusive luxury—soaring through the skies rather than enduring arduous journeys over land or sea.
All of that was reduced to slag by the advent of the Cinder King. Thordak made the Cloudtop District his home, and the palace itself his throne. His very presence caused magma to surge from the caverns beneath Emon, where previously no fires burned. Thordak ruled there for only a matter of months, but those few months were enough to annihilate unknown millions of gold pieces’ worth of art and creations of untold value—though the greedy dragon took care to command his minions to save the most beautiful works for his treasure hoard.
Today, the Cloudtop District is rebuilt, though the most stubborn elemental influences of the Cinder King linger in Thordak’s Crater. A new castle called Cloudwatch Palace has been built atop the city of Emon, and it contains the chambers of the Tal’Dorei Council, as well as grand dining halls and guest quarters for visiting dignitaries. Much of the castle is a museum, displaying what regalia and objets d’art survived the wrath of the Cinder King. The private chambers of the palace also contain a number of teleportation circles that leading councilmembers can use to return to their homes at night—particularly if they live in far-off cities such as Whitestone.
Temple District. Some say that this northern district contains more temples than in the rest of Tal’Dorei’s cities combined. This is a flagrant exaggeration, but at first glance, most people believe it. Emon is a city of many people, from many different places, with many different faiths. Even folk who worship the same gods worship them differently, and have built their own temples. Legend has it that shrines and temples used to be built all across Emon (and there are still some small sanctuaries elsewhere in the city), but a cleric of the Dawnfather declared her temple the greatest in all Emon. Her boast was met with scorn from a nearby church of the Stormlord. Their clerics, always eager to rise to a challenge, built an even greater temple across the street, and soon, people of all faiths were building the most magnificent structures they could, all in one tiny corner of Emon.
Today, cathedrals to the Lawbearer and the Plati- num Dragon stand at apex among smaller temples to the Dawnfather, the Stormlord, the Wildmother, and the Matron of Ravens. All Prime Deities have at least a moderately sized house of worship here, and even some of the Betrayer Gods are worshiped in secrecy. Anyone who seeks shelter here, be they rich or poor, can find sanctuary in the Temple District. Even the faithful of gods of strength, such as the Stormlord and the Platinum Dragon, have mercy for those who need the aid of others to help them stand on their own.
Travelers and sailors come to leave tokens and gifts at shrines to bless their journeys, while people of all walks of life seek the graces of the Change- bringer before undertaking risky endeavors. The meek search for wisdom in the great halls of the Knowing Mentor, as the artists and wistful folk give praise to the Arch Heart. However, not all folk are drawn toward religion, nor trusting of it, and temples past have been exposed as frauds—or worse, cults who venerate power.
Recently, an off-kilter faith to a lesser idol called the Traveler has found purchase in the Temple Ward—primarily in the form of puerile graffiti in back alleys. Other quasi-religious spiritual entities have small cult followings in the Temple Ward. They are generally allowed to flourish to whatever degree they can, so long as their beliefs don’t advocate for any behavior that would break the laws of Emon.
Erudite Quarter. This district is home to members of the educated upper-middle class and destitute academics alike. Several institutions of higher learning have their stately campuses here, ranging from well-to-do boarding schools to Tal’Dorei’s most premiere academic and arcane institutions.
Beautiful towers in ancient Syngornian style stretch to the sky across a cityscape of centuries-old halls of learning and student boardinghouses. Here, the finest schools and colleges draw the wealthy, the gifted, and the brilliant—and none more so than the Alabaster Lyceum, often lauded as the largest and most accomplished institute of arcane study on the continent. Though the district’s walls were shattered and its libraries crushed during the invasion of the Chroma Conclave, the Erudite Quarter has thankfully been mostly reconstructed, thanks to the efforts of the Lyceum’s staff and students.
Members of the Lyceum, under the direction of Headmaster Thurmond Adlam, performed the reconstruction themselves not simply because they sought to project an image of good work ethic and self-sufficiency, but because the heads of their colleges distrust the League of Miracles. Their motives and sources of funding are, in the eyes of the Lyceum, too opaque to be trusted. Their suspicion has often been derided either as elitism over the diverse array of mercenary mages the league hires, or as sour grapes over losing out on countless lucrative reconstruction contracts.
Military District. Since Emon has no standing army, the Military District is one of the city’s small- est wards. Nevertheless, it has the capacity to house and train a vast number of soldiers if an army needs to be levied from the people of Tal’Dorei. The Military District is mostly filled with several prisons and jails, including the infamous Black Bastille, as well as tightly locked barracks and instructional facilities for the Arms of Emon.
Cemetery District. This smaller section of the city is filled with graveyards and small religious sanctuaries so that people with means to purchase a gravesite or a mausoleum can bury their dead in whatever luxury they can afford. Countless gravestones line the rolling hills of the district. They are sectioned off from the roads by tall iron fences, with mausoleums of more affluent families dotting the grassy hillsides. As surface space grew limited in centuries past, the city excavated a network of catacombs called the Undervaults. Upkeep, expansion, and general safeguarding of the sites are all over- seen by the Gravewatchers, a guild of gravekeepers that have held political and social hegemony over the district for generations.
Their attempts to expand the Undervaults have had mixed results over the centuries. Most new excavations meet without incident (likely because the Clasp has learned to keep their tunnels far from this district). However, excavations in recent decades have broken into the Crystalfen Caverns, an eerie cave system filled with mind-bending inscriptions and horrific beings. The breach was promptly sealed off.
Yet the sealing of the caverns did not stop some members of the Gravewatchers from seeing an opportunity to gain fame and glory. Most who ventured into the caverns were never seen again, and those who have returned shudder unspeakably of the horrors they escaped. Still, passage is occasion- ally granted to the Clasp or adventurers willing to pay the Gravewatchers for entry to the dangerous realm below.
Port of Emon. Emon is bordered on the west by the Ozmit Sea and is generally sheltered from the worst of its storms. The vast Port of Emon allows hundreds of thousands of gold pieces’ worth of goods to flow through the city every single day. Well over a hundred ships fill this port at any given time, and the dock crews are ever working, carrying crates and goods away to Abdar’s Promenade, or to empty vessels for exportation. The northern sector of the Port is mostly allocated to the Everline, a powerful fisherfolk’s guild. They frequently feud with the Onyx Banner, Emon’s most powerful shipping guild, over which docks they are permitted to use. Both guilds keep their hands clean, but it’s an open secret that both hire adventurers and mercenaries to trash the other’s ships and warehouses to intimidate them. Adventurers in need of fast cash who don’t mind dodging the Arms of Emon can find good work as muscle for either of these two guilds.
Outwall. During the reign of Drassig, a massive city of tents and hovels grew outside of Emon, filled with those too poor to pay Drassig’s extortative taxes. By the end of the Scattered War, the slum had grown to a third of the city’s size, and nearly half its population. Even during the reign of Zan Tal’Dorei, these slums continued to grow, as refugees of the Scattered War tried to earn enough money to find stability within Emon’s walls.
Though their conditions were still meager when the magnanimous Zan Tal’Dorei ended Drassig’s iron rule, the city’s denizens chose to remain, having created a community with its own culture of inexpensive living and brotherhood in poverty, away from the bustle of the city’s inner streets. A microcosm of Emonian society now exists within the city of Outwall, including its own trade square, shrines for worship, and makeshift farms on the outskirts. As early as two decades ago, Outwall was called the Upper Slums—a derogatory name given to it by Emon’s Cloudtop elite. People within Outwall tried to transform the term “Upper Slums” into a symbol of civic pride, but it never stuck. The name Outwall eventually emerged after community leaders demanded an audience with the Tal’Dorei Council in an event that came to be called the Outer Wall Debates—for they demanded the council convene in the slums’ own town square.
These days, Outwall is becoming a trendy place to live, thanks to its vibrant culture and relatively inex- pensive housing. Its locals are fighting hard to keep young people with money to burn from the Central District from gentrifying their home. It hasn’t come to violence yet, but the angrier members of the Out- wall community clandestinely meet with adventurers to burn down the stylish houses and mansions that are driving out local residents and businesses.
Southgate Farms. Inspired by the civic action of the people of Outwall, the farmers of Southgate were able to break from the ugly name of “slum” in the past decade. This community of farmers and ranchers, formerly known as the Lower Slum, exists outside Emon’s southern gates. It first formed when a large refugee band from Othanzia was barred
entry into the city in the midst of the Scattered War.
Instead of dispersing, they decided to lay down roots while Drassig’s armies were out fighting a losing battle against Zan Tal’Dorei. These squatters eventually formed a community of farmers who petitioned Zan Tal’Dorei for land in exchange for providing produce and grown goods to the people of the city.
Thanks to the aid of the First Sovereign, the descendants of those Othanzian refugees have become one of the most significant sources of fresh food for the people of Emon. Frustrated by being saddled with the name of “slum,” and inspired by the Outer Wall Debates, the leading families of the Lower Slums demanded recognition by the Tal’Dorei Council as well. They were met with little debate, and these humble farmers are now a respectable part of Emonian society—even if they live outside the city’s defensive walls.
This southern region of the city is also home to a famous site of modern history: Greyskull Keep, the former base of operations for Vox Machina in Emon. This fortress was gifted to them by the Last Sovereign as thanks for saving his life. The various heroes of Vox Machina have moved on to other homes (and now typically gather in Whitestone for holidays), and they allowed the keep to be turned into a museum of their heroic exploits.
Shoreline Farms. Less respectable than the Southgate Farms are the communities along a stretch of murky shore north of Emon. These people of Outwall have tried for decades to turn terrible, salty land into effective farmland, to mixed results. They have successfully cultivated the few vegetables that grow in saltwater-soaked soil, leading to bountiful harvests of savory quattet gourds and the hard-to-grow brineroot. However, the farms’ distance from the city gives them little protection from dangers that city folk think little of. Adventurers are always wanted to protect the farms from petty criminals and wandering monsters, but the farmers have little to pay. Generally, only utterly novice adventurers find their start in a place like the Shoreline Farms—but all heroes have to start somewhere.
The Grotto. This sprawling series of underground chambers composes the Clasp’s headquarters beneath the city of Emon. It’s rumored that over a dozen entrances to the Grotto are concealed amidst the labyrinthine tunnels, which are both naturally occurring and a part of Emon’s sewers. That doesn’t even begin to get into the hundreds of other entrances and access shafts abandoned and filled in for fear of discovery. The very nature of the Clasp’s business is to keep shifting out of sight, and as such, the actual core of the organization moves from base to base between multiple subterranean structures, ever building further underground, or repurposing a long-abandoned hideout whenever necessary.
Points of Interest
A number of both popular and historically significant landmarks can be found in Emon. They are keyed to the map of Emon.
1. Laughing Lamia Inn.
While the city is home to countless taverns and inns for the weary traveler or practiced performer, few are as grand and well known as the Laughing Lamia. Almost as old as the city itself, this fine establishment has traded hands numerous times over the years, and has expanded with each transition, leaving the massive, four-story institution a hodgepodge mass of odd rooms and themes, all centered around a raucous central tavern room filled with dozens of tables. Currently under the ownership of a brash and cheerful lass called Luthania Wells, this hot spot for traveling traders and adventurers alike rarely sees an hour in the day (or night) where there isn’t something interesting going on within.
2. Azalea Street Park.
Azalea Street, within Abdar’s Promenade, is one of Emon’s oldest neighborhoods, and is full to bursting with small businesses, quaint homes, and hole-in-the-wall restaurants, such as the Laughing Lamia. Amidst the chaos of daily life, Azalea Street is also home to a peaceful park overlooking the Ozmit Waterways. When the stress of constant battles becomes too much to bear, adventurers in the know take a moment to visit the Azalea Street Park and recover, maybe even swapping stories with other relaxing heroes. Legend has it that heroes who meditate among the flowers and drink in the sea air return invigorated by the spirit of the Wildmother. A statue of the Wildmother and Lawbearer dancing together graces a fountain in the center of the park. Once per week, a character can gain inspiration by taking a short rest in Azalea Street Park.
3. Anvilgate.
Made of stark black stone and adorned with intricate brass metalwork, this grand blacksmithy is one of the most striking buildings in Abdar’s Promenade. Decades ago, a restless craftsman from Kraghammer of the name Grahf Tiltkettle grew weary of solitary pursuits and worried that interest in blacksmithing would give way to the emerging trend of mass-production. Tiltkettle retired in Emon and dedicated his respectable fortune to ignite the spark of inspiration in those who wished to learn the ways of the hammer and anvil, hoping to instill the joy of the All-Hammer in a new generation. He funded the creation of Anvilgate, a massive, public blacksmithy where any folk who wished to try their hand at the smithing of metals could do so under the All-Hammer’s guidance.
Cheaper ores and materials were often donated by friends of Tiltkettle to aid the volunteer mentors in teaching their craft to the less fortunate, while folks who wished to bring their own ingots were welcome to do so. The location has become popular enough to begin expanding its facility to include kilns for ceramics and looms for weaving. While the tools are open for anyone to use on the premises, all are warned of the curse that will beset any wanton thief who steals from under the All-Hammer’s gaze.
4. Traverse Junction.
The most magically active structure in Tal’Dorei shines like a pyramid of pure sapphire in the bustling center of the Erudite Quarter, its walls thrumming with arcane energy. It is the Traverse Junction, and all visitors to the Erudite Quarter stop to see it when they visit.
In nearly every major Exandrian city, there are teleportation circles that link mages to other such circles around the world. Each and every one of these major circles has a twin in the Traverse Junction, a travel nexus for approved mages and world leaders. Any characters renowned in Emon or honored by the Alabaster Lyceum may make use of the Junction (for 50 gp, if they can’t cast teleportation circle), allowing them to travel to major cities such as Westruun, Syngorn, Kraghammer, and Whitestone in Tal’Dorei; Port Damali and Rexxentrum in Wildemount; Ank’Harel in Marquet; and Vasselheim in Issylra. The telemagi who curate the circles are always in search of new teleportation sigils to different lands; they are willing to pay a handsome sum for the ser- vices of powerful and magically skilled adventurers willing to seek out and catalog new circle sigils for their records.
5. Alabaster Lyceum.
The gleaming white halls and elaborate gardens of the Alabaster Lyceum signal to all who see them that they gaze upon the greatest institute of higher learning in Tal’Dorei— though numerous scholars in Kraghammer and Syngorn would heatedly dispute that claim. Regard- less, this place is the heart of homegrown academia in the Republic of Tal’Dorei, boldly striving to make a name for itself alongside the ancient scholarly traditions of Issylra, Marquet, and Wildemount. The Lyceum (for those who can afford the impressive tuition) is an unparalleled center for study and research of history, economics, alchemy, art, and—most of all—magic and the arcane. Many of Tal’Dorei’s greatest scholars and bards paid their dues in these halls, and the history of the Lyceum and its graduates are featured in all manner of superstitions and folktales.
6. Cloudwatch Palace.
In the wake of the Chroma Conclave's destruction of Emon, the towering palace that stood as home to the sovereign and the center of governance within the city fell to fire and ruin. In the decades since, construction began with the aid of the League of Miracles to construct a new palace to help house the Tal’Dorei Council and be a symbolic center for all major political affairs within the region. The Cloudwatch Palace now sits atop the once-smoldering hill where Thordak once claimed his roost, a symbol of Emon’s enduring will and optimistic hope for the future. Within these high-arched halls, countless chambers hold space for diplomats, meetings, and in the case of holidays, grandiose celebrations that draw the attention of powerful figures all across Exandria.
7. Thordak’s Crater. One last unsettling element of the Cloudtop District is the elementally scarred remains of Thordak’s Crater. Even after two decades of healing from the Ashari of Pyrah, Thordak’s fires still burn beneath the Cloudtop. The smoldering entrance to the caverns remains cordoned off from the public because of its unsightly appearance and sulfurous stench, and because fiery creatures occasionally try to claw their way out into the fresh air. The crater is often forgotten, but every few months an adventuring party makes their way inside to seek treasure or glory within the volatile caverns—and such expeditions are a favorite topic of conversation (and clandestine betting) among the politicians, political aides, remaining city nobility, and nouveau riche of Emon.
Why Thordak’s magic lingers enough to create these mindless cinderslag elementals is a mystery; but it seems to be limited to the crater, as the elementals cannot go beyond it without collapsing into inert slurry.
8. Emon Skyport.
This elevated port is complete with docking platforms solely for the use of skyfaring vessels. The original Emon Skyport was the first of its kind in Tal’Dorei, and its successor is every bit as revolutionary as the original.
The Emon Skyport was destroyed when the Cinder King claimed the Cloudtop District as his fiery throne, but like so much of Emon, it has since been rebuilt. Unlike other parts of Emon, this reconstruction was a joint venture between the Arcana Pansophical and the Alsfarin Union, a Marquesian guild responsible for the engineering and distribution of all skyships in Exandria.
Booking passage on a skyship isn’t cheap, but the privilege is available to everyone that can pay. Generally, one passenger skyship leaves Emon per week to each of the following locations:
• Vasselheim, Issylra (passenger ticket costs 2,500 gp) • Whitestone, Tal’Dorei (passenger ticket costs 900 gp) • Port Damali, Wildemount (layover in Whitestone; passenger ticket costs 2,000 gp) • Ank’Harel, Marquet (passenger ticket costs 2,500 gp)
Members of the Tal’Dorei Council can also usually pull strings to grant adventurers they hire free pas- sage when on vital business.
9. Tomb of the Last Sovereign.
Uriel Tal’Dorei II, the Last Sovereign, was slain by the noxious breath of the green dragon Raishan during the attack of the Chroma Conclave. Uriel’s wife, Salda, survived him and petitioned the reformed Council of Tal’Dorei to build their last sovereign a tomb befitting his benevolence and magnanimity. They complied, and the monumental Tomb of the Last Sovereign is now home to not just Uriel’s ashes, but to tribute from all who loved him. Those with wealth gave gold, while those whose hearts outweighed their purses gave more personal tribute.
Over twenty years ago, the Gravewatchers closed the tomb to all, supposedly to prevent vandalism, but have not reopened it after more than two decades. The Last Sovereign’s eldest daughter, Odessa Tal’Dorei, is furious. Despite her position of power on the Tal’Dorei Council, she is unable to dispute the act because of the power the Gravewatchers have as keepers of the dead. It has come to the point where she seeks to secretly employ adventurers to uncover the Gravewatchers’ true intentions—which involve the psychic influence of an aberrant creature of the Crystalfen Caverns.
10. Godsbrawl Ring.
Though the Temple of the Stormlord always has a fighting ring in its center, the annual Godsbrawl transforms the earthen, torchlit sanctum into one of Tal’Dorei’s most unusual tournament grounds. On the Day of Challenging, the god of athleticism’s holy day, the brawny priests of the Stormlord invite warriors and worshipers of the entire pantheon to the Godsbrawl, asking that each temple offer forth their greatest warrior to act as their god’s proxy in the tournament. The clergy of the Dawnfather and the Lawbearer send their champions, but rarely take it seriously, for they scorn the storm-priests’ notion of “might makes right.” Conversely, the champions of the Stormlord and the Platinum Dragon have a fierce—though friendly— rivalry, trading the title of Supreme Champion back and forth each year after a bloody (but rarely fatal) final round.
11. The Black Bastille.
Named for its ash-blackened walls, the ominous Black Bastille is a single-story prison within the Military District that holds Tal’Dorei’s most dangerous and irredeemable criminals. The compound has no windows, no open courtyards, and only one entrance: two imposing steel doors, flanked by watchtowers. During the reign of the Chroma Conclave, the prison was one of the first buildings attacked, setting hundreds of Tal’Dorei’s worst criminals loose to sow chaos across Emon. The Black Bastille has since been rebuilt, but dozens of its most deplorable inmates still run free, and the Arms of Emon are eager to recover them. Some include the human demon-summoner Felrinn Derevar, betrayer of the Arcana Pansophical; the half-elf pyromancer Illaman Falconsong, exile of the Fire Ashari; and the vampiric tiefling Ixrattu Khar, cultist of the Whispered One and Tal’Dorei’s foulest mass murderer
12. Walls of Tribute.
Anyone who wishes to uphold justice and keep the peace can apply to join the Arms of Emon. But before a recruit is given their armor and takes a vow to protect the city and its people, they must endure a grueling training regimen within the tall, featureless stone barricades of the Walls of Tribute, referred to wryly by recruits as the Quarry. There, they are trained in the physical aspects of peacekeeping, instructed on the habits of the city’s criminal underbelly, and drilled in the laws and ideals of Emon.
13. House of Discipline.
Emon does not have a standing army of its own. The skills imparted to the Arms of Emon are sufficient to maintain a rowdy populace, but they are carefully trained to use nonlethal force to restrain, rather than kill, all those whom they apprehend. Thus, when war comes to Tal’Dorei, the council appoints a Master of War and levies an army from the Arms of Emon, as well as the militias of its constituent settlements. They must report to the House of Discipline, where they are taught martial combat alongside the harsh realities of warfare. Those who endure their time in the House of Discipline are forged into an army ready to protect Emon and the rest of Tal’Dorei from the greater dangers of Exandria.
14. Gilmore’s Glorious Goods.
The broad, single-story façade of Shaun Gilmore’s wondrous magical emporium belies the extravagance of its interior. Within, the air is thick with a dozen competing perfumes, each more pungent than the last. The interior is impossibly large—certainly larger than its exterior walls would have you believe—and filled with seemingly endless rows of arcane curiosities and artifacts, many of whose cryptic functions have been lost to time. Everburning candles in an array of unnatural colors light the shop, casting tantalizing shadows over every bubbling phial and mystical orb. Those who enter the shop are first met by Gilmore’s long-time assistant Sherri, a half-elf draped in deep purple robes. If they are lucky, or particularly convincing, they may even meet the hero Gilmore himself.
Even rarer a sight than Sherri or Gilmore is the latter’s husband, a handsome elf named Darius. He is shy in public, a perfect counterbalance to Gilmore’s bombast, but is said to have a singing voice and skill with the lyre that can make any mortal weep. Whether or not his husband is present, Gilmore is ever eager to recount his part in the fall of the Chroma Conclave, often winkingly embellishing his role in the final battle with Thordak himself.
Gilmore’s Glorious Goods sells all manner of magic items. Its stock varies, but typically includes magic items of very rare rarity and lower for the price range listed in the fifth edition core rules. Additionally, there are always unidentified items in Gilmore’s vast back-room storage that he says he’ll “get to eventually;” these may include one or two long-lost legendary items. Artifact-quality items are beyond even Shaun Gilmore’s usual fare, but he might know clues to a specific artifact’s location, whether through his own extensive knowledge or his rumored relationship with the Tal’Dorei Council as an expert consultant on matters of arcane objects. Magic items are expensive, and those strapped for cash may inquire about sponsorships and quests done in Gilmore’s service.
Type
Metropolis
Population
365,026
Location
Bladeshimmer Shoreline
Included Locations
Ruins of Salar
Owning Organization
Tal'Dorei Council
Metropolis
Population
365,026
Location
Bladeshimmer Shoreline
Included Locations
Ruins of Salar
Owning Organization
Tal'Dorei Council
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