Safehaven

There has been a major settlement on the mouth of River X since before recorded history, though many are unaware of this. The current metropolis, Safehaven, has existed since the formation of the Republic of Siressa, about seven hundred years ago. For more than half a millennia, the city of Safehaven has grown, as it enjoyed numerous and frequent technological advances. This tendency to be the source of Siressa's preeminent technology has given the metropolis its current title: The City of Steam. A riot of architectural styles and designs play through the city’s impressive skyline. From its deepest foundations to its highest spires, Safehaven displays the history of the continent for all to see. Heavy, oppressive, orcish architecture provides the base for much of the city, its stonework reaching back to a time when function was more important than style. Atop this ancient foundation, the periods of prosperity stack one on top of the other as the city reaches for the clouds. The City of Steam can be as impressive as it can be oppressive. The same skyscrapers of steel can make one person laugh with excitement and another weep from the size and weight and impossible heights. Whatever emotion the city inspires, the place remains a bustle of activity at all hours of the day and night. With a tremendous array of cultural, culinary, and commercial delights to sample, and its position as the gateway to Akufa, Safehaven attractsvisitors and adventurers from around the world. It is a hotbed of activity, known in equal measures for its wonders, its crime rate, its amazing amount of corruption, and its genuinely exciting atmosphere. Safehaven rises from the cliffs overlooking the Y, a wide bay at the mouth of the River Y. The ports at the base of the cliffs load and unload cargo and passengers from seafaring vessels, raising and lowering goods and travelers alike on massive lifts operated by ropes and pulleys that travel through the neighborhood of Cliffside. This working class region is built into and upon the steep cliffs overlooking the river and bay. At the top of the cliffs, the rock walls seamlessly blend into the earliest stonework laid in ancient times. Here, the city and its amazing towers really begin. The City of Steam is rumored to sit atop a massive lake of molten lava. Those who work in the bowels of the city, a subterranean region known as the Cogs, claim to feel the heat rising off the lava streams, but few have ever gone below the great furnaces and foundries of the Cogs to seek the fiery lake itself. In the Cogs, heat and magic cooperate to allow workers to process ores and other raw materials needed to sustain Safehaven's industrial machine. Also within the depths, ancient ruins, labyrinthine sewers, vertical shafts, and forgotten chambers pile level upon level, climbing higher and higher until the inhabited regions are reached. Trams and sky trams slowly move from quarter to quarter, transporting people. Other ways to get around the city include walking (almost every quarter can be reached by multiple bridges and stairways that connect the platforms and walkways at different levels), lifts that ride up and down and side to side, and steamcraft creations designed to carry passengers within the city’s limits. There’s a popular saying on the streets of Safehaven: “If it can be bought, it can be bought here.” Shops and trading stalls abound, usually gathered in trade districts, open-air markets (called “exchanges”), or merchant halls (called “tower markets,” often multileveled) found within many tower and building complexes. Some shops jut from the sides of walls and bridges, ramshackle structures of wood hastily thrown together or built around a crack in the stone. Others occupy prime space set aside for such purposes and leased from landlords. The tower markets present the most elaborate market exchanges, where shops selling different wares sit side by side and one atop the other inside the open cavity of a tower or multistory blockhouse. Beyond these more or less legitimate business ventures, Safehaven boasts a thriving black market where everything from exotic fruits and animals to illegal spell components and stolen goods can be traded. Safehaven’s authorities do their best to curtail this activity, if for no other reason than so proper taxes can be collected, but supply and demand make it next to impossible to really control. This leads to another popular saying: “If someone wants it, someone sells it in Safehaven.” The City Watch (known as the Safe Guard) enforces the rule of law throughout Safehaven, but in practice, residents are more likely to encounter a law officer among the main streets of the city than in the lower bowels of the city. Constables conduct regular patrols along the more properous wards and quarters, venturing elsewhere only when necessity or prudence warrants. Watch towers can be found in every ward, though there aren’t really enough constables to adequately serve and protect all of Safehaven’s populace. The City Watch, reluctantly, calls on agents of the Arbiters (who maintain a presence in the city) when an incident appears to be more then they can handle. More often, however, the City Watch turns to adventurers when it needs additional deputies for a short amount of time. The criminal element thrives in Safehaven. It’s all about location, location, location, and the city serves as a crossroads for both legitimate and illicit trade. Indeed, some crime lords run extensive and respected legitimate businesses as cover for their illegal activities. A few of these enjoy the privileges of a high standing in the community and even donate a portion of their wealth to various charities and charitable organizations. If the City Watch knows about their double lives (and many believe that it must), it is content to pretend that the good they do outweighs the evil. Other than one attack from the sea that barely scratched the cliff walls rising from the bay, the War of Dragons never reached Safehaven - at least not in the sense of marching armies and occupation forces. The City of Steam did have to contend with spies, saboteurs, terrorists, and waves of refugees as the years of bloody conflict dragged on.