Zhona
Demographics
Urban:
43% Human28% Dwarven
14% Dark Elf
8% Gnome
7% Other
Environs:
75% Human12% Halfling
8% Dark Elf
5% Other
Government
Zhona is a constitutional monarchy, a hybrid between a Free Cities aristocracy and a Dwarven Mountainhome. The Dwarven King Thûrigaz Khorîngen sits on the Marble Throne and manages police, military, and judiciary matters. Legislative and financial powers rest with an aristocratic council similar to Erek’s.
Defences
Zhonans have rebuilt and repurposed the original Dwarven defences of the city including a drawbridge, giant stone doors, and a floodable underground moat.
Local defense forces number about 5,000, plus a Dwarven Home Guard detachment of 800, plus an Imperial detatchment of 1000.
Industry & Trade
Zhona is thought of as the gateway to the Mountainhomes. It has always been a huge center for trade between Dwarves and Humans, and the Empire has helped this relationship mightily. Human ingenuity and Dwarven craftsmanship mingle in the unique art and products of this remote city, which is rich in ores, gems, and coal. Besides Beldhune, it is the only Free City with a significant export sector.
Infrastructure
Zhona is built within and around an abandoned Dwarven Mountainhome. As such it has access to the aquifers that run deep beneath the desert and the Gnomes have devised ingenious mechanisms to pump this water up to the city. Even so, Zhona has diverted a river to create an agricultural area around the city. Zhona is the end of a highway that leads to Thorangar Utkarnat.
Guilds and Factions
As in the rest of the free cities, the main factions are the Camels and the Foxes, who are respectively Empire-Indifferent and Anti-Empire influences. Among these two, the Camels predominate but the Foxes have seen an increase in support since the developments at Xethess, which feel much closer to home. As usual the Camels enjoy more support from the upper class and humans, where as the Foxes enjoy more lower class and minority support, as well as more traditionally minded free-citizens.
In addition to these two, there is a third faction made up mostly of dwarves, the Stone Wardens. This faction follows the Mountainhomes, and thus the Empire, in lock step. Many of the more extreme Stone Wardens also want Zhona to become an official Mountainhome. The most extreme of all, the Mountain Guardians, want the other races out. Tensions between the Foxes and the Stone Wardens have been rising lately, sometimes leading to fights in the rings and warrens.
The Dwarven Noble House Dûlridaz holds great economic power and supports the Stone Wardens financially and politically. They employ many of the architects, stonemasons, and miners that keep the city growing.
The Dark Elven clan Dra'Siran are supporters of the foxes. They are one of the wealthiest Dark Elven groups outside of Bo'Lein. They employ a coalition of weavers, tailors, and merchants of clothing and other goods.
Lately, the Gnomish-led Xethic Faction has been putting together a presence in the city.
History
Zhona was captured from the Dwarves by the Dark Elves just a few decades prior to the Sixth Crusade and was their staging point for their invasion of the Desert. It was taken by the Great desert council in 658 PE. The Dwarves wanted the city back, but decades passed and they could not decide over who had a rightful claim to be king. Meanwhile, Humans, Dwarves, and some Dark Elf remainers resettled the carved- out mountain. In 592, the Dwarves settled on the Gryphonhammer clan as the legitimate claimants to the kingdom, and sent representatives to the city to ask them to accept the Dwarven King. They did, on the condition that they be able to maintain their own laws and not be bound by the codes of the Mountainhomes. The Dwarves accepted, and Zhona became the only human-majority city to be ruled by a non-human monarch.
Zhona became a strong anchor in Human-Dwarven relations over the following centuries and a major outlet for trade with the reclusive species. It is one of the more Empire-aligned cities in the desert and welcomed Imperial troops on the journey to Xethess. However there are some whispers of discontent, especially from the Gnomes who have been heavily influenced by the Human culture that surrounds them and chafe under their traditional roles and expectations with the Dwarves.
Architecture
Zhona’s tunnels and underground plazas are Dwarven in character but have been modified by human touches such as paint, banners, potted plants, and windows.
The central area is a huge domed open area carved almost 200 meters deep and 1.5 kilometers wide. there are two tiers, an upper tier and a lower tier 40 meters below it, with a third lower tier being carved 40 meters below that. At the top of the dome a magically glowing light shines yellow during the day and dims to blue at night. Each tier also has two ramps that cross the center, each magically supported and arched up about 5 meters and intersecting at an angle of 60 degrees, with the bottom level ramps being offset 15 degrees clockwise from the top ramps. The top level ring has a width of 85 meters and the lower level ring has a width of 95 meters, with an extra 30 meters inwards towards the center.
Around the edges of the ring, buildings are carved into the walls of the cavern, some nearly a full hundred meters up. The outsides of the buildings on the upper ring are ornately carved and many have stairs or ramps that arch down onto the ring. As dwarves move in, they have been paying premiums to purchase these dwellings from inhabitants of other races.
The lower ring's buildings are less ornate and some are unfinished, with Dwarven artisans working around the clock to decorate and complete some of the buildings. These buildings show more human influence, with colorful paint schemes or masonry façades. Some are even engraved or carved with the jagged, twisting patterns favored by Dark Elves.
On both levels, tunnels extend outward into the warrens, radiating out into the mountain in search of metal veins, precious gem deposits, and water sinks. The Warrens are the favored dwellings of the Gnomes, who huddle their workshops into the irregular alcoves and twisting tunnels.
Most of this was completed prior to the settlement's abandonment by the Dwarves, but as the Dwarven population has increased over the past 800 years so has new construction.
Geography
Zhona is the only Free City without an Oasis. The city is entirely contained within a single mountain that juts out from the edge of the desert. The city’s territory expends up the diverted river that snakes up into the Central Mountains to the East.
Natural Resources
Metal, Gems, and Coal from the hills to the East.
Alternative Name(s)
the Hole, the Gateway to the East
Type
City
Population
82,000(urban)
12,000(environs)
12,000(environs)
Related Ethnicities
Inhabitant Demonym
Zhonan
Location under
Included Locations
Owner/Ruler
Owning Organization
Characters in Location
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