Alkatora (Al-kuh-tore-uh)

Alkatora is a city along the bank of Lake Suraham, with great white walls overlooking miles of lush farmland. The city is divided into two halves: the old city contained by the walls, and the new city that sprawls outward along the lakeside and into the farmland. The old city is pristine in many parts, white plastered walls and magnificent domes leading up to a great walled garden where the druids and wizards practice their craft. Representatives of those wealthy enough to pay for transit come here around the world, and the city has an eclectic mix of foods, languages, and fashions. In the market square, all the languages blend together magically to create a space of universal understanding. The workshops along the lakeside are turning into proto-factories; there are shops and creeds of all kinds that can be seen. You can do as you please here - say whatever you want, wear what you want, anything that doesn't harm another person or their property. It is a utopian vision realized (except perhaps in the tenements near the factories). 
The surrounding sprawl is the chaos that this prosperity feeds on, the slums and heaps of disposable people living in labyrinthine neighborhoods with no infrastructure. Eccentric shops and large workshops are there, guarded by mercenaries; sheriffs march through the streets with their "Liberty Enforcers" dispensing arbitrary justice; neighborhoods fight each other openly over well access and garbage dumps. Pockets of stability and prosperity exist, some made by feudal-style landlords and others by Lunar cults. Indentured servants toil in nearby walled estates and closed-off workshops. The desperate and alone are welcomed into neat little offices, where they can sell themselves to the Darzan University for magical experimentation. If you succeed, it is a paradise where you can do as you please - as predator or as charitable benefactor. If you fail, it is like the pits of hell. 
The walled-off garden of the Grove of Sparrows (the mages who rule this place) is a major center of knowledge and magical education in South Samvara.

Demographics

45,000 humanoids live in Alkatora. Demographically, they are: 30% Dryad, 30% human, 25% Half-dryad, and 15% Other.

Government

This is the seat of the Ambrosial Republic of Alkatora, a military republic with theocratic elements. The Captain Directors, six military officers and officials, are elected by the standing army and verified by the priesthood for terms of ten years. Voting rights are granted as a reward to anyone who does a public good for the Republic, and many public rights and services are only given to "voting citizens". Voting rights can be taken away as punishment, and are passed down inheritance like property (and only to a single inheritor, unless someone has multiple votes granted by the city).
The formal powers of government are invested in the Six Captain Directors, but they aren't the only oligarchs with power here. The Archdruids of the Circle of Sparrows, the elite magic users of the city, also hold great power; the Sumoxan temple leader, known as the Harbinger, is also a major political player.
The Directorate mostly has power within the Walled Districts - the Circle of Sparrows has most of the power over the city itself. Alkatora as a city has become more mage-ruled over the last fifty years, and the Directorate has basically moved out of the city to a military complex along the Northern river over the last ten years. So, while the Directorate holds theoretical power (and does have real authority in the Walled Districts), the rest of the city is mostly held together by private groups empowered by the Sparrows.

Defences

The Walled City has its walls, but otherwise there is little to no defensive capabilities here.

Industry & Trade

Alkatora is a very commercial city, with lots of new technologies and thriving businesses. Alkatora's reputation is one of rags-to-riches, where talent naturally rises to the top; anyone can make it big here! The city certainly teems with unusual shops, big workshops, and experimental trades. Of course, anyone with the backing of a major faction is far more likely to actually win big here - most small shops and experiments are just exercises in debt that are supported to advertise the city as a center of opportunity more than anything else. 
The city produces a lot of textiles, pottery, lumber-made-goods, paper, dyes, and leather. It also produces some silk, but only in certain city-controlled locations. The outskirts also grow a lot of food, flax, and sugar.

Infrastructure

The infrastructure in Alkatora has never been ideal, but it is a nightmare now - only the Walled City has any kind of sewer system or organized water system. Outside the Walled City, everything is decided in a patchwork model that has been infected with distrust and competition - people hoard water, cut others off from access to roads or wells, and semi-purposefully divert their sewage ditches into other people's public spaces.

Districts

The Walled City

Whitewall: The center of government in Alkatora, dominated by the Sparrow's Grove and the Alkatoran military. Well-kept, elite, and closed off to those without either voting rights or the money to enter. Home to the Director's Palace, the Grand Sumoxan Temple, and the Sparrow's Grove. Generally speaking, Whitewall is divided into four areas - the mage's quarter, the martial quarter, the residential quarter, and the temple quarter. 
Market-town: The most accessible and well-populated part of the Walled City, Market-town is a middle-class district with many artisans and merchants. All silk-farming is done here, in small fortified compounds. Both the Eselian Proventa (the mercenary guards of a nearby merchant republic) and the Liberty Enforcers (the private ideological city guard) have a firm grasp over this district - any hint of illegal activity is responded to with heavy force.
Little Shenerem: A small, self-regulating district in old Alkatora. Little Shenerm is the Aretan district, a scrappy but safe quarter of the city that keeps to itself. 
Lakeside: The largest part of the Walled City and the least controlled, Lakeside was once a dockside residential and entertainment district. Parts of the old entertainment remain, but huge workshops have destroyed most of the old housing and shops. Anyone working off a debt typically ends up here, with their debt sold to some business or another. The people here often live in tenements tied to their places of work. Servants and retail workers needed in wealthier districts are also housed here, and carefully policed. 

Greater Alkatora

The Sprawl: This is the largest district in Alkatora (population-wise), a sprawling continuation of Lakeside and Market-town that hugs much of the Western half of the city. This is an unregulated slum that is essentially a grand experiment in how a city could work - laws are kept to a minimum, temples are kept to a minimum, people are left to form their own community structures however they see fit as long as they don't kill in the streets. Only property rights and free trade are protected (and they are protected by lethal force), so it shouldn't be a surprise that landowners and businesses rule here like petty tyrants. This isn't to say that it is all businesses - many Lunar collectives, small community enclaves, and other structures provide relief amidst the chaos. And there are those who are simply adrift between the structures, but the struggle to get clean drinking water and fuel for your home can be difficult on your own. Of the Lunar Gods, Theia the Liberator, Emesh, and Lily of Red rule here. 
Milltown: The Eastern counterpart to the Sprawl - basically it but agricultural. Small farms fight ruthlessly for water access and to affirm their plots, while massive estates run with indentured servants devour the landscape. Of the Lunar Gods, Ishkibal, Jade Atharzen, and Wimbo Aizitu lead here (with notable mention to Lily again). The major estates do tend to band together against Theia, and small wars between her urban followers and the rural landowning powers frequently erupt. 
Westerhill/Parsiru: A new settlement to the West, on a hill near the lake shore. Only debatably part of Alkatora, but definitely in dialogue with it (and part of the Sparrow's little experiment). Westerhill used to be a village known as Parsiru, but Parsiru found itself invaded by groups from the Sprawl looking for new territory. In the early 2000s, the village elders were forcibly ejected from the village and a new coalition of city groups took power and renamed the settlement. Westerhill has more order than the Sprawl or Milltown, and its various factions have banded together to make a de-facto government. The Liberty Enforcers hate this, but this is too far for them to exert any real power. The Lunar Gods Orchid of Blue, Haru, and Hiku Matsune compete for power here.

Guilds and Factions

The Sparrow Druids: The supreme authority over the city, especially now that the Directorate (the official government) has retreated from the city entirely. The Sparrow Druids are a hierarchical group, with a fierce pecking order of magical power and an equally-fierce pecking order of favoritism by the Archdruids of the Circle. Three main Archdruids run the show: Shinsha (the zealous Sumoxan idealist obsessed with this experiment in liberty), Prajama (an old druid who mostly wants to enjoy the finer luxuries in life), and Rikari (an abrasive druid obsessed with his power and legacy, who clings to the Darzan University). Surrounding them are the Old Druids, who derive their power from the upper Circle and tend to align themselves with one of the ruling three. There is a large group of Young Druids underneath them, though, who are chaotic and diverse - they tend to resent the Old Druids as well as the Wizards, and are extremely varied in opinion. The Young Druids tend to be very individualistic and isolated, though, so they don't represent an organized faction.
The Liberty Enforcers: The Law here, especially outside the Walled City, is the Liberty Enforcers. The Enforcers are a kind of federation of private groups given legal authority to do violence in the city, all vetted and empowered by the Sparrows themselves as law enforcement and court operators. This means that the Enforcers are actually a collection of armed cliques that tend to interpret the law (and how best to enforce it) by the whims and ideologies of their leaders. These leaders - known as Liberty Sheriffs - are all confirmed by the Sparrows, and tend to be paladins; some are of Emesh, some are of Theia, some are of Orchid, some are of Jade, and some are of Lily. The paladins are told to keep their interference in daily life to a minimum, and to focus on reducing/punishing violent crime and attacks on property. In practice, this varies wildly. Generally speaking, the Liberty Enforcers tend to have a light touch just because they are spread too thin across the city. The court side of this suffers the most - legal processes in the Sprawl can sometimes be as quick as a few minutes before the Liberty Sheriff decides what to do with you (be it a slap on the wrist or an axe on the neck). Some Sheriffs favor certain communities, and can even be beloved figures in certain neighborhoods. 
The Wizards: The Wizards of the Grove are a rising faction here in Alkatora, growing larger and stronger every year. Led by Zirali, a now-jaded Sumoxan wizard who spent years in The Darzan University, the Wizards are much more strict, hierarchical, and organized than the druids. In a way, the rigid order of the hierarchy has pushed the culture even more towards hedonistic individualism, though - the wizards are known for exploring the impossible intellectually, are stereotyped abroad for their drug use (and there certainly is a drug culture here), and for their somewhat-depressive individualism. 
The Eselian Proventa: Mercenaries that protect the Walled City, as well as any business that has partnered with the Eselian Merchant Republic. The Proventa have legal authority granted to them by the Directorate and are really their last major arm of local power, but they are ultimately loyal to the profit-driven interests of Eselia. 
The Sakeshan Military: The Holy Flock of Sakesh once ruled out of Alkatora as a major military base, and the Sakeshan army and nobility still have ties here. A very small number of salaried soldiers directly loyal to the Holy Flock are garrisoned here (more as an embassy than as a sincere force), and the Sakeshan priests and officers who are stationed here basically lead the local Sumoxan priests. The Flock is most interested in acquiring magic users for itself from the Sparrows, but they generally oppose most of the chaotic factions here. 
The Aretan Church: Largely contained to Little Sherenem, the Aretans of Alkatora are communalistic and tend to keep to themselves. Once, this was a center of Aretan religion in the region of Invara, but the religion has fallen on hard times. They do openly yearn for power, but they are mostly content to keep to themselves. The current Master Druid here is Halvi Moxakarn, a traditionalist and pessimist who sees the city as nightmarish proof that only the Empire of Shenerem can save mortalkind from itself and believes that all anyone can do is fortify, keep their heads down, and pray that one day Shenerem will grow large enough to invade. Master Druid Halvi has a contentious but ultimately cooperative relationship with the Sparrows, and has kept Little Shenerem stable and safe.
The Lunar Collectives: Lunar Collectives are various minor factions aligned directly with the Lunar Pantheon, which control much of the outer city. You have anarchist syndicates of Theia, all kinds of strongholds of Emesh, elected hierarchies of Orchid, tiny feudal fiefdoms of Jade, temples to Lily, and cults of Hiku. 
The Thieves' Guild: The biggest criminal syndicate in Alkatora is the Thieves' Guild, which is technically legal and does advertise openly. On the surface, the Thieves' Guild only steals back property that was already stolen or people who were kidnapped - a kind of private detective agency. And they do definitely do that. They also, as the name implies, steal things. Which does make tracking down and reclaiming stolen property easier. Most Liberty Enforcers hate them, but they have enough influence to stay public and mostly un-harassed. The Thieves' Guild is also periodically contracted to suppress other criminal groups or independent thieves, so they can be seen as a crime-fighting guild in a way (though poor communities rarely have the level of money and organization necessary to contract the guild this way). 
It is said that many factions can be found here from around the world as well, hiding in the unregulated mass of the Sprawls - the Final Choir of Nafena, the Runevan Imperial Lianas, and more.

History

Early History

Alkatora has a long history, but it began as a city of notice when it curried the favor of the God Haru. Since Haru's first journeys across Samvara, Alkatora had been their favorite town - they were happy to meet solars, and they collected knowledge that they eagerly shared with Haru's tribe. Across the first through fifth centuries, Haru blessed the town three times - consecrating their library, their marketplace, and their temple to the local lake God, so that they would always shine with magical light and so that anyone could communicate there regardless of language. The region teemed with the herbs necessary for such Hallowing spells, so it seemed both natural and beneficial to let the local people benefit first.
Unsurprisingly, the blessings of Haru instantly turned Alkatora into a place of importance. The town already loved collecting knowledge, and with Haru's blessing and guidance they soon had the greatest library in Southern Samvara. In 290 ME, the city converted to Pratasam and used Alkatora's scholarly disposition to produce as many druids as possible. While most of Invara refused Lily of Red, Alkatora became her bastion and temple. Later, Ishkibal's warriors took the city to make druids for him; then, Lily again; then Emesh. Around the city turned, and slowly their close connection to Haru faded.

Duel of the Faiths (1000 - 1760)

In the 1100s, under the Invaran Empire, Alkatora became a center of the region's Areto religion. The Pratasa remained powerful in the city, but state support moved towards the druids of the sun. In 1325, emboldened by the Druidic Revolution in the far West, the Pratasa decided to retake power for themselves - and the city fell to a new theocratic order of druid-lords. The Aretans took power back in 1409, beginning a long legacy of religious infighting. Class divisions, ethnic divisions, and religious divides were on the rise, and many blamed the two detached temples and their bickering priests. When Sumoxa arrived in the 1500s, bearing fire and speaking softly of religious balance and tolerance, many cheered. The druids were confined to their Grove, kept from government, while Sumoxan Apostle Nedaru settled in the city to govern it personally. 
Nedaru did not eradicate the Pratasa or Aretans, but did centralize the druids of Sumoxa here to mediate and guide them. Alkatora became a depository for Sumoxan imperial archives and texts, with copies of every major text or ledger sent here for safe keeping. Nedaru slowly retreated from government as he became disillusioned with the idea of secular authority - his later writings swung between utopian dreams of a world without governments, and total despair in making a just earthly authority. His successors in government followed the Holy Flock of Sakesh's governing ideology, and generally were quite loyal to the Flock's Shepherds - but Nedaru's true ideological successors were his druids, who continued to play with these ideas and structures over the centuries. 

Monarch and Military Periods (1700 to 1950)

In 1760 the Holy Flock collapsed, and Alkatora was left as the seat of one of six princes of Invara. From 1770 to 1890, the line of princes held and Alkatora remained protected in a pocket of stability. In 1888, the ruling prince Yodaji Jelvesh took the throne in a coup and tried to turn the kingdom into a conquering empire that could restore Invara to a centralized state. In 1903, Yodaji went too far and tried to crown himself as the Archdruid of the Sparrow's Grove as well as the Sumoxan Harbinger - and the priests and druids finally decided to be rid of this meddlesome monarch. One summer night, Yodaji was ambushed by the conspiracy. He escaped, and the plot seemed doomed, but several of his army captains ended up turning on him and handing him over to the druids. The six military officers who participated in the conspiracy in some way were named the Ambrosial Directors of the new government, supported by the druids and priests as long as they followed an unwritten constitution of tradition. 
The Directorate was intended to be a local government, and possible a temporary one - the Holy Flock of Sakesh (which was resurging in power), was invited in to the kingdom to take control. For almost fifty years, the Holy Flock used Alkatora as a base for expansion. The library and magical academies were expanded, and refugees from the wars were directed to settle here, but the rest of the city was essentially used as a wealthy bribe for various Sakeshan lords and officers to extract revenue from. The city's infrastructure didn't much expand, the refugee tent cities turned into exploited shantytowns, and the city was mired in abuse and neglect. In 1950, the Holy Flock finally left Alkatora and handed power back to the Directorate - and a brief period of limited democracy followed.

The Sparrow's Rise (1950 - 2000)

From 1950 to 1980, the Directorate consolidated control and stabilized the region. The Sakeshan withdrawal hadn't been particularly graceful, and the focus was on basic repairs and preventing banditry. The countryside was in worse shape than the city, and city improvements were entrusted to the mages of the Grove - who were encouraged to share their accumulated wealth with the city. The Grove helped make basic improvements and expanded the city to include more of the Lakeside, but ultimately outsourced most of the actual administration to private groups. Major merchant families and landowning clans rapidly accumulated power and ended up forming most of the bureaucracies that the Grove outsourced to. For several decades, a kind of bureaucratic feudalism took over. The Directorate was no less corrupt - as voting rights became a kind of inheritable or purchasable property, the votes ended up consolidated in the hands of elite families. The mages of the Grove became increasingly radical in their philosophy, as the moderates were shown to be incompetent or tyrannical - a firebrand and druidic prodigy named Shinsha, as well as an idealistic wizard named Zirali, lobbied fiercely to begin an "era of freedom", where the ideas of Apostle Nedaru could finally be tested. The corruption of the Republic, they said, was in the bureaucracy and regulations. 
In 1971, the Darzan University, who had trained Zirali, finally partnered with the Circle of Sparrows. The Circle would provide druids, herbs, and regional knowledge, and the University would supercharge their wizarding program. By 1980, the Darzan University had become a major force to be reckoned with in the Circle, and the libertarian prodigies ascended to positions of leadership. Reforms soon followed, which took money away from bureaucracies and funneled them towards expanding wizarding education and Darzan-partnered businesses. While the city suffered, it eventually paid dividends: in the 1990s, foreign investors, trade, and technology flooded in using the teleportation circles. The scale of this trade was small, but it included wealthy operators from Nafena, the Empire of Calazen, and the Empire of Runeva who were very excited to find a totally unregulated space in Samvara. As power and wealth flowed into Alkatora, so did business and immigration. The more this worked, the more deregulation followed. 

Recent History

In 2000, Haru finally decided to personally investigate all this talk of Darzan wizards. The Living God and his family had investigated and requested access to the Grove many times over the last thirty years, but the druids and wizards had always delayed and played games around them. At the turn of the millennium, the Directorate finally sent the Sarajas a letter detailing their fears of what the Grove was doing and who was entering the kingdom. Haru arrived with his entourage in tow, and decided to take over the city and re-order it. The result was a nightmare - the Circle's leadership vanished before they could be detained, the country entered a civil war, and an over-eager Haru tried to enter and storm the Darzan University and ended up in a trap that nearly Ederstone-d one of his descendants (requiring an amputation and some trauma). The Lunar cults that had infested the city harassed Haru's forces and killed his favorite successors, as they saw this move as an attempt to consolidate his control over Southern Samvara. Haru was forced to negotiate with the Sparrows, and ultimately came to an agreement with them: if they kept their chaos and Darzan influence to the city proper, did not allow Runevan spies, and didn't mess with the Saraja Family, they could keep the city. 
Since Haru's escapade in 2000, the Sparrows have been unleashed - the Directorate is too afraid of retribution to come back to the city, and the Sparrows are basically allowed to do as they please within the local area. And so the great experiment has intensified, the city guard is gone, the courts are basically gone, and everything has been completely decentralized and individualized as much as possible.

Points of interest

The Shaded Keep and Grove of Truth: The walled-off area where the Sparrow's Grove is located is known as the Shaded Keep - behind high castle walls is a lush garden filled with magical laboratories, classrooms, and dormitories. The great library of Alkatora has been relocated here as well. This is where the magic users of Alkatora are housed, trained, and led. This is one of the locations Haru blessed with Tongues, allowing anyone to communicate regardless of language. 
Another set of walls guard the mostly-underground Inner Keep, where the leaders of the Circle of Sparrows and the Darzan University outpost hide. The Keep is where teleportation circles are kept - one set for public use and trade in the garden, and one set for the Inner Keep to use. Over the last two decades, the Inner Keep has become a luxurious, automated, self-sustaining survival bunker - it can seal itself off from the rest of the world with a few keys and levers. The deepest parts of this inner keep were carved by reclusive prisms, and have a magically-sustained micro-ecosystem capable of sustaining a few hundred people indefinitely. Why the mages bothered with this is unknown; do they think that the world will end, or do they just want to be absolutely sure that they can survive a class war?
The Apostle's Palace: The grand temple of Alkatoran Sumoxa, joined to the former palace of the Directorate. Now, a mix of temple of bureaucratic office. The Courts of the Walled City operate out of here, and the embassy to Sakesh is here as well. Once, the tomb of the Apostle Nedaru was here as well, but the body of Nedaru has been relocated to the Shaded Keep. This is one of the locations Haru blessed with Tongues, allowing anyone to communicate regardless of language.
The Free Market: The largest market in market-town, a major commercial hub where goods from around the world are sold. This is one of the locations Haru blessed with Tongues, allowing anyone to communicate regardless of language.
The People's Palace: A makeshift fortification in the Sprawl that is the largest and most consolidated bastion of paladins to Theia the Liberator in Alkatora (and probably all of Samvara). This is where Anti-Paladins and Liberator Paladins mingle, where leads for both kinds of paladins are compiled, and where the Theian paladins hold their (illegal) court. Paladins rule here and keep a strict order, so don't expect the kind of consensus-driven flexibility you might find in one of Theia's communes. The surrounding neighborhoods are protected by the paladins here, in exchange for their support in labor and tithes. 
The Revelation: A building complex in Westerhill that serves as the center of Hiku's power here. You can find a Temple of Hiku and a government building here, but those aren't the big attractions. Most people are drawn to the art gallery, the fledgling bard school, and the nightclub instead. You come here for good music, good art, good food, and to experience the most unusual and alluring illusions. Paladins of Hiku flock here, and often organize in and around the Revelation to support each other for missions.

Founding Date

30 ME

Type

City

Population

45,000

Inhabitant Demonym

Alkatoran

Location under

Invara