Keilbar (Keel-bar)
Keilbar would like you to believe it is the city of benevolence. It markets itself as the good city, where the loving nobility care for the poor, giving charity, healing, and minor liberties with love. And, certainly, it is a city with a more pleasant vibe and more social services than the average Stildanian port. But it is a city that over-estimates both its own importance and its own goodness. It is, in truth, a messy and divided city; wealthy but unequal, charitable yet exclusive.
Whether you approach by sea or by the Cenotaph Road, Keilbar appears as a fairly condensed and typical Stildanian city: tall stone walls in a serene harbor, with sprawling housing and workplaces clustered underneath fortified hills, while farmland sprawls out in the distance. Merchants, sailors, and travelers are everywhere, buying drinks or wheeling their wares to some marketplace. The buildings are colorfully painted, though the air is somewhat foul - particularly when passing by some fetid street or alley without a garbage-sewage system. Walled gardens pop out of the cityscape, and the neighborhoods proudly display their guild symbols as you go.
You may be a merchant, ready to make a deal in the Templemarket, or you may be a knight hastily remembering the finer points of etiquette on-route to the Rose Knight's Hall. Or, perhaps you are afflicted with some rare disease and seek the finest hospital in the Uvaran world. Or you could be an adventurer, filing in with the wasteland hunters and foreign exorcists to resupply, sell monster parts, and find new work. Keilbar has many opportunities as a city on the rise.
Demographics
Between 8,000 and 9,000 humanoids live in Keilbar.
Government
The city is managed by a mayor-knight, known as the Junker (pronounced Yun-kar), who rules in the name of the Queen of Dovenar. The influence of the Queen is muffled, as the Junker has legal rights to autonomy that restrict the direct involvement of their liege.
In terms of actual day-to-day rule, most power is in the hands of the Junker and the council of Burghers. The Junker is a hereditary title that is granted by the Monarch, where the Monarch can choose to dispute succession or replace the Junker in specific circumstances, but must have cause before involving themselves. The Junker's job is to manage the local garrison, act as high judge, lead the city guard, and act as overseer and tie breaker for the Council of Burghers. The Burghers (pronounced Boor-gars) are city elites such as major merchants and guildmasters who are granted title and Honors in exchange for services rendered to the city and kingdom. The Burghers are expected to contribute to the city's infrastructure funds and to donate time and energy running the city's treasury and bureaucracy. In exchange, they get a seat on the council that does most of the actual governance (plus some extra perks and privileges).
On matters of magic, religion, and moral law, the priesthood is given full state power to operate courts, set policy, and request action by the city guard. The priests of the city are divided into the mainline temple-priests and the local cult-priests, all of whom answer to the same religious overseer- the Rosgen.
The political situation is complicated. The city's Junker no longer truly runs the city, but has split her governance between her four competing children. The Queen of the realm keeps the factionalism from escalating, but lacks the legal authority to resolve the situation entirely.
The Junker of Keilbar is Lady Valdeka Kreshen, a seasoned and respected warrior who insists on ruling despite her old age and terminal condition. Lady Valdeka relies on healing magic to maintain her body and mind, a strategy that will inevitably fail at some point - and yet, the concept of retiring goes against her pride and self-image as the greatest leader of Keilbar. She is bold (sometimes to the point of folly) and downright arrogant at times, though she is generally competent and quite skilled at matters of violence, tactics, and law enforcement. She has many friendships and connections outside of her noble class that she uses to keep the city cohesive and unified, and has generally tied the city together in a period of lasting stability over her long reign. Unfortunately, she has sown the seeds of her own order's destruction by making her children compete to earn the title of Junker. This has factionalized the city, though Lady Valdeka seems to mistakenly believe that having a truly deserving child "earn" the title will give them the competence to reunite the city with ease. Lady Valdeka's four competing children are:
City Leadership
- Gollern, her eldest son. Gollern was originally slated to inherit, but absolutely failed with every chance to rule that he was given - he is more concerned with self-image and material pleasures than his duty as a potential Junker, and tends to hand out sensitive information and unqualified positions to drinking companions. Only some among the rural nobility support Gollern, more due to his mix of familiarity and bribability than anything else. Virtually all city elites refuse to back him.
- Rosha, the second child and only daughter, is the most likely candidate at the moment. She is the stable choice, a woman who built her life around being everything her older brother was not: responsible, focused, professional. She lives an ascetic life of few material comforts (to the point of undermining her political acumen at times - she would have won the title easily if she had been more willing to tactically host feasts early in the "contest"). Rosha has ties in many social groups (like her mother) and has supporters in most every faction. The priesthood outright supports her. Politically, Rosha is the "safe" choice representing continuity and stability.
- Nedrim, the third child, is a candidate who is likely to be muscled out of the race entirely. While he is competent and has big-picture perspective thanks to his travels abroad, Nedrim is also weighed down with political baggage from prior mistakes. In his youth, he flouted his godlessness and cynicism of religion, and he made a point of surrounding himself with Heathens (including Kivish). He then fled the city and spent a few years as a voluntary exile before reconciling with his family. While his time abroad and years of growing have made him less antagonistic and edgy, he still has a reputation as an unreliable and antagonistic figure. Nonetheless, Nedrim has great connections and compassionate pragmatism that make him an appealing dark horse candidate.
- Kogain, the youngest son, is an idealistic reformer who thrives in social spaces. Charismatic and ambitious, Kogain has risen to challenge Rosha as the unexpected contender for the title of Junker. Kogain sees the Queen's religious programs and charitable works to be the first steps in making a moral and compassionate state, and measures the worth of a ruler by how much change they bring in the name of good. Kogain's greatest flaw is perhaps his lack of perspective and inexperience; he is quick to promise reform to help everyone, and therefore makes somewhat contradictory promises. He is genuine in his belief in positive change, though, which attracts other ambitious people to his orbit.
Defences
Keilbar is surrounded by thick stone walls, with a number of old city walls in various states of repair and disrepair scattered throughout the city itself. The Castletown district is particularly secure, walled off from the main portion of the city with a castle layered inside the district. Cinderhome, meanwhile, is notably less secure, as its walls are smaller and defended by guild militia rather than semi-professional guards - though the walls and militia are still more than enough to dissuade bandits and most monsters. Hains, or walled gardens, are common in Oldtown and serve as an extra layer of security if the city is breached.
Industry & Trade
Keilbar is a center of small-scale manufacturing and artisan production. It is also a bustling merchant port, where the goods and merchants of Andrig mingle with the merchant sailors of the Stildanian coast. While the majority of merchants are local Hainish and Andrigan businessmen, you can find faces from just about anywhere - Kivish, Selkies, Borim, and even Sunekans.
The city is well-known for its colorful ceramics, made using the abundant clay of the surrounding lands and decorated with a wide assortment of glazes. Keilbar dishware is beloved in middle-Stildane, and is well-appreciated further North. The Tillerman merchant family even imports specialty dyes and clays from the frontier to create some semi-magical pottery: vases with moving patterns, mugs that keep their contents unusually warm or cool, plates whose colors react to the temperature of the food placed upon them.
Like most cities, Keilbar also has a thriving textile trade; cloth and clothes are time-intensive to make but always in demand. When the pelt of a hunted beast from the Scouringwood Wastes cannot be used for Monstercrafting, it has a way of ending up as a luxury fur garment here in Keilbar's markets. Keilbar has also has robust chemist and Monstercrafting industries
Infrastructure
Keilbar's streets vary from district to district. The Highspires district's streets are neat and gridlike, with small drainage ditches along each for trash, while Oldtown's roads are winding and irregular. Conditions and sanitation can vary wildly from neighborhood to neighborhood, as the street-side ditches are haphazard (and not always as well-maintained place to place). Guilds pick up the slack and ensure that their artisan's neighborhoods are well-kept, but day laborers and other guildless groups are basically stuck either self-organizing or relying on the effort of a few individual members of the community. Unsanitary trash pileups occur in pockets of isolation and poverty, rather than being concentrated in a particular district.
Water, however, is unusually well-regulated in Keilbar. Canals connecting to a small aqueduct and the two city streams bring water of gardening, laundry, and daily work; they also periodically flood the streetside canals to wash away accumulated trash and sewage. Pollutant work, like tanning or metalwork, is relegated to Cinderhome, which gets its own separate water supply. Water is rationed and controlled by the Junker and Burghers, but established communities often have legally binding water rights that cannot be overturned without just cause - so historied communities like the ones in Oldtown have guaranteed water. It is worth noting that this water meted out by the city is not safe to drink, and any consumed water comes from local wells. While these wells have historically been privately owned, they are increasingly being bought or seized by the Cult of Varsha using canal-oriented city water laws to be used and maintained as a public good.
There is no centralized sewer system. The Burghers have installed a rudimentary underground system from Highspires to the sea, and there is another local underground sewer in Castletown, but the rest of the city is basically stuck using basement latrines and local 'Dreckwagons' (sewage-removal carts). The latter can be paid for by guilds as a perk for members, but the former is still most common throughout most of the city. Over time, basement latrines can slowly make nearby groundwater unsafe to drink, so there is an invisible cost to this system. For safety and taste, residents of Keilbar drink "small ale" (low-alcohol ale/beer) for hydration, and associate water-drinking with poverty.
The Eastern gate of the city connects to the Cenotaph Road.
Districts
Port-town: The primary port area, a bustling commercial district of fisherfolk, dockworkers, merchants, and entertainers. Port-town is the most libertine and tolerant area within the walls of the city, with great freedom of faith, of press, and of vice.
Cinderhome: A district of the city outside of the main walls, but enclosed in a series of smaller guild-funded walls. This is where charcoal-burning, kiln-work, leather tanning, dye work, and other industries deemed polluting are kept. Many guild apprentices live here full-time, and the guilds essentially rule and run this part of town without any presence by the city government.
Templemarket: This is a simultaneously religious and commercial part of town, home to the city's greatest markets and two of the three grand temples. This is one of the oldest parts of town, and it is a center of many of the town's common-born rituals and festivals.
Oldtown: Oldtown is an odd mix of agricultural pockets, artisanal cliques, and small-markets. This is the well-established commoner district, and is part of the original city. Not the most welcoming to outsiders, but hardly xenophobic. Oldtown is the largest district by space, but is really a series of layered sub-districts dedicated to various occupations; the district is organized very clearly by guild and job.
Newtown: The newer commonborn district, a mix of shops, slums, and guild neighborhoods. New arrivals who don't have money to spend often end up here, as do priced-out peddlers and day laborers.
Highspires: An upper and middle class district built out of an old series of military installations. A mix of out-of-town noble estates, local luxury housing, and nice shops, with a few city guard installations and martially relevant artisans. Called highspires for its three notable locations, all of which have impressive spires - the Alvain Tower, the Hall of Knights, and the Silvergrove Bank.
Castletown: The center of elite power and bureaucracy, as well as military activity. Much of the district is martial, with pockets of gardens and elite luxury.
Guilds and Factions
Burghers: The local merchant-gentry, who own the largest workshops and have legal control over the Guilds. The Burghers have a united council, where the four major families dominate:
- Guntern: A shipping magnate family with international ties, particularly to the Kingdom of Vetenka and Hainish House Neshelna. Also invested in the city's entertainment sector and service-work guilds. Profit-oriented, with a certain disdain for the blind loyalty of feudalism. More open-minded, but also less bound by common customary codes.
- Mizkelod: Keilbar's premier banking family, the only one to have a license for large-scale lending or account-holding in Dovenar. While they have a reputation for being ruthless and dabbling in rent-and-tax collection, they legitimize themselves through intense piety. They are quite popular among the clergy, and have recently done a lot of public charity work through the Cult of Varsha.
- Tillerman: The big family in Cinderhome, who manage the large pottery contracts and overland shipping between Keilbar and the Kingdom of Nidever. Prism-food, mineralia, and many workshops all tie to the Tillermans. They love military aesthetics, which they use to frame themselves as knights to nobility, and as fellow working class soldiers to artisans. Unsurprisingly, they are big patrons of the city guard and militias.
- Alvain: The reclusive academics of the Burghers, known for their immense academic and magical focus. These are the spicemongers, as well as the biggest lawyers and brewsters. Notably, the Alvains are High Elves - and patronize a kind of "elf nationalism" that frames all of Dovenar's elves as members of a shared community.
- Ceramics: The ceramics guild run many of the kilns in Cindertown, and are a major presence there. They are known for their mystical tendencies, and full guild membership involves participation in a non-official cult of the God Hadash. The current guildmaster is curmudgeonly but kind.
- Weavers: The Weavers are highly hierarchical and segmented, with very restrictive and exclusive rules for entering the master-class. Actively encourage their members to marry equal-rank members of the Draper's Guild. The current guildmaster is friendly and charming, but callous.
- Drapers: The Draper's guild, for merchants who sell textiles, are divided between Mercers (big cloth merchants) and Scamels (little fish and intermediaries). To become a Scamel is easy, but only Mercers have any power or representation within the guild. The guild master is a noted eccentric, but is very respected by the mercers for his skill.
- Grocers: The grocers are small-merchants who handle domestic sale and transport of foodstuffs and spices. The grocer's guild is known for having an extremely conservative culture. The guildmaster is painfully normal.
- Fishmongers: Fishermen and fish salesmen, currently undergoing an internal civil war between West-city and East-city fishermen.
- Smiths: The Smiths are a diverse guild of many smaller guilds oriented to particular works and metals. The guild as a whole is hyper-local, and is focused on providing for its people and otherwise doing little else. The guildmaster is stern, harsh, and stubborn, but beloved by the smiths.
- Dyers: Dye-makers and dye-infusers. Unusually militarized, with some of the best guild militiamen. Tied to both the city guard and the clergy. The guildmaster is a ruthless and selfish bastard.
- Salters: Salt-processers as well as chemists, an odd bunch of very different people. Known rabble-rousers, with a very boisterous and physical culture. The guildmaster alone is stoic and reserved, but was once a champion wrestler.
- Monstercrafters: The Monstercrafters are exclusive and elite, and tend to surround themselves with other related guilds - the surgeons, the apothecaries, and the salters. Their bylaws are extremely restrictive, but do value safety and reliability - any monstercrafted good sold on the open market must be of a tried and tested design that can deliver safe and reliable results. Experimental designs must go through guild-controlled channels. Rogue monstercrafters certainly exist, but the guild works hard to drive them from the city. The guildmaster is strangely secretive and enigmatic.
History
City Origins
Early History (1700s)
Middle History (1800 - 1944)
Modern History
Points of interest
The Halls of Power:
- The Winter Palace: The royal palace of the queen of Dovenar, which hosts the monarchy during winter months. In Castletown.
- The Junker's Castle: Castle Keilbar is where the Junker lives and works, holding court for the city notables. In Castletown.
- The Grand Temple of the Sacred Family: The center of the cult of Varsha, a place of charity and healing. Local acolytes care for orphans, feed the hungry, and care for the sick - and local midwives and physicians can go here to network and receive formal state backing. In Newtown, near Castletown.
- The Grand Temple of Ustav the Purifier: The center of clerical administration and seat of the Rosgen of Keilbar. Big with Hainish clerks, soldiers, and nobles. In Templemarket.
- The Grand Temple of the Heavenly Host: The center of public worship among many local commoners and travelers, particularly catering to guilds and to lesser gods and spirits. The Heavenly Host is essentially every god or spirit that is too small to be named - particularly gods of minor crafts, professions, and towns. In Templemarket.
Tourism
Keilbar attracts all kinds of merchants and travelers, and has a fairly lively entertainment sector. Keilbar is hardly a "city of vice" and has fairly standard venues for a city of its size, but it has plenty of good inns and some unique local festivals.
The main places to stay are:
The Golden Mug: A nice traveler's inn and tavern in the Templemarket district. A quiet place, low key and respectable. A favorite place of small merchants and regular travelers, known for having cool beverages and for serving shaved ice even during summer days. The innkeep is known for being serious about rules and easily irritated, with an eye like a hawk for suspicious behavior.
The Bitter Chalice: A raucous tavern in Port-town, known for its cheap drinks and loose rules. A good place for gambling, sex work, brawling, and heavy drinking. The innkeep is cheery and appears kind, but is known to be just as much a thief (maybe more) as his worst patrons.
The Lion's Den: A guild-gated tavern in Oldtown, where only known local artisans can enter and drink. So successful that they opened a second one. A great place for local guilds to meet, for business to be done, and the like. The owner of the taverns is somewhat overprotective and is known to pursue grudges.
The Caged Rose: An elite inn at the intersection of Templemarket and Highspires. An exclusive tavern for the merchants and gentry, a place where the rich can do business, unwind, and indulge in vices beyond the restraining rules of the Knight's Hall. Run and owned by a group of courtesans hoping to diversify their income.
The Last Wave: A seedy but quiet tavern, a haven for smugglers in Port-town. While rowdies and smuggler often sleep here, they are strictly forbidden from causing trouble in the establishment - and the owner is a former adventurer and paladin of Theia the Liberator who is more than ready to fight to keep the peace. Those seeking refuge for stealing from or insulting a city elite may find a friendly face here.
Nobles of good standing may also find room and board at the Knights Hall; a soldier of Hain can find room in the Castletown garrison.
The city has a few religious celebrations of note. Keilbar is famous for its string of winter holidays, which are patronized by the Dovenaran monarch, who winters in the city.
- The Dragon's Feast, on Herbez (November) 12th, dedicated to Jade Atharzen and Rugon. A day of pomp, play, and costume, where people wear masks and dedicate small token coins to "pay taxes" to the Gods, typically in a stream or river. A large wooden or paper dragon is paraded around town; many make merry.
- Hadashten, on Kornkle (December) 16th, celebrating Hadash and the Heavenly Host of lesser gods. The guilds lead parades in the snow, and dress in elaborate costumes to exchange or distribute gifts. Hearths are blessed and decorated with garlands. In the temple, the priests ritually tie down and bind the statues of the Gods with sacred ropes or chains, to prevent Winter from stealing them away.
- Varshasten, on Filkmoy (January) 15th and 16th dedicated to Varsha . Normally, this is a somber storytelling holiday, but Keilbar turns it into a much larger production. Twin parades open and close the holiday, and the streets are decorated with holly and mistletoe. Grand performances of Varsha's stories are conducted in the main squares and grand temples.
- Almsgiving, on Filkmoy 29th, a charitable holiday associated with Theia the Liberator and Varsha. A day of charitable works, good deeds, free food, and solemn prayer to the Gods.
Architecture
Half-timbered and brick buildings with tall, steeped rooves and large basements are common. Buildings tend to be stocky but often reach up to three or four stories, with either white plastered brick and black-brown wood framing or orange-tinted brick and black framing. Colorful paints are a local favorite here. Large, open frontal facades are common, as are small towers or spires.
Geography
Keilbar is in the Keilbarbolk, or capital lands, in Eastern Donevar. It is in a small harbor sheltered from ocean winds by the Karpend Penninsula to the West. Two streams run through the city - the Drodech in the West and the Zwendech in the East. Hills surround the city, making a small enclosed valley of sorts for the city to nestle into.
5 or 6 miles West of the city are the Geinsteinn Wilds. Surrounding the city is mostly farmland, with a few small villages.
This is a temperate forest region, though the winters are not so bitter.
Founding Date
1735
Type
City
Population
8,500
Inhabitant Demonym
Keilbaran
Location under
Owning Organization
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