Tailotha

New arrivals coming to Tailotha usually arrive at the port of Watrana 3 miles to the East. Watrana is a rather sleepy town outside of its docks, and often lulls visitors into a false belief that Tailotha will also be a drowsy country town. When they head over the hills and see the three castles of Tailotha, the massive racetrack outside of town, and the wild lights of the casino, that myth is quickly dispelled. 
Down the hills and through the countryside, the gates to Tailotha are painted vibrant colors and decorated with hundreds of small bird statues. The main thoroughfare is a large, bustling street that directs visitors into the Hunter's Market. Dozens of small winding alleys and roads splinter off this main avenue and branch off into residential apartments, small shops, and community gardens. 
Following the main road to the Hunter's Market, the atmosphere gets incredibly rowdy. Inns and taverns and waystations are everywhere, filled with fortune-seekers from abroad. Public drinking and fighting spills into the market square, musicians and peddlers send up a discordant cacophony, and a foul smell of unwashed travelers, fish, animal dung, beer, and meat fills the air. Announcers display caged animals on a large wooden stage, drawing in newcomers to the nearby pit-stadium. This massive pit with wooden bleachers is used for bear-baiting, dogfighting, adventurer's duels, and gladiatorial combats between death-row prisoners. 
To those who head west along the length of the Hunter's Market, the road naturally heads to the docks and the Fishmarket. The massive, twinkling Lake Lokrin covers the horizon, and everywhere is produce and fish for sale. Those still seeking entertainment head follow the signs along the lakefront to head to The Gambling Moa, a gaudy, multicolored tower covered in lanterns and flags. A waterwheel turns, powering a 15 foot tall clockwork moa that clacks and groans as it flaps its wings, gnashes its beak, and twirls its dead metal eyes. The Gambling Moa is an enormous casino and house of pleasures, complete with a flower garden, trained dancing moa, card tables, and hashish stalls. Dancers and waiters dressed in garish parodies of traditional Loanuan garb wait on the attendants, some in giant hanging bird cages. The upper floors are reserved for the rich and powerful, but every fool who has made their fortune on the plains can be found in the gambling pits below. 
Beyond the casino and the docks, the Northern gate opens up to the racetrack and Birdtaker's Market. All across the edge of town, moas and eagles are kept for sale and auction. Every few months, Moa-keepers bring their best stock for championship racing along the track. 
For those seeking a holier calling, heading east from the Hunter's Market takes you a very different way: to the Crown District. Soldiers from the garrison are everywhere, as are priests. Great fenced off manors of the great and powerful cling together away from the common homes. The massive Temple of the Firebringer is the most common attraction for visitors: a massive, circular building around an enormous, eternal flame. Priests and scarrified monks tend to the flame and walk the grounds and guard the nearby library. 
At the core of this richer part of town are the Three Forts: the Old Fort, Castle Analora, and the Ember Fortress. The old Fort is open for visitors and houses more parties than soldiers. The Ember Fortress is the newest and houses the garrisons. And Castle Analora is built for equal parts defensiveness, beauty, and luxury - a true miracle that has held the test of time. One of the towers is a temple in itself - the Wall of Cocolo, a painted tower wall where residents give offerings to the spirit of the ancient rebel folk hero Cocolo the Ghost. In the last few years, the priests have tried to suppress the offerings of the wall, but it is overwhelmingly popular anyways.

Demographics

10,000 humanoids live in Tailotha. 50% of the population are Humans, 30% of the population are Dryad, 10% are Hybrids, 5% are Selkies, 5% are Pearl Pangolin .

Government

The Governor-Queen of Analona is Levwina Lokrek, and her castle and manor are here in Tailotha. The Governor-monarch typically only controls the judiciary and military, but Levwina has done her best to assert her power over Tailotha wherever possible. 
The official leader is the Lord Mayor, who is chosen by the Selkie Overseer. The current mayor of Tailotha, Regina Varzin, is an old appointment who has a way of extracting profit from nearly anything. She is secure in her position thanks to her business acumen, and openly consorts with the Governor-Monarch to try and play all sides.

Defences

Tailotha has several castles and large walls. The ruins of old fortifications also litter the city and surrounding area, and could probably be used to reinforce the defenses in a pinch.

Industry & Trade

There is an agricultural element to Tailotha. Fishing along the lake is a common source of employment. The surrounding countryside produces wheat, potatoes, rice, dryad-food, and yams. 
In the town proper, low-level manufacturing is a major source of employment. Textiles are woven, iron is smelted in small neighborhood smelters, lumber is carved into furniture and goods, and kilns churn out pottery. Dyes that are manufactured across the country are also dyed here. 
The market square not only trades in locally produced goods, but in animals and luxury items from across Loanua.

Infrastructure

The water system here is adequate and the roads are great, but the sewer system could use an overhaul.

Guilds and Factions

The military garrison here is a faction in themselves, apart from the town guard. The soldiers serve the Governor-Queen directly and act as her personal agents. They typically don't pick fights with the city guard, but they also aren't entirely above board: they have their own businesses and can be very aggressive in their pursuits. 
All guilds must either curry favor with the garrison or with the Office of Trade. The Office of Trade serves the Overseer's Office, which represent selkie interests in Tailotha. 
The third great faction here is the Temple of Saraka, led by Land Priest Orsten Kitarzek. The Temple manages the spiritual life of the city, holidays, and all public worship. Orsten takes this responsibility very seriously - too serious some would argue. All non-Saraka displays of public worship are banned here, but Orsten has been unusual in that he has not made exceptions for adventurers and travelers. And to add insult to injury, he doesn't just take the fine money and walk away, he actually pursues extended legal action. 
Orsten rules the temple with a steady hand and is on great terms with the Order of Nitren, the Season Turner:  a group of monks from Linorn that ritually scarify their own bodies. The Cult of the Lovers Arakara, the only form of legal Weniko, has been on thin ice but hasn't been outright antagonized as of yet.

History

While Tailotha may be seen by many as a city that represents occupied Loanua, it was founded by and for local Loanuans. For centuries, Tailotha was not just a home for conquerors, but for native Loanuans, nomadic and sedentary alike. And even as many of the residents have been pressured into adopting foreign styles, languages, religions, and ideologies, their bright red curly hair speaks to how the majority of the city is directly descended from the original Loanuan inhabitants. 

Walokaran Period (795 to 1251)

Tailotha was a seasonal town for the nomadic peoples of the area for many centuries before it became a permanent settlement. In 795 ME, a period of peace and prosperity made it an ideal year-round settlement, and five of the local bands made an agreement to share the site as a permanent settlement. It existed as a small, sleepy village for several centuries. In 901, foreign invaders conquered the village and forced the villagers to help build a fortress nearby. The village was to feed and maintain this fortress, and many other Loanuan warriors were taken there for training or to present tribute to the invaders. The village grew as many Loanuan warriors retired there and traded there, and the fortress and village became one settlement: Tailotha. 
When the invaders fell apart in the late 900s, Tailotha rose as the capital of the new Kingdom of Walokara. Many of the new buildings imitated the style of the old invaders, as the new regime mimicked the aesthetics of the old. And for almost three centuries, Tailotha stood as a commercial castle-town, with many semi-nomadic groups moving in and out through the year. In 1251, this era came to an end when another foreign invasion arrived. These foreigners were not as tolerant as the last, and they set about trying to force local Loanuans into towns and mines. The Age of Repression. 

The Age of Repression (1251 to 1500)

The warord who was given control over the former kingdom of Walokara was a sorcerer-knight by the name of Analora. Analora cared more for luxury and personal wealth than the lifestyle of native Loanuans, and she transformed Tailotha into her personal playground. She constructed a large colonial town in the style of her native land of Nolostra, and built her own new manor and castle. This become known as 'Colonial Tailotha', and it slowly grew into Old Tailotha as the decades went by. 
The descendants of Analora were less tolerant of local traditions and ways of life than she was. They forced all new buildings to be built in their colonial style, they discouraged certain Weniko festivals, and they pushed their own religious and cultural traditions. Tailotha became a miniature police state, just like the other colonies. But the state relied on native Loanuans just as much as the colonies, and these Loanuans rebelled against these impositions. Outside of colonial cities like Tailotha, tribes stopped paying taxes and started torching noble estates. And when the military was deployed against these rebels, part of the military rebelled. These rebel warriors were led by a legendary figure, Cocolo the Ghost. From 1310 to 1325, Cocolo waged a guerilla war against the rest of the army. In 1315, Cocolo even hit Analona itself, causing mass panic and destruction in the Colonial districts. Cocolo was unable to seize the city for the rebellion, but he threatened it periodically for the next decade. He offered loot to those who would join him and actively recruited for the colonial and native poor alike, inspiring class and culture rebellions across the city. The elites had to hide in their castle, as the guards and wealthy found the city turn on them. So terrified were the elites of Tailotha that they demanded that he be made into a public example in the city, to prove his death. His body was hanged from the walls of the castle keep and left to rot. This created an atmosphere of terror and despair, as the elites had hoped, but it also made that tower wall into a holy site for those desperate and disillusioned. The theater of repression made Cocolo into a legend.
Through the 1480s, the city was again attacked by Loanuan raiders known as the Red Weniko. The city turned to allied 'Blue Weniko' for protection, and the foreign powers that the colonial regime relied upon withdrew from the land. The police state was washed away as many colonists and elites fled. Those who remained were interested in compromise, and Tailotha transformed into a mixed society once again. 

The Ages of Peace and Fire (1500 to Present)

From the 1490s to the early 1700s, Tailotha became a demilitarized center of commerce. The city outgrew its fortifications and became a mixture of styles once again. Weniko resurged as a religion, and Loanuan traditions fused with older 'colonial' traditions into something new. This period of 1490 to 1700 is known as the 'Age of Peace'. Unfortunately, invaders just could not leave the city well enough alone. The city was occupied by foreigners once again, the city was remilitarized, and the residents began to divide along religious lines: native Weniko versus foreign Saraka. The invading regime was deeply unstable and plunged the city into regular civil war. The once-diverse city began segregating itself into religious districts, with Sarakan and Weniko residents avoiding each other even during peacetime. The arrival of the New Red Weniko invasion from the West only added more elements of division and chaos.
Over the course of the century, the city broke into three factions: Red Weniko, Blue Weniko and Sarakan moderate allies, and Sarakan hardliners. Sarakan hardliners and moderates fought for control of the city, and blood feuds were sworn. This century of division and war only ended with the arrival of an army from the Kingdom of Linorn in 1815. The Linoran general, Kitarn the Firebringer, "sorted out" the religious infighting by forcibly restructuring the local temples. Weniko was made a mystery cult of Saraka under the Kingdom, and all who resisted were publicly incinerated. Unsurprisingly, all who resisted Linoran rule in other ways were also incinerated. The city was given to Kitarn as an aristocratic holding.
From 1815 to 1955, Linorn ruled the city with an iron fist. The people were forced to be good Sarakan peasants - nomadism and the old ways had no place in the new order. The independent Kingdom of Analona, which emerged in 1955, was no less feudal and intolerant than the Linorans. Selkies took over in 1960 and abolished the feudal aspects, but created a new mercantilist-commercial social structure. Tailotha became a bastion of imperial power. The city thrived, and hid its past as a stronghold of Blue Weniko power.

Tourism

Tailotha is the central hub for mercenaries, hunters, adventurers, and settlers seeking their fortune in Loanua. The city has a robust entertainment and lodging industry to suit these adventurers, as well as a massive lakeside casino where they can waste away their newfound fortunes. So illustrious has this casino, The Gambling Moa, become, that it now attracts elites from around the island for luxury and entertainment. Many also come for the racing and sport fighting.

Architecture

Tailotha's architecture is a mixture between older Eastern Garadek styles, ancient Linoran style architecture, and modern Samvaran styles, with Loanuan aesthetics and tastes in parts. 
Conical roofing is extremely in style here, as are large, chunky stone buildings for anything more official. Large buildings often have narrower rooms with very tall, vaulted ceilings. Elaborate facades are also common on the homes of the wealthy and on government buildings. Any building intended to project Selkie power (the office of trade and the Overseer's office) typically have very emphasized Samvaran styling: lots of arches and domes.

Geography

Tailotha lies on the Eastern shore of Lake Lokrin: a large freshwater lake known for its abundant fish and perfect climate. The sea lies 3 miles to the East.

Natural Resources

The fishing here is great, and the soil is rich. It makes for fine farming and gardening.

Founding Date

910 ME

Type

City

Population

10,000

Inhabitant Demonym

Tailothan

Location under

Loanua

Owning Organization

Kingdom of Analona

Related Plots

• Exploring Tailotha
• Taking Flight
• The Calm Before the Storm