Aeria

Aeria is the biggest city in Adea, albeit in ruins, and the place with biggest concentration of people. Once a busy city bursting with commerce thanks to its critical location, it is now barely a husk of what it was while tries to offer refuge to as many people as possible.

Pre-dawn

Aeria, known as Verstara in Ashtara, used to be a pillar of commerce in Ashtara. Its location was in the middle of the web of trade routes that where scattered across Ashtara, making it a perfect commercial city. It grow to be one of the biggest cities in Ashtara as well as one of the few multi-species cities.

A lot of people travelled to Verstara to set up a temporary stall for selling their best products. It was well known that, while one could find everything in the city as well as having the most comfortable and fancy experiences, trading prices used to be more higher than in other places. And, while it was a multi-species city, many places where divided by species' shape, to accommodate the clientele to a nice place for themselves, but a good inn for a particular species, might be a nightmare place for other species. They worked for having places to please as many people as possible but didn't try to make buildings that worked for different types of species.

The crossing of Portals and the void was a rough time for Verstara. Most buildings crumbled down, some fully collapsed, some still standing, but none of the buildings where proper places to live after the dawn.

Seeing their own city crumble under the forces in the void was very impactful to everyone so, while the city started working on reinforcement fairly quick, it still took a long time before anyone knew how to even act.

People in an area filled with store stalls by Annie Spratt

Current State

Most of the city is empty and in ruins. The people who are nowadays calling the city their home are all together in one area of the city, working hard to change these ruinous buildings into buildings where people can live without worrying for their safety.

Thanks to the commercial nature of the city, there are a lot of different materials lying around the city, but the problem arises when gathering them. Buildings are unstable or collapsed, making the crossing of the city a harsh hike followed by scavenging in dangerous places. But the city is progressing, and while it doesn't show the old glorious buildings it one hosted, its starting to have more modest buildings where people can live, protected from the environment.

Community

The city has always had an open-minded community, especially when compared to other Ashtara's community, and had a lot of travellers, explorers, crafters, and similar. It had a community than in general was fairly prepared for changes. Thanks to its community, the city managed fairly well all the changes and with some hard work and quick learning, the city is right now the safest settlement in Adea as well as the less ruined (if one only takes into account the part of the city that's actively being reconstructed).

The city has plenty of crafters and builders, and even people to go scavenge for materials or explore nearby islands, but it is severely lacking people with farming knowledge and experience, as it used to mostly depend on trading for its food.

It was decided to rename the city from Verstara to Aeria as a part of the process people need to go to accept they weren't in Ashtara anymore. While this change was generally accepted and even welcomed, some people refuse to use the new name as they hold onto the hope of being able to return to Ashtara and think that renaming the city would mean defeat and the forgetting of their origins and home.

A stone structure with a doorway in the middle of it by Robin Canfield

The people of the city have suffered a lot because of the dawn. Once the city is in a good enough state, there should be work to be done with the inhabitants (other than healing physical wounds). But people keep pushing through each day, trying to build themselves a future.