City of Brass

The City of Brass, home to powerful efreet lords, is found on the Elemental Plane of Fire. Cradled in a brass hemisphere 40 miles across, the city fl oats above a plate of cracked obsidian. Here, trade flourishes among the Inner Planes. In addition, travelers and merchants from every corner of the multiverse conduct business.

The Grand Sultan rules from his Charcoal Throne in the Burning Palace of the Grand Sultan of All the Efreet at the center of the city.

The city has normal gravity and time.

The fire-dominant trait of the plane of fire is suppressed by the will of the ruler, the Grand Sultan.

Traveler’s Tip:

Located on the Elemental Plane of Fire, the City of Brass is an artificial island free of the plane’s fire dominant trait. Here, travelers and traders can conduct business, and efreet can grant audiences to those not hardened against the fires. Of course, all travelers need to keep in mind the lawful evil nature of the place—those who can’t stomach the moral perversity of the City of Brass should steer clear.

Demographics

Population: 500,000 free residents (40% efreet, 15% salamanders, 15% mephits [fire, magma, and steam], 15% humanoids [humans, elves, halflings, and so on], 3% azer, 3% magmin, 1% thoqqua, 8% other) and 1,000,000 slaves (25% elementals, 18% mephits [fire, magma, and steam], 15% humanoids [humans, elves, halflings, and so on], 12% thoqqua, 7% azer, 7% magmin, 6% salamanders [flamebrothers, typically], 1% efreet, 9% other).

Government

The City of Brass has highly developed laws. Different laws exist for efreet and nonefreet. Efreet suffer from few restrictions on their behavior or trade. Non-efreet must follow many regulations pertaining to how they conduct themselves, how they do business, and the amount of money they must pay as tax on their transactions. These laws are well publicized (posted at the gates and in each inn or public house) and are relatively simple to follow for those who wish to obey them. Some of the more obvious laws prohibit theft, murder, kidnapping, and misrepresentation of goods.
Lawbreakers are sentenced to a period of slavery under the control of the offended party (often the city itself). The original length of servitude can be extended for additional infractions, ranging from speaking impolitely to one’s master (seven days for a first infraction or if a year has passed since the last infraction) to attempting to escape (one year plus one year for each day the slave was missing).
Aside from breaking laws, the most common way that visitors to the City of Brass become slaves is by borrowing money and not being able to repay it (and the accrued interest) in time.
Slaves must wear and display bracelets indicating their servitude and their master. Slaves are often bought and sold during the period of their slavery. Once his or her sentence is served, the slave again becomes a free person.

History

The City of Brass is the capital of the efreet civilization.

The Sultan or Sultana rules from the Charcoal Palace. Although there have been many different Sultans over the millennia due to natural deaths and coups, little has actually changed in government beyond the name of the person in charge.

Tourism

Several interplanar portals connect various parts of the City of Brass to other planar locations, though most of these portals are privately controlled. If travlers can locate any landing on the Infinite Staircase, a technique that often proves useful for finding the City of Brass is to follow the staircase that leads in the warmest direction.
Though simplistic, some enchantment laid on the Infinite Staircase grants this method validity, and eventually a landing will spit travelers out on the Elemental Plane of Fire, with the towers of the City of Brass visible across the fire-cracked plain. Unfortunately for them, travelers must cross the plane before entering the city proper.

Architecture

Tall spires topped with minarets feature prominently in the City of Brass. The buildings are made of stone ranging from sandstone to marble, most of which is imported from the Elemental Plane of Earth, or of metal, primarily brass, copper, or iron edged with brass, copper, silver, or gold.
The surrounding Sea of Fire and the many fiery canals provide a red glow that dims with distance. To supplement this illumination, torches are placed at intervals in the lower-class districts, and continual flame gems brighten the upper-class areas. While the area doesn’t have weather per se, it does have a weather-like phenomenon that impacts visibility: ash fall. The hot air from the Sea of Fire follows predictable thermal patterns. Ash fall is localized and falls thickest and most often on the poorer sections of the city and least on the wealthiest.

Population

Approx 1.5m

THE INFINITE STAIRCASE The Infinite Staircase is a mystery. It leads to all places, though the trick is finding an exit. When one finds an opening onto the staircase, the journey usually begins on a small landing with a nondescript stairway leading off. Travelers on the Infinite Staircase see its appearance vary from simple stairs of wood or stone to a chaotic jumble of stairs hanging in radiant space, where no two steps share the same gravitational orientation. It is said that a traveler can find her heart’s desire somewhere on the Infinite Staircase if each landing is searched long enough.
The origin and purpose behind the Infinite Staircase remain a mystery. It is unknown whether the staircase is truly infinite or just unimaginably large.