Altor

The largest port in the north of the City-States Region and home of the Shipbuilders' and Sailors' Guilds, Altor is the seafaring capital of the region. Blessed with a position upon a somewhat sheltered bay and the nearby Altwood Forest (noted for its mysteriously fast-growing trees), the city builds craft of varying sizes and is home to sailors of every stripe. While the City-States do not have a particularly strong seafaring tradition (the waters along the coast are notoriously dangerous) there is a lot of water traffic within the Lasair Gulf, and the city of Altor is the key to it all. 

Home for Sailor, Officer, and Owner

To say that Altor is dominated by the sea would be a massive understatement. The entire life of the city revolves around building, manning, and supplying vessels. Its waterfront is divided between quarters for shipbuilding, ship fitting, loading of supplies, and a pair of small docks and a barracks dedicated for transport of Mercenary Guild soldiers. Past the waterfront, the city is divided into informal neighborhoods with distinct character depending on its purpose and who generally lives there. 

The shipbuilding quarter itself extends well into the city, with lumber yards and carpentry stores taking up huge amounts of space. More centrally to the docks are large blocks of cheap temporary housing, nothing more than some simple barracks, for sailors who are in town for no more than a week or two between jobs. These barracks are themselves surrounded by taverns, pleasure houses, food halls, rowdy theaters, etc - all dedicated to allowing sailors to spend their hard earned gold. While this portion of the city isn't strictly exclusionary (nobody there is going to turn down more gold flowing through it) it can be extremely difficult to make sense of for people not used to the sailors' lifestyle and distinct dialect. 

Upon a hill overlooking the lower parts of the city are a number of small manor houses. While tiny in scale compared to places like Kolar-Malara or Britor, these homes - owned by shipbuilders and shipowners - are finely appointed and comfortable. They frequently serve as guest homes for ships' officers - to be invited to quarter with the owner of a vessel is an expected perk of the job - as well as meeting places when someone wishes to hire a ship for a specific journey This part of town, while not off-limits to common sailors, doesn't really offer anything to them for entertainment so they rarely journey this far into the city except when on an errand from a vessel. Such duties can include running messages from a just-arrived ship to its owner, or carrying the luggage of an officer to or from their guest quarters.
The remaining land nearest to the docks are taken up by the small Mercenary Guild barracks and a number of warehouses for storing goods which may be loaded onto a vessel. The city does not actually deal much in trade itself - other than shipbuilding supplies - rather the ships from Altor will sail to a port to pick up goods to send elsewhere. Some passengers will, however, frequently journey into Altor to specifically hire a vessel. This is very common amongst those looking to reach The Southlands for exploration, as well as Mages needing to get somewhere up or down the coast on some arcane errand. 

Secret Bargain

Standing out from dozens of ship owners and the owners of the shipyards, the most prominent and wealthy family in Altor is the exclusive supplier of lumber to the city. Some centuries in the past, as the city began to grow the edges of the Altwood Forest were felled to supply the burgeoning shipyards. As more trees were taken and more and more land was cleared, reducing the size of the forest, the work began to suddenly become much more dangerous. Workers would go missing, trees that fell would take unpredictable paths and crush treecutters, lumber that seemed good when cut down would be discovered to hidden rot once it was cut into planks. Lumber production ground to a halt as lumberjacks and carpenters alike were frightened from working with Altwood lumber. 
One lumber magnate who feared for the loss of his fortune and failure of his business, Milian Santor, refused to simply give in. He hired a group of adventurers and journeyed into the forest to discover the cause of so much of the danger. After some very fraught exploration and harrowing experiences, Santor emerged alone from the forest weeks later. He directed his lumber company to resume cutting on the land he had purchased rights to years before. To the surprise of the workers they were safe, the wood was sound, and they were able to find extremely straight-growing trees that were perfect for tall masts. What's more, the trees within the bounds of Santor's land seemed to grow back far more quickly than those elsewhere on the edges of the forest, allowing them to supply the city with all the lumber it needed without cutting further into the woods. The other lumber suppliers found that they could not compete with such safe and sound production, and sold their operations to Santos. To this day, the family remains one of the wealthiest in the entire City-States Region.
Meanwhile, somewhere around the age of twenty, every member of the Santos family capable of fathering children, finds themselves meeting and being seduced by a beautiful, otherworldly woman, with dark hair and luminous eyes. This woman takes them for a night, and then vanishes, never to be seen by them again. Most think nothing of it (growing up in a wealthy family they are used to being desired - or at least arrogantly assuming such) and the few that talk of the experience to others with a similar moment in their past mostly shrug it off and get on with their lives, only occasionally thinking of the dark-haired woman.

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