Exivaun
Exivaun, the capital city of the Rostran Archipelago Confederacy, is a metropolis comprised of three urban islands located in the Rostral C3/4/5 vertex island chain.
Demographics
Definitionally, the mountain slopes and peaks are majority High Rostran, while the feet of the mountains and shorelines are majority Low Rostran. The names of these ethniticies, in fact, derive from their preffered residences and not any percieved sense of moral separation between the two groups of individuals. High Rostran regions tend to be more wealthy and cosmopolitan, while Low Rostran regions are more productive and traditional. Civil Ovinex citizens, often laborers or retainers in the service of Rostran families, constitute around one third of the total population; Exivaun is also the beating heart of the Baxbr movement and a center of Rostran-ovinex diplomacy since the times of the Rostran-Ovinex War. Rostran Esotericism is the primary religion in the city.
Very few non-native races have residences in Exivaun, with most of these being Human representatives of the Coalition of Breakaway Colonies or Navigator's Guild assigned to the region.
Government
The Archipelago Parliament and the Council of Elders, in addition to controlling the national affairs of the RAC, enpanel the Exivaun City Council to manage the affairs of Exivaun as a municipality. The City Council, while not directly voted for by the residents of Exivaun itself, are represented in the sense that the local islands' Parliament members are invoved with selecting the members of the City Council. The City Council chambers are also considered a public forum, allowing city residents to express their needs to the City Council in person or via proxies.
Defences
The verticality of the downtown areas is both a blessing and a curse in terms of defense. While the heighs would make a successful marine assault extremely difficult, they also expose many of the important city buildings to bombardment from waterborne or airborne attackers. Like most cities in the Manifold, Exivaun relies on a network of subterranean bunkers to withstand sieges; the vertex peak at the city center makes it so that attackers cannot fully assault the capitol without fully surrounding the island, as otherwise secondary buildings would be protected by the bulk of the peak itself.
The Exivaun Grand Bay (the bay formed by the isthmuses connecting two smaller islands to the vertex island) contains a large naval yard and is the home base of the most elite Ixulova Tun unit anywhere in RAC territory. A network of sonar buoys, mines, and submarine nets keeps enemy vessels at bay. Exivaun is unique in that it is the first national capitol to employ extensive surface-to-air rocket silos in addition to the usual flak cannon emplacements.
Industry & Trade
Fish, sugar cane, bamboo, pineapple, coconut, and breadfruit are the primary agricultural products of Exivaun. Raw materials are typically imported from other islands in the RAC (especially Eudoxia) to supply the factories in Exivaun. Factories on the outlying island produce a wide variety of consumer products for local purchase. Airship landing areas located on - and in the sea around - the outlying island allow goods to be ferried through the Rostral C4/B2 or Rostral C/Western B skystations for customs checks before international distribution. By the same token, foreign goods often first arrive in the RAC through these skyports, being then distributed to other islands via cargo ships.
Infrastructure
The streets of Exivaun are old and narrow; while there are automobiles on the island, especially in the coastal districts, motorcycles are a much more common form of motor vehicle. Most of the population prefers to walk or bycicle around the island because it's cheap and suits the traditional Rostran ethos with regards to connecting to the spirits of nature. One vehicle that no self-respecting citizen of Exivaun lacks, however, is a boat; this is typically a small catamaran or motorboat which enables a citizen to visit family in the suburban islands.
Old catacomb-like structures beneath the city, coupled with tall ventilation columns disguised as buldings, form the inverse of a municipal steam heating system. Seawater is permitted to flow into the tunnels and crash against evaporation gratings; this cools the air in the tunnels as the water evaporates. The columns, open at the top to harness the power of the wind to create pressure differentials, directs the cool air and water vapor upward. Historically, houses would be built around the columns with small vents to permit the cool air to flow into the household, but in modern times, heat exchangers have been incorporated into the towers to give more houses in the city access to cool, vapor-distilled water.
Municipal power comes from a combination of wind power emplacements and a biodiesel plant located on the outlying island. This biodiesel plant also serves as part of the waste treatment system for the island, as table scraps and sewage are prime food for the algae found there. As an added bonus, the isolation of this island makes it a prime location for other smelly or unsightly industrial processes (i.e. tanning).
While the nation is not currently at war, there is a growing concern among successive Parliaments that, as the War of Reunification drags on, one faction might win and, still hungry for resources, turn a bloodied eye on Rostran holdings. In preparation for this eventuality, recent civil engineering efforts in Exivaun have focussed on finding ways to reduce power consumption in favor of powering defensive emplacements, early warning nets, and war production facilities.
History
The history of Exivaun is the history of the Rostran Archipelago Confederacy. The islands which would eventually become the Exivaun metropolitan area were origionally populated by numerous villages of varying size. The big island itself was known as Exivaun, and it was the most populous island of all. As these villages came to face a shared threat from Ovinex slavers and became increasingly intermingled through marrage, their old territorial disputes became less and less severe until, eventually, they agreed to form an inter-tribal governing body which would oversee matters which effected the region as a whole. This council of tribal elders would eventually evolve into the Archipelago Parliament.
Later, after the Rostran-Ovinex war, these villages continued to grow, with the one built around the old high heirophant's hut growing the fastest due to the presence of both religious and political authority there. The villages became towns, then cities, eventually growing to such an extent that they began to bleed together at the edges. As of 10,000 AR, the burroughs of Exivaun still retain the names of the founding villages, though some of the local cultures have been subsumed into the greater metropolitan culture as time has worn on.
Tourism
Exivaun is a popular tourist destination for its unique architecture and as a significant location for Rostran culture. While Rostral C is thuroughly explored already, members of the Burning Hearts Social Club often spend some time in Exivaun before heading off to explore the greater Rostral Tesseract. Sorority of Solace missions sometimes stop in Exivaun to rest, resupply, and hide out from factions which take exception to their internationalist activites. Verdial visitors are rare, as, though they usually enjoy the culture of the place, their unique physiology is ill-adapted to the heat of the Rostral Tesseract.
Architecture
Exivaun architecture is notable for its verticality, with the buildings forming concentric rings around the peaks as though the lines on a topographical map were extruded towards the sky in brillant, coral-rich bricks. Over a long period of habitation, the native Rostrans have carved these mountainous islands to create terraces more suitable to construction and land agriculture. Wide city terraces alternate with green belts covered with tropical fruit trees, including coconuts, pineapples, and breadfruit. The city extends almost all the way to the shoreline, though the beaches have been left clear for tourism and important cultural events (such as Eurymaxim).
The mountain peaks are generally occupied by important civic buildings, as, in previous eras, these were the safest locations against attack from the sea. The Parliament chambers sit directly over where the old high heirophant's house once stood, designating the location as the center of both civic and religious life as well as all navigational referrence terms within the local sea.
Geography
While the vertices and adjacent edges of Rostral C cube would normally form a peak and dependent mountain ranges respectively, because Rostral C is adjacent to the damp Western Tesseract, they instead erupt from the cube-spanning sea as a mountainous, tropical archipelago. The vertex island is the largest of two major islands in the chain; two lower mountains, each connected with an isthmus to the vertex mountain, extend out from the vertex mountain along the edges, while an island located along the remaining edge is only connected to the large island by the Exivaun Grand Causeway. The gap between the two isthmuses forms the Exivaun Grand Bay. Numerous minor, outlying islands, mostly arrayed along the cube edges, create the nautical suburbs of the city.
RAC Travel Standard by BCGR_Wurth
Type
Conurbation
Population
Approx. 920,000
Related Ethnicities
Inhabitant Demonym
Er/eret/eretasova ad Exivaun; Exivauner(s)
Location under
Included Locations
Owning Organization
Related Tradition (Primary)
Characters in Location
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