Zuri Nexus (Z-ur-ee Nex-us)

South of the Ilcarian Jungle, the Sphinx's Claw peninsula juts into the space between the Innana and Calla Oceans, providing the small city of Zuri's Nexus and the immense Zali's Eye lighthouse that shepherds ships into the one eastern region of Ostellia where they may pass without the Eye of Madness's churn.
The Calla Ocean's water is arctic in comparison to anywhere else in Ostellia, leading the Sphinx's Claw to be primarily smooth glassy ice sheets. As such, Zuri's Nexus is known for their beautiful permaice sculptures and enduring partnerships with fire mages, including prestidigitation being the first spell any new magic wielder learns when their Godcrafting is complete.

Fire Crafters and Ice Sculptors

Many many years ago, the elders of Zuri Nexus struck a bargain with a group of fire elementals; in exchange for safety from a particularly vicious and seemingly unending winter they would provide resources, safekeeping, and pseudoworship to the fire elementals. This deal persists to this day, though it has shifted more to a partnership than a worship or master/servant perspective, where Djinn and Fire Elementals know this place to be a respite on this side of the continent and the people of Zuri Nexus are able to live safely.
One component of this alliance, whether a deliberate decision or a happenstance side effect is anyone's guess, is that any magic user in Zuri Nexus learns prestidigitation as their first spell, whether as a practical or religious act. Another is that many artificing wonders involving safe capture and usage of fire have come from Zuri Nexus and serve as one of their primary trade goods to outsiders who use them through dungeon delves and adventuring treks across the continent.
Zurians use this partnership with fire to sculpt their homes, workplaces, travel infrastructure, art, and more from the ice floes they live on. The ice primarily represents smooth glassy sheets but often can be found in frozen waves, as if a cold-spell stilled the ocean in one fell swoop long ago. (Knowing the weather of Ostelliach and the many natural disasters that have occured, this is hardly a stretch to imagine.) These waves and sheets get molded through careful magical manipulation into their buildings (called pearls) as well as art that they also export to wealthy patrons throughout Ostelliach. (The sculptures are, of course, magically imbued or mixed with iridescite to be perma-ice that never gets your carpet wet.)

Demographics

Those with a predilection for cold climates love the south east of Ostelliach, especially the settlement of Zuri Nexus. Zurians typically include those with lots of fur, the ability to burrow into otherwise solid ice, or those that are immune to the cold's touch. The economy is decidedly slow-moving in such a remote area of the world, so those living there either have a nest egg elsewhere to support them or need little income to survive.
Fire elementals and Djinn with fire lineage are also extremely common in the area, specifically because of a century-long pact between said elementals and the village elders. Fire is a source of innovation and inspiration as well as survival so fire mages and those who can stand the cold but also produce heat are always welcome.

Government

Zuri Nexus is run by a small council of elders that inherit the position from those before them. When a specific elder has no kin to pass the role to (or no desire to pass it to one), they select a different lineage to take over for them. This government is not meant to be exclusionary so much as plays on the fact that the remote village can largely be classified into several groups of long-established families. Most of the longest-rooted resident groups see representation on the council, and those that are too solitary to see themselves represented generally prefer that anyhow, given they likely came to the Nexus to be left alone.

Defences

The location of Zuri Nexus, so far removed from much of populated Ostelliach, is itself a risk and a deterrent to dangers; rarely do any bother to visit the area, let alone attack it. The settlement maintains a small volunteer militia, but most forget they are even registered for the role, let alone the processes to mobilize if the need were to arise.
The nearby Zali's Eye lighthouse is similarly a blessing and a liability, in that it is well-known that taking the lighthouse would mean jeopardizing any sea trade the eastern edge of Ostelliach sees, but it also is such a valuable resource that it is the one well-guarded area in the region and also something that Zurians are fiercely protective of.

Industry & Trade

Zurians trade the goods they create (sculptures, artificing using magical fire safely, snow cone recipes, and anything else the icy land can deliver) in exchange for the food and materials they cannot find near them. They take a lot of their vegetation from the Ilcarian Jungle to the north, or the The Grove of the Cat and Endeavour to the northwest.
They also sell their pristine icewater, free of pollutants and magically inclined to stay cold, to adventurers or ice-dwelling beings looking to safely move through warmer areas.

Infrastructure

The architecture of Zuri Nexus is entirely reliant on sculpting the ice of the area, turning flat sheets and frozen waves into oyster-esque curled dwellings or doors to cover the entrances to naturally-formed caves in the area. The buildings are then lit and heated by artificed lanterns harnessing fire elemental magic in a safe, non-destructive way.
Most buildings are single story, round shapes curled in on themselves or clustered together in groups that look from above like glass beads or pearls. In fact, the building style is often referred to as a "pearl" and people will refer to their home as their pearl.
The ice used for the pearls is primarily a deep, opaque blue, though the artisans of the area do not hesitate to add embellishments using light refraction, thinning or making transparent as the creative whim pushes them to. This allows buildings to have "windows" but maintain heat. The single-story nature of the dwellings is, of course, to preserve warmth as well, keeping things low to the ground since heat rises.
Many of the buildings are connected by thin tunnels lit by flickering firelight candles and often single-home dwellings (pearls) share a central kitchen/dining pearl where the strong warmth of a cooking fire can be stoked around the clock by different families cooperating.

Tourism

Most people who journey to Zuri Nexus do so to get away from society and not to sightsee, though some do visit to take in the majesty of Zali's Eye or the ice formations (natural or crafted).

Natural Resources

• Clean, cold water

• Ice sheets and carvings from them

• Coldwater coral

Type

Town

Inhabitant Demonym

Zurians (Z-ur-ee-ans)