Rhythonze

Rhythonze, the gale-seat: a holy city of multiple religions– chiefly the Giterikin branches of Gyrism and the local aeroanimist faiths – Rhythonze is the home of Eyon , the most powerful wind-spirit in The Giteri, who controls the currents of air for hundreds of miles around. He is either unwilling or unable to travel far himself, however. A jovial and and mercurial soul, Eyon is immensely long-lived and finds it hard to keep track of human-level concerns – a vaguely benign but mostly absent-minded deity.
Visually, Rythonze is a towering grey-stone edifice, spilling out onto the plains. The surrounding fields are all dotted with windmills, all facing radially, and often driven by fierce winds. Eyries of giant birds of different kinds fill Rythonze, capable of travelling great distances quickly, bearing messages, people, even cargo – provided the wind points the right way.
Holy Pheasants in Rythonze, and their guano - Another scammy souvenir. The pop-mythology is that they're so stupid they only survive by whim of air elementals - they even fly straight so the spirits can steer them.

Demographics

with over half a million souls, Rhythonze is one of the largest cities in the world, and certainly the largest and most important in The Giteri.
Common ethnicities in Rhythonze and the immediate surrounding area:

• Giterikin (91%)
• Nidari (3%) - mostly in laketown.
• Sigmenodan (3%) - mostly around Gem Street
• Sphinxes (1%) - scattered around, mostly in the slums
• Canyoner (1%) - mostly around Binder's District and Temple Crook. includes a large Festil population.
• Kerridan (0.5%) - mostly around Oilsheen Alley
• other (0.5%)

Government

The Vicar rules the city on behalf of Eyon - though he doesn't particularly care about the day-to-day business of mortals, and in fact the Vicar is typically placed there by the Giterkin Monarch or whichever Aspirant currently controls the city.
City districts have governors who have advisory roles to the Vicar, but who have no formal power. they oversee day-to-day matters in individual areas, and different districts are allowed to select their governors based on whichever criteria they fancy, as long as they is not undue disruption and the final candidate is suitable to the Vicar.

Defences

The city is protected by a stout outer wall of stone, continually maintained over the course of the Giterikin Civil War, with forts placed at points along it's length. Apart from the lakeward side - which has large breaks at the docks and in the unnavigably-shallow lake town neighborhood - the wall is only interrupted by 6 gates, listed below from West to east.

• Memoni gate: The lone gate in the oldest and highest section of wall, heading west. Named after the Vicar who laid its keystone.
• Slantwise gate: one of the two sacred gates of the city's perimeter. The oldest gate of all, it predates the wall, originally the gate of the fort that guarded the causeway to Eyon's palace. This explains its strange angle relative to the city walls.
• Dimoro gate: named after the Vicar that oversaw its building. Leads north.
• Plumewheat gate: decorated with carved sheafs of the plant that gives it it's name, this gate leads from Firiti Fields and leads to Tumbeli Square and the artisan's quarter. One of the two sacred gates of the city's perimeter.
• Otora gate: Named after the Vicar in charge at the time of its construction, it also gives its name to a small area around it. Exits onto Firiti Fields, and is the main gate for goods that are to be moved on via boat.
• Longshore gate: leads onto the path that circumnavigates Eyon's Mirror.

Industry & Trade

Industry: Rhythonze's many mills provide raw power for various industries, such as smithing, laundering, timber production, leather-working and the like. more advanced technology such as automated looms and paper-making, is unknown, both due to the level of innovation achieved thus far and the difficulty in competing with the natural sources such as Teytonol.
Trade: Rythonze is a hub for trade, travel, and information, due to the benevolent wind of Eyon that moves in many directions, but mostly blows upwards and away from the city in a rising spiral. using this, the giant birds of the Giteri are able to gain great distance and altitude - and the lift stays under their wings for some time after leaving the airstream itself, letting them journey for hundreds of miles and carry far heavier loads than they ordinarily could.
Though other air-spirits and winds exist, none are as large, and reliable, and as amenable to human contact as Eyon, meaning it forms the largest of the many air-travel hubs in the Giteri.
Pilgimage: Finally, Rhythonze is a holy city in both of the major faiths of the area - Gyrism and Giterikin Aeroanimism. pious supplicants arrive daily, by land, boat, or air, seeking a sight of the literal god that dwells at the city's heart.

Guilds and Factions

District governors:

1. Nidari lake-town: represented by a notable member of the Nidari community by general assent, very informal.
2. Harbour and warehouse district: run by a consortium of major merchants, some of which are not based in Rhythonze. also controls the western half of Temple Crook.
3. Gem Street: Run by a council of the bosses of notable businesses and mercenary companies based in this area. These are (for the most part) descendants of the leading families of the original Sigmenodan arrivals.
4. Binder's district: still formally ruled by the Master of the scholar community, though their actual control over the community (especially the bondcaster businesses and the like) is weak. includes the eastern half of Temple Crook.
5. Oilsheen alley: run by the Oilsheen group, a criminal gang, though ostensibly a union of concerned local citizens.
6. Promenade/Kinma District: different areas are run by different associations of local notables (aristocrats, institution heads, etc).
7. Little Gyre and Twinfort: Run by the High Cleric of the Gyrist conclave of the city.
8. Afami crescent and Rati Fen: Run by the ancient Afami Family criminal organisation, through a respectable business front.
9. Alzig Court: Formerly run by the deposed Alzig Monarch, now run by a viceroy of the Amicloi-backed royal line.
10. Artisan's quarter: (multiple) the districts in this region are tiny and fractious, controlled by many competing individual small businesses.
11. New and Old Tumbeli: controlled by the Esteemed Fraternity, the last remnants of Tumbeli's ancient independent rulership. needlessly complex and pompous, and led by a High Father.
12. The bastion: directly overseen by the city's military leader - in some cases, directly appointed by the Kinma or even the Aspirant who controls the city. often able to directly overrule the Vicar on relevant matters.
13. North Murk: represented by a coalition of the larger slumlords.
14. South Murk:represented by a coalition of the larger slumlords.
15. Erpenti and Erpenti park: Overseen by an administrator who works in the Vicar's Manor.
16. Sure Ridge, Hourglass and Immerfare: controlled by the powerful Aliti Kinma who are careful to stick with whoever is in command of the city currently - also the Kinma whose army The Braided Band deserted from.
17. Windwise Quarter: represented by a council of 8 senior Shamans, with new members being admitted by vote of the council when a member dies (or more rarely, permanently leaves the quarter).
18. Threehalves and Underbridge: run by the Overseer of Relations, appointed by the Vicar to manage external relations. effectively a spymaster in the current age.
19. Workshop district: different areas of the Workshop District are run by different associations of local notable businesses.
20. Lower Rock and Old Keep: different areas of Lower Rock are run by different associations of local notables (aristocrats, institution heads, etc).

History

• some form of settlement has attended to Eyon for millennia, its early history shrouded in legend. the city agglomerated onto itself over the years.
• Inner wall constructed - but city grew up outside that wall, often being destroyed and rebuilt over millennia
• After the outbreak of the Giterikin Civil War, the Outer wall was constructed in fits and starts, even as the city often Changed hands. City was generally conceded rather than invaded
• in 100LF, Troops of Eastern Giterikin League marched into Rhythonze and seized the (formerly neutral) city. During the turmoil, a large fire destroyed a big chunk of the slums - it was later rebuilt as the upmarket Erpenti neighborhood.
• in 50LF, a large contingent of Sigmenodan mercenaries were hired to help defend the city, who settled with their families onto what quickly became known as Gem Street. A long and sustained trickle of sigmenodan immigrants followed over the following decades, attracted to the well-paid work and established community that was growing up.

Architecture

the buildings of the city are a typical mixture of wood and stone, with heavy roof-tiles to resist the gusting winds. there are two common types of buildings in the city not seen as much elsewhere:

• Eyries: towers built onto the hillside or the plains around, these aviaries are designed to hold, launch, and land the giant birds that enable travel around The Giteri.
• Mills: harnessing the winds that blow from Eyon's palace, many types of industry takes place in the city's many mills.

Geography

Unusually for such a large population centre, Rhythonze doesn't lie on a navigable river or near the coast - instead, its location grew up around Eyon's original homestead, placed on a large rock overlooking a lake - Eyon's Mirror - that sits in a local depression.
Eyon's Mirror, which extends to the south of the city, now provides water to the township, and has a dedicated community of Nidari that live in it, tolerating the fresh water even though it is unkind to their skin. small streams from the forested hills that surround the city to three sides feed this lake, but there is no outflow. due to The Nature of Essence, salt and other contaminants do not accumulate in the water to taint it. the lake is poor in fish and the like, however. It is named not after its reflective surface - which is often marred by passing winds - but by the way the water reflects the winds, and thus Eyon's will.
The aforementioned hills provide timber, stone, and game for the city. They are steep but not colossally tall, and extend for dozens of miles in all directions apart from the southeast. However, only to the north do they come close to the city walls; in all other directions, plains surround the city for several miles. This intensely-farmed land produces plenty of grain and other foodstuffs to help supply the city, though it is still reliant on imports from the wider surrounding region. Windmills, driven by the air currents that blow from the city, are used to grind flour, raise water for agriculture, and carry out a number of proto-industrial processes like smithing.
Rhythonze itself has extended down the flanks of the rock in a mostly symmetrical fashion, impeded only by the shore of the Mirror. The inner city is steep, with stepped streets carved into the rock and roofs serving as yards for the houses above. further out, the city levels off into a maze of newer, poorer habitation. It extends along the coast for around 4km, totalling around 10 square kilometres. the city has many smaller neighbourhoods, but can basically be divided between the Old City (which includes Eyon's Rock and everything else inside the old inner wall) and the Outer city (everything between the inner and outer walls).

Neighbourhoods and locations:

1. Eyon's Palace: the religious citadel, built to a larger-than-human scale, where Eyon dwells, along with priests, supplicants, guards and servants. sits atop the peak of the rock, overlooking the city and the lands beyond. Below it are vast hollowed-out caverns through which wind howls.
2. Vicar's Manor: once just an individual house, the Manor now stands in for the entire district of administrative buildings, courts, guard-offices, mints and the like that takes up a large area of Lower Rock.
3. Nidari lake-town (in and around Eyon's Mirror)
4. Harbour and warehouse district: relatively little freight is moved across the relatively small and landlocked lake, so the harbour - located to the east of the city's shoreline - incorporates fewer warehouses and industrial buildings and more ships for passenger and recreational use - whether that be the pleasure-yachts of the wealthy or the barges that carry weary pilgrims their last few miles. There are some large warehouses, mostly to support trade going to and from Firiti Fields, as massive halls to accommodate travellers.
5. Firiti fields: the landing- and takeoff-zone outside the city, for those capable of taking to the air without the aid of an eyrie or those incapable of landing without a lot of space. the Mayor has ruled that no other uses can be made for this large, flat field, but there is no co-ordination of takeoff or landing - precedence is generally given to the more prestigious flyers, but this rule is informal - and as such, squabbles break out often and near-collisions are frequent.
6. Gem Street: the Sigmenodan district, a strange mixture of jewellers and mercenaries, as well as many banks and secure storerooms to service them.
7. Temple crook: the small section of town - more like a cluster of buildings - near the harbour, where there is a preponderance of immigrants from Unathyr's Garden and other followers of their faith - often Festil from The Learned Canyons. Few of these people live here, but it provides a religious hub based around the eponymous temple, adapted from a disused windmill. otherwise fairly impoverished and nondescript, with a large population of temporary visitors - pilgrims and the like - who often do not realise that the area is named after a "pagan" faith.
8. Binder's district: the region where most immigrants from The Learned Canyons reside. Hundreds of years ago, this was a separate community, dedicated to the study of the Scrivener Culture, before the expansion of the city enveloped it. now holds scriptorums, bookshops, stationers, and Bondcasters.
9. Oilsheen alley: an area with a high population of Kerrid immigrants, this elongated district is centred around the eponymous street. A relatively poor neighborhood isolated from the other slums and located close to the Kinma District, the alley is the centre of one of the most powerful and well-connected criminal organisations in the city. As well as illicit substances - such as Hurr - derived from oils and tars, oil-shell is produced here for windows and the like in town.
10. Promenade/Kinma District: a large area where prosperous business-owners, nobles, and other members of the elite live. Many large manors are located here, some stretching back hundreds of years. These properties are often empty for part of the year, as the Kinma are busy in their respective domains. The only region seen as more exclusive is Lower Rock. Promenade is the name of the central street, among the longest, broadest and straightest in the city.
11. Twinfort: small district whose name derives from the two symmetrical bastions the guard the nearest stretch of wall.
12. Hourglass: named after the distinctively-shaped pair of towering eyries at its heart.
13. Little Gyre: built around the main Gyrist temple in the city - and though it still somewhat pales in comparison to Eyon's Palace as a religious centre, it still has a major enclave. "Little Gyre" is a common name for a religious district in the Giteri, though the title is somewhat ironic in the case of the massive (and fairly recent) temple, built atop what was once a scenic square.
14. Immerfare: a long and narrow region between Little Gyre and Alzig Court.
15. Afami crescent: one of the oldest parts of the city outside the Old Wall, the crescent has lost a lot of territory over the centuries to Alzig Court and Laketown. named after the ancient Afami family that controls the territory.
16. Alzig Court: a neighbourhood infused with glass by the inhabitants, for this place became the home to the monarchs-in-exile of Alzig after an Amicloi-backed coup forced them to flee in 283LF. the monarchs continued to be guests of the Western Giterikin House, most often in Rhythonze but occasionally elsewhere (if the city was lost), until they were finally executed after Rhythonze fell to the Eastern Giterikin League (from a position of neutrality) in 100LF.
17. Artisan's quarter: hundreds of small workshops and independent merchants who earn their livings by buying raw materials and selling finished products at Tumbeli Square.
18. New Tumbeli: a slum region, formed by infilling around an extension to the city walls.
19. Old Tumbeli: Tumbeli was originally a separate settlement built to service those on The Rock and manage the lands beyond. still holds some land-management offices, but is mostly a fairly nondescript district with much talk of "ancient heritage".
20. Tumbeli square: home of the largest market in Rhythonze, Tumbeli Square crosses the former Old wall, long since pillaged for stones until only low foundations remain. In many ways the thriving heart of the city.
21. The bastion/military headquarters
22. North and South Murk: the two most densely packed parts of the city, the bisected slums of The Murk hold the impoverished majority.
23. Erpenti and Erpenti park: When a devastating fire ripped through the heart of the Murk about a century ago, the rebuilding effort replaced the dense old slums with a glistening lake amidst a formal park, surrounded by well-to-do housing that was given as favours, gifts and rewards by the Vicars to various army captains, merchants, and petty Kinma.
24. Rati fen: originally sitting in a depression within the old city walls, Rati Fen had a pond at its centre and was prone to flooding. Over generations, the region was drained and built up until all that remains of the inundated past are dark and waterlogged tunnels.
25. Old Keep: named after an ancient (and now tumbledown) fort in the old city walls. many other old buildings stand in this area too.
26. Sure Ridge: a natural ridge of land climbing up to the base of the rock and still keeping some of its natural character. many gardens and green areas in this wealthy neighbourhood.
27. Windwise Quarter: a centre for the (informal, master/tutor) training of Shamans of Giterikin Aeroanimism - both initial investment as well as ongoing/further training. although the structure is informal, studying in the Windwise Quarter is a major mark of pride and prestige for a shaman.
28. Threehalves: The origin of the name for this district is unknown. It is mostly notable for holding many embassies and other political and diplomatic offices.
29. Causeway and Underbridge: a huge staircase, over half a kilometre long, reaches over a large chunk of the inner and outer city and up to Eyon's Palace. Around and in between its massive arches, Underbridge forms an often-shadowed district with a slightly ramshackle, arty, bohemian feel.
30. Workshop district: the oldest, largest, and wealthiest workshops in Rhythonze crowd into the eastern half of the Inner City, a forest of windmills drawing power from Eyon's bounty.
31. Lower Rock: rising up the flanks of Eyon's rock are the oldest parts of the city, home to senior religious and political figures and institutions. The streets are stepped in many places, the houses small and precipitous and ancient. Catacombs and tunnels honeycomb the rock. Eyries also abound in this district.

Natural Resources

• Wind - for navigation and for mill-power
• water and fish (in the lake)
• surrounding plains grow wheat and almonds; the surrounding hills are wooded and dotted with vineyards.

Alternative Name(s)

The Gale-Seat

Type

City

Population

500,000

Inhabitant Demonym

Rhythonzi

Location under

The Giteri

Owner/Ruler

Eyon

Owning Organization

Eastern Giterikin League

Characters in Location

• Eyon
• Sespedel

Related Historical Events

• 8 LF
  Cusisme and Mosslow meet in Rhythonze
• 27 LF
  Mosslow moves to Rhythonze
• 50 LF
  Rythonze hires Sigmenodan guards
• 100 LF
  Rhythonze falls to Eastern League