"I must say, no man who has never been to the city of birds may call himself an ornithologist. It is simply vertiginous, the number of different species have made the choice to settle here, in what was an abandoned mine settlement on the edge of a cliff ! You get to see colors you couldn't start to imagine before ! Well, alright, that might be an overstatement but it is true that some birds are there that can only be found in the Second Kingdom !"
Excerpt from the Account on the life in the Sky, by Miss Stephanie Clobik, Zoological Scholar
Demographics
Almost exclusively First People, mostly commoners.
Heavy Tourism from every Kingdom
Government
FeatherRoost is completely loyal to the First Kingdom, and, as such, responds only to its Knight Governor, Arthur Monic, who was born rooster and enjoys a very high popularity rate in the city. His city guard, almost exclusively composed of other Feathians, have no trouble maintaining order, and spend most of their time lecturing disrespectful tourists, arresting swindlers, or drinking at the Woodpecker's Tail.
Defences
The natural difficulty to reach the city is its natural defence, as it is quite difficult to march an army through a meter-wide staircase or a maze of tunnels and railroads. Two garrisons, linked by a narrow wooden bridge, tower above the city, on both sides of the cliff and on solid ground, protecting it from possible attacks from above (boiling oil, catapults etc.).
Industry & Trade
Before being famous for its birds, who nested within the city, and becoming a tourism hub, FeatherRoost was, and still is, a mining city. Its inhabitants, when they're not swindling or being annoyed by tourists, are miners or forge smiths by trade, as the city almost was built by them.
Infrastructure
The City of Birds is built against a cliff, overlooking the Archon. It can be reached either from the bottom of the valley, using old mining tunnels, or from the high ground, using cliff side narrow stairs. As it is a mining city, many mine tunnels both within the cliff, over it and under it have been built.
Assets
FeatherRoost is the greatest warehouse of minerals of the First Kingdom, even before the Felken Wall's warehouses. Apart from that, a lot of forges and smith shops, quite a few tourist traps, of course, and an inn, the trade center of the city, the Woodpecker's Tail.
Guilds and Factions
Besides Arthur Monic's city guard, there is a mining syndicate, to ensure the security of the miners. The Sanders couple, who own the Woodpecker's Tail inn occupy a lot of space in the political landscape of the city, and of course, the Serelion Emporium has stakes in the economical aspect of the town.
The First Religion has a church, although most inhabitants who attend the masses only do it out of habit, and not out of true devotion, and it is suspected but unproven that the Celestials own a chapter somewhere in the mines.
History
"FeatherRoost was originally established as a mere mining in camp in 15UA, to supply Ulther. The city was developed around it as it quickly became a huge meeting points for smiths and miners alike, for the cliff revealed itself to be extremely rich, mineral-wise.
The city wasn't built on the cliff intentionally, it was mostly built on the busiest mining tunnels, and, as an entire city couldn't hold in the ground, it started developing outside of it, during the Days of Hunt of 18UA. By this point, it still was unjustly called "the mining camp". The Roost was named this way by Lana, our lost Universalis Artemis, when, in the Days of Seeds of the following year, the inhabitants were surprised to see thousands of birds, from all around the world, use their city as a resting stop on their multitude of migration paths. It took five more years for the news to travel around the world, and then it became the tourism center we know and love today. A Knight Governor, was sent, and FeatherRoost took its place as the first official secondary city of the Ultherian Kingdom."
-Excerpt from the Profane's Guide to the Ultherian Age, by Knight Gustav, First Historian
Architecture
The furthest the city goes from the cliff, the more wooden it becomes, as too much weight would only bring it down. As such, the most importants buildings are built from stone, within the rock, then, right in front of them, the wealthiest houses are made of oldest, less renovated stone, and the further from the cliff you get, the more the houses look like shacks and the streets like scaffolding.
Geography
As has been said before, the CIty is built along a cliff, overlooking the Archon River. Over it, beyong the garrisons, are pine forests, stopped only by Ulther, many miles further. From the cliff, by looking north, the Archonic mountains loom over the world, both wonderful and terrifying.
Natural Resources
Of course, the city is extremely productive in terms of minerals, even two centuries after its founding. And, if the revenue wasn't enough, the tourism money drawn in by the birds is far enough to steadily ensure the prosperity of the city.
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