Cliffspire
The steam-port township of Cliffspire was founded around 350 years ago after a trade route was established between Harnsbridge in the Karthan Commonwealth and Duunhollow.
Due to Duunhollow's isolation in the mountains away from any semblance of a coastline, funding by the Commonwealth was funneled into aiding the Silver Kingdom establish a line of trade.
Over many years, dwarven technology, industry, and a touch of human innovation caused the town to rapidly grow in size. Cliffspire became a trading force unto itself, fully utilizing its status as a trading outlet between two powerful kingdoms. The town doesn't export many of its own goods except rare and valuable species of fish found in the icy waters north of Meyland. In more recent decades, however, it has seen a revitalizing boom in commerce thanks to the discovery of the largest vein of Erudite in the country within the very cliffs the town is built upon.
Due to Cliffspire's close connections with the Commonwealth, its populace shares most of its culture, traditions, and faiths. The most common faith practiced in Cliffspire is Angelicism, followed closely by Duunish worship and reverence for the Mortal Heroes.
Cliffspire is separated into three distinct districts:
The Upper Town. The average citizen of Cliffspire calls the Upper Town home. Climbing up the cliff are cobblestone, tiered streets that branch and wind in claustrophobic manners through tightly packed alleyways between tall, looming, gothic housing. The Upper Town is peppered with numerous Karthan pubs, taverns, and inns, whose windows glow with warm orange from fireplaces within as the commonfolk brace against the cold of the Jorthrost.
The Spired Clefts. These are the upper reaches of the Upper Town, where most of the town's trading barons, wealthy merchants, and Lords and Ladies reside. It is a place for the town's wealthy noble houses and expensive luxury shops. The walled, gated entrance to the Spired Clefts is difficult to miss, and its spired manor homes even more so. Here, homesteads of grand, gothic design and shape are combined with stout, dwarven aesthetics. Here is where most of the money in the town goes, where the upper class live and work, and where only those with a specific visual presentation and purpose are allowed entry. Exceptions to this are typically those wishing to gain entry to the district for the purposes of religious worship, as the Spired Clefts are home to a number of temples and churches.
The Midreaches. In stark contrast, the Midreaches are poverty-ridden and filthy. The Midreaches are a vertical shanty-town located amidst the vast networks of scaffolding built into the side of the cliff the town is built upon. The Scent of cold, damp, sea air combined with wood rot is strong. The scaffolding is a random jumble of wood, rope, and dirty sheets that function as haphazard doors or roofs. Homes are stacked atop each other, jutting out over the Footdrifts below, and gaps in wooden walkways and rickety bridges reveal more shanty houses below. Poorer dwarven residents here tend to dig into the cliff-side, creating large networks of underground living areas; the only semblance of sturdier and warmer living spaces for the town's poor.
The Footdrifts. This is the main trading hub of Cliffspire. It is located at the foot of the cliff, built on a great network of stilts anchored down into the icy waters. Dwarven industry presides over much of the trading efforts here through the use of cranes, steam-powered clockwork machines, water wheels, and some arcane enchantments. The Footdrifts are Cliffspire's bustling center of trade and the main source of the town's income.
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