Apothasalos
Apothasalos sprang from humble roots as a frontier outpost on an ancient military road predating the Hyperboreans’ arrival. When Oerson and his legions came upon the settlement in –90 I.R., he decreed the location to be the ideal site for a regional capital. Construction began in earnest, and within six years a team of masons and artisans erected the massive outer walls and battlements that became the city’s hallmark. These impressive defenses faced their first test in 14 I.R. when the Hundaei besieged the city in an assault known as the Month of Raining Arrows. Despite suffering extensive casualties, the beleaguered citizens withstood the onslaught. Relief came after 40 days when the Hyperborean commander Gnassus arrived on the scene. His legions defeated the Hundaei in spectacular fashion and ended the immediate threat to the exhausted city.
The city witnessed steady growth over the next 1,500 years as its proximity to neighboring Tsen made it a popular waystation for the bustling City of Wonders. However, that metropolis’s utter destruction in 1491 I.R. shook Apothasalos’ walls and foundation to the core. Fortunately, the Barrier Hills absorbed the brunt of the blast that laid waste to Tsen, though Apothasalos did not escape the apocalypse unscathed. Frightened by what they had witnessed, the city practically emptied overnight as terrified citizens fled their homes in a mad scramble to safety. When the initial chaos finally died down one year later, Apothasalos’ leaders returned to the badly damaged yet still standing metropolis. Over the next several years, its residents slowly trickled back into their homes and businesses to resume their former existence.
With the destruction of Tsen, Apothasalos once again returned to its roots on The Frontier’s edge, though the imposing citadel was now a far cry from its previous incarnation as a crude outpost. Apothasalos functioned as a vital cog in the Hyperborean military machine. Yet with the Hyperborean decline and retreat 1,000 years later, Apothasalos underwent another metamorphosis from a defensive citadel into a commercial center. Nonetheless, its citizens still maintained the Hyperborean traditions and considered themselves to be a continuation of that bygone empire rather than its successors. Today, the city maintains a significant standing army of 1,910 infantrymen and cavalry troops known as the Knights of Apothasalos. Despite retaining some of its former traits, the city is now more celebrated for its markets than its military prowess or Hyperborean character. The metropolis extensively trades locally produced goods and commodities with the distant cities of Bard’s Gate and Endhome. Its drovers’ guild brings livestock to the markets, while its mercantile guild buys and sells nearly every imaginable product. Indeed, Apothasalos’ knights primarily serve commercial interests, defending caravans and trade routes against incursions from the gnolls in the neighboring hills and the K’Haln riders to the north. Apothasalos maintains peaceful relations with Tanuil, the nearest notable settlement to the south.
Apothasalos’ fortunes depend heavily upon its economic might, setting the stage for a power struggle between its political leader Harmost Gaelanicus Prescis and the potent guilds who seek greater autonomy and a larger role in the city’s administrative and civic affairs. In addition to its legal enterprises, the city’s small yet influential underworld syndicates also aspire to keep the harmost and her subordinates out of their business. Although violent, Apothasalos’ criminal elements enforce a strict code prohibiting killing or seriously injuring innocent civilians. These rogues burglarize homes and businesses, smuggle contraband into the city, and sell illegal goods, most notably illicit narcotics purchased or manufactured in distant High Karst. They also rummage through the ruined portions of the city that were never rebuilt after the cataclysm at Tsen. Firsthand accounts claim that mutated humanoids, animals, and monsters roam the unstable passages and chambers in the city’s ruined underbelly.
Capital
Apothasalos, City of
Type
Capital
Owning Organization
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