Plaguetown

Plaguetown is a settlement in the hills south of QinXi known for being a refuge for the sick or troubled. It is said that any illness can be cured there, if only you can find the right treatment amidst all the snake oil. It is the destination of the Plague Pilgrimage.

Demographics

Plaguetown has all the services of your average large town, but a disproportionately large population of both
A) alchemists, doctors, clerics, and conmen, and B) pilgrims, wretches, urchins, and desperate parents.
Humans are technically the plurality, but plaguetown is one of the most diverse settlements on Vorago.

Government

Plaguetown is not officially part of any nation, though it has very close ties with the city-state of Qinxi and is broadly considered to be under it's military shadow. Plaguetown answers to only two authorities, neither of them Qin: the eclectic Duke Ilvin and the high-ranking monks of the monastery. Law an order is only loosely enforced by the Duke's militia, and the city sports a sizeable criminal underbelly.

Defences

Plaguetown mostly stays independent through a sense of bad juju and a lack of material resources. Everyone agrees that it's best for it to stay accesible but not their responsibility.

Infrastructure

The most important infrastructure in Plaguetown is the large sewer and well system built during the golden age. It supplies guaranteed clean water from an aquaphor deep in the hills, while carrying away the slurry of desease-riddled...output produced daily by the ill. Both systems were constructed with repairability in mind, so they are well-maintained, but it also means they function as a large and navigable underbelly for the poor and criminal.

Districts

The main three districts are the Monastic, Trade, and Plague districts, each separated by stone walls. The Monastic district contains the main monastery and parks, as well as the few offshoot schools, of the Way of Bodily Harmony, and is both the nicest and least populated district. It is also the oldest, as Plaguetown itself grew out of the pilgrims who sought ou the monks for treatments a thousand years ago. The Trade district contains most of the usual trade and production buildings you'd see in a large settlement, including a great many independent clinics, temples, and apothecaries. The Duke's palace lies on its outskirts. The Plague district is where the poor and hopeful live or rent, waiting for their chance for treatment or simply trying to make do. It is also where the temples to various gods of disease stand.

Assets

While Aietel may be the intellectual capital of medicine and study on Vorago, Plaguetown is the uncontested master of its practical application. Experimental treatments alchemical, surgical, and magical, real and fake, are the real unique goods.

Guilds and Factions

When a pilgrim arrives with a strange or desperate sickness, they have three groups to seek succor from. First, the monks of the Way of Bodily Harmony, the original draw of the settlement, are masters of curing ailments, and only do so for whatever cost is reasonable to the patient. However, they are not miracle workers, and the fact that they take very few patients and live in a gated community may have led to their skills being exaggerated in the public eye to the point of miracle work. Second and most commonly, pilgrims consult the doctors, alchemists, and clerics. While many are well-qualified, they and their treatments are so numerous that it is very difficult for the desperate to differentiate between real practitioners and con men. Finally, the most desperate and poor seek salvation at the temples to the various gods and powers of disease in shadows of the plague district. Some are run by the faithful and charitable clerics of benevolent plague gods, but some are smooth-talking representatives of predatory devils or deranged cults of demons.

Geography

Plaguetown slouches on a large hill, with the plague district at the bottom and the monasteries at the top. Multiple springs trickle down from the monastery parks to the stagnant ponds at the bottom.

Founding Date

800

Alternative Name(s)

Leper's Rest

Type

Large town

Population

15,000

Inhabitant Demonym

Lepers

Owner/Ruler

Duke Ilvin