Peridan
I have visited Peridan many times over the course of my career and the city has never failed to surprise me. It is possibly the single most unique location in all of Geolga. Situated directly on the border between The Dragonlands and Human Territories, Peridan is the offical crossing point between the two.
As the border city, it's incredibly busy and a melting pot between the two cultures. Pilgrims, merchants, travelers, and more rely on this city to safely and legally cross between the two.
Friends or Enemies?
Peridan has always confused me in one regard: it is always at the seat of conflict when it comes to human/dragon relations but it also stands as a shining example of humans and dragons living together in peace. It's amazing how they support such a volatile relationship. I guess it's a reflection of our own relationships. Some people are constantly at each other's throats and yet are somehow the best of friends.Two for One
The city is situated on the border on top of a massive valley known as "The Scar". Because of this, the city is split into two halves, one on the human side and one on the dragon side, each ruled by a different governing body making this the only city with a joint human-dragon leadership. Each half more or less governs itself but there are still joint laws that must be agreed on by both sides. As a result, Peridan is the only city in the Human Territories where it is illegal to own a dragon. Economically, even I can't explain how this works given how little value dragons place on currency. Whatever the system, it works. Economics has never been the focus of my studies. Choosing a leader for each half is handled slightly differently than other areas. The Matriarch of Peridan is appointed by the Dracaena and the Mayor is appointed by popular vote. There are many rumors that domesticates fleeing their cruel masters come to Peridan, but given how they are treated by other dragons, it is difficult to prove this claim. It would not be surprsiging given that it provides some protection from clan dragons while keeping their human caretakers at bay.
Type
City
Very interesting! If this is the only (official) crossing point, how is an entire species of beings who can fly impelled to honor that? How long is the border between the two lands? It would truly be a monumental undertaking to patrol an entire national divide for airborne individuals without much more advanced means! And given how fiercely independent dragons are I'd imagine it'd be difficult to command them one and all to obey the custom of only crossing at one point.
Illegal crossing is definitely a problem especially since no one is checking for passports or illegal immigration. There are border patrols, but there's only but so much ground they can cover. I haven't figured out exactly what countermeasures are being used for it though. Whether or not a dragon crosses legally is a question of how much of a hassle it'll be.
That must be a particularly vexing problem considering dragons wouldn't even have to land or take off within visual distance of the border. Taking off and/or landing tens or hundreds of miles on one side or the other would make them impossible to track along with whatever a dragon's maximum altitude is. Just how high can your dragons fly anyway? Birds in our world can fly as high as 37k feet!
*whistles* That's pretty high. I never thought about their maximum altitude. I should look into it. Although 37k seems like a good number. Do they really need to go higher than that?