Karlodar
"Drill Town". Karlodar is a town built out of a massive bore mine, with almost the entirety of it built on the walls of a huge mine shaft, created by a massive drill at the bottom, ever expanding the town downwards. Streets circle the shaft, dividing the town into 21 "levels", with stairs, ramps, and elevators connecting them. Stone bridges crisscross the center of the shaft, even supporting large plazas and markets suspended in the center of the hole. Several large mansions are also suspended in the center, usually on the lower, newer levels, housing the wealthier residents of the town who do not need to share the access to open air with their neighbors.
The city is primarily entered via elevator, with some big enough for whole groups of carts and carriages.
Huge metal pipes are a common sight within the city, snaking up the shaft's walls and breaking off to connect various buildings. These pipes are the veins of the city, delivering heat and light to the entire city from its beating heart, the drill. Even when idle, it generates so much heat it can keep the entire city warm in the winter. The interiors of the pipes get so hot, that their grates fill the town with warm, orange light through the night.
Most buildings are built into the walls of the shaft, with only the front of them visible to the center. In the interest of giving as many properties access to natural light as possible, many of the buildings in the walls are built on rotating disks, which rotate on three eight hour "shifts", allowing each home in a trio its time in the open-aired shaft, and each business access to the street during that business's peak hours.
The city is known for never sleeping, as the dwarvish working philosophy keeps things running twenty-four hours a day. Like many other dwarvish cities, the residents divide their lives into "thirds", work, leisure, and sleep, choosing which of these to do during each of the days shifts.
Click here for a list of: Minor Karlodar Characters
Current Events:
Currently, Karlodar is under martial law enforced by the King as punishment for the Rodriega incident, and after catching wind of some of the adamantine production. Karlodarians have also been cracked down on for being more Empire-leaning (being the closest to the border) and are being caught up in an upcoming conflict over a border dispute in the Heartland. Old tensions between the old traditionalists of the capitol and the new innovators of Karlodar (being largely an inventive town), are coming to a head. Dissent is growing and there is a large movement to declaring independence and asking for Imperial Aid, as is the right of all who feel they are being oppressed.Demographics
Karlodar is mostly made up of dwarves, but there is a significant minority of gnomes, goblins, and kobolds, who were accepted into the city after the Empire's conquest of Brekor. As with any post-Empire civilization, all races are accepted, and the occasionally more obscure races can also be found here.
Government
Karlodar is headed by a series of beurocrats, headed by Praetor Mogaw.
Defences
Karlodar is defended by the Bulwarks, a division of national soldiers and guards the city. It is relatively undefended against invasion, however, and in the case of an attack, the city would be evacuated to one of the nearby fortresses.
Keeping the day-to-day peace is the "Guard's Union", a heavily-armored police force that has a mountain of bureaucracies around it. They are known to generally keep things running smoothly, but are slow to investigate things outside their norm, and have numerous regulations about what they won't do.
Industry & Trade
Karlodar is the largest exporter of Adamantine ore in the world, and has recently expanded into refinement and production, though most of that is still done in the kingdom capitol, Karout.
Guilds and Factions
The Mining Guild is the most significant organization in the city, and employs the majority of workers through its mines, equipment maintenance, and factories.
History
A relatively young town in Brekor, the settlement started as a simple mine, discovered by a team of dwarven prospectors/explorers led by Umgarn Garnick. Umgarn was a famous prospector, said to have climbed every mountain in the Axeblade Mountain range, who could "smell minerals on the wind". He was joined by other legendary figures, such as his longtime friend Thulgrum Gangarn, who was said to be able to break stone open with his bare hands, revealing the treasure within. There was also Umgarn's sister, Runkahm Garnick, famous for being the brains of the operation, constructing and managing mines out of the deposits her brother found. Gulmar Hornar, an unmatched hunter, also joined them as a guide, fighting off monsters they ran into along the way. The final member of their troop was a local resident of the mountain, Lessnis Ruriell, who ultimately stayed behind to lead the town, Karlodar, that popped up around, and eventually, in the town, becoming its first mayor.
For years, Karlodar was little more than a mine, with a handful of residences around it on the mountaintop, slowly expanding as the mine dug deeper into the mountaintop. Eventually, three hundred years after the founding of the town, the top of the mountain itself was sheared off and a single gigantic drill, a feat of dwarven engineering, was built to tunnel deeper in. As the drilled moved down, the town grew alongside it, building virtically downwarf along the sides of the massive mineshaft, and funded by the ever-growing number of adamantine veins deeper beneath the mountain.
Founding: 2,687 PWC
Alternative Name(s)
Drill Town
Type
Town
Population
Est. 13,000
Owning Organization
Characters in Location
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