Vesuva

Vesuva is a dense city of 50,000 residents in the greater outlying areas inclusive. The Yana River is split into a square canal system, with the points on the compass, and a central route through the city with bridges at all major intersections, and water drawn from the river and from underground springs, in the case where the water supply could be threatened. Each city sector is a separate neighborhood, filled with its own denizens as laid out by the city plats as Vesuva grew. In the center of the city is the Grand Bazaar, an arcade nearly a mile wide and a mile long, with every sort of commerce, product, and item for sale. It is an open-air market, and the evening and morning sunlight reveals the arcade and entwined pergolas following the streets and alleyways between temporary and permanent structures as it climbs to the hours of operation for vendors in each area. Semi-commercial properties line the Bazaar reaching two to three stories around it, typically housing the owners in the upper floors and the businesses on the ground floors – silversmiths, clothing retailers, haute cuisine restaurants, inns, pubs, and taverns all intermixed with residences radiating outward to the center of each sector. The outer secants of the square canal zone house residential areas of differing import and industry. The southeast contains all the tack and harness, stables, smithies, forges, armorers and weaponsmiths as well as those workers. The southwest is home to the butchers, fishmongers, granaries, and river commerce docks between the southeast and southwest. The northeast is largely farmers and livestock merchants, and contains most of the banks. The entire northwest secant is the location of The Spear, the main walled citadel situated in a large moat system of canals, which houses the main palace, a keep, and a lower and upper garrison. There is enough room to house the city Administration officials in the Lower Yard, intermingled with the barracks of the elite soldiers. The Upper Yard houses the citadel sages and wizards, clerics and druids, all of whom commune with the magical and spiritual as well as historic and archaeological. This feature climbs up some three stories to the base of The Spear, a wedge-shaped eight-story arching tower constructed ages ago of solid limestone clad in polished steel, plated in ancient magicked silver. The sentries at the tip of the Spear can see for nearly 100 miles around on a clear day, and can espy the looming Skyrend to the west, the fading Sarapadian Seas to the east, the verdant crest of the Greenwood to the north, and the dark olive of the Greybark to the south.

Temples and harrows, stalls, and grottoes dot the city for spiritual or magical gatherings. Nearly every deity is represented somewhere in the city, and adherents can be see wandering around the city. Since the abolishment of evil temples and ways in the last millennium, there is relative religious and even racial peace generally among the populace as a whole. This isn’t to suggest that all is well in Vesuva – each craft has a guild centers and areas of operation in the city, and in certain areas of town, in hushed voices, you may overhear mention of even guilds for thieves and assassins. Every race and class can be found in the city, but some are less accepted in certain areas than others. Obviousness isn’t a useful trait for the average citizen, where unwanted attention can inconvenience even the most well prepared individual. The experience of each area of town will vary with the individual, as everyone really has their own story to tell…