Crystal Coast & Crosswater Mountains - Port Haru and Erebys

Port Haru

City with a collapsed economy and political chaos; the city of broken glass.

Much of the city was constructed in the past generation or two, mimicking classic Mirrish and Tharthiken styles.  Yet the architecture was oversized, tacky, and compromised by large panes of glass – once a status symbol, and now a liability.   Port Haru's crumbling facades, broken gables, and unhinged doors have become hallmarks of the city's sudden, deep economic despair.  But above all else, the symbol for the city and its economic shambles is broken glass.

Port Haru became wealthy overnight from its world-renowned glassmaking industry.  Though glassblowing has been practiced since antiquity, only Port Haru's panesmiths knew the secret to efficient production of large, clear panes of glass.  Just a generation ago, Port Haru was famous as the only city where glass windows and doors could be found in every building.  Money flowed to the city, the only source of high-quality glass panes at a price affordable to the merely wealthy.  (As opposed to the filthy rich: formerly the only category of people able to afford glass.)

Port Haru suffered three irrecoverable blows in just the past decade.  First, its access to special fine sand deposits from the Crossmountain Deserts were largely cut off, by regional warlords and mercenaries from Erebys.  This made glassmaking more expensive and difficult, as foreign sources of sand had to be purchased, and their properties modified pre-production.  Second, a coalition of pirates and privateers funded by jealous rival states began plundering Port Haru's trade ships; its modest navy could protect only local waters, not long trade routes to distant lands.  Finally, and most importantly, Port Haru's rivals stole its priceless glassmaking recipe, ending the monopoly of the Port Haru panesmiths and plunging the economy into a deep, irreversible recession.  Cheaper supply of glass burst the “glass bubble”, and glass lost its place as a famous status symbol.  Now, for Port Haru, it symbolizes only ruin.  Today very little glass is made in the city, though desperate merchants will sell the windows from their own homes for a tenth their former price – or even just a few days' worth of food.

The cleverest of the Harushi merchants have all fled to Peloria, Fortuna, Mathersport or Yozai to rebuild their fortunes, depleting the city of its brightest economic minds when it needs them most.

Population: 4.  (Note: the city looks bigger than it is, due to a recent construction boom.  Over half the buildings – including an entire commercial district – are abandoned.)

Economic Influence: 2 (recently decreased from 12)

These days, Port Haru has a cautionary tale in the place where its economy should be.  Though its people are technically surviving, they have just experienced an unprecedented collapse in their standard of living: Port Haru was once the wealthiest (per capita) city in Terra Trema.

Military Influence: 12 (recently increased from 4)

Port Haru has gained an important, volatile resource as of late: angry, desperate young men and women.  The city-state had never been a significant military power, but the recent economic devastation has swelled the ranks of the army and inspired its leaders to desperate action.  Though too late to save its economy, Port Haru's barely-restrained armed forces have crushed the warlords responsible for its lost access to fine glassmaking sands.  This would have been unthinkable just a decade ago, when Port Haru was a pacifistic state that bought off its foes with its vast wealth.  

Port Haru's once modest navy has surged in size as well – if not in quality.  Lacking the finances and resources to construct new ships, Port Haru has relied on an unorthodox tactic.  It still sends out shipments of glass, as it always has, only these shipments are actually empty, and the cargo ships are bait.  When pirates, privateers, and even foreign naval vessels try to board these “cargo ships” and capture their cargo, they find themselves facing swarms of hundreds of angry marines, who slaughter them and take their vessel.  This tactic has been less successful as the various pirates and privateers have caught on to it, but Port Haru's navy has quintupled in size just in the past year.  (Part of this is due to the commandeering of all merchant vessels, which are now heavily armed – though not particularly fast or durable, since they were not built as warships.)

Cultural Influence: 4

Port Haru's biggest contribution to Terra Trema at large has been its glass and glass-based art.  While most glass exports have collapsed, some more artistic glass pieces are still sold, and local glassblowing art fairs are still being held in the city.

The fabric of Port Haru's society has been shredded by the collapse, but Port Haru's traditional culture (a blend of Mirrish and Norrish heritage) was mostly lost decades prior.  A generation of incredible wealth and frivolity caused most of the population to lose their connection with who they were; their culture had become flamboyantly materialistic and forward-looking.  (Not necessarily in a good way.)

Government: Council of the High Panemasters - once numbered in the dozens, but abdications, assassinations, exile, and comas have left the “Council” as more of a single “Dictator” - Makaman the Sharp.  However, this Dictator no longer has much control over the populace; there are warring factions within the city that vie for control: gangs of looters, the old city watch, guards of the formerly wealthy (and still somewhat powerful), and the city military - which is respected and feared, but not always obeyed.  

Most Common Criminal Acts: Pillaging, looting, rioting, plundering, economic sabotage, desperate violence of many flavors, kidnapping, assassinations, general malfeasance.  Pretty much half of everything that happens here is technically crime, due to a collapse of the social order.

Justice Conscription, vigilantism, straight-up murder.

Climate: Mild oceanic subtropical, frequent rain and almost no temperature variation, even night/day

Nights: Previously great lighting and nightlife.  Lighting is now sporadic, and the night can be very dangerous.

Food: Food is scarce but technically sufficient, as many crops are easy to grow in the mild, warm, wet climate.  Most fancy food is gone (excepting a few remaining stockpiles rich merchants made) but there’s a lot of generic rice and flour.

Clothing: Very fancy robes, furs, and enchanted wares - but all in various states of wear and befoulment.

Festivals & Holidays: It's difficult to say what's still celebrated these days.  Solaria?  Probably.  Festival of Widows?  Probably not.

City Appearance & Architecture: Lots of glass, everywhere.

Common Sounds & Smells: An unusual amount of blood scent.

Governance Building, Iconic Structures & Landmarks:  Font of Eternal Wealth (now crossed out and replaced with “Font of Despair”), The Infinity Furnace, the Shattered Spires (once the Sparkling Spires), the Domes of Folly (once the Domes of Infinity), the Cracked Cathedral (once the Crystal Cathedral), the Fallen Star (once the Soaring Star), the Gates of Despair (once the Gates of Prosperity)

Districts, Sectors, Zones, Regions, Wards, and other big places: Dyetown, Diamondtown, The Melts (a burned down district where the glass has fused together into a melted glassy blob.)  The Holdout (a neighborhood of well-guarded rich estates that haven’t yet been overrun by looters.)

Produces, Exports: ironwood, barley, turnips, cabbage, garlic, silver, furs, meat, swords, ice orbs, ice wine

Demands, Imports: firestone (coal), wool, ships, whale oil, pottery, textiles, liquor, tropical fruit, ships

 


Erebys

City of the Vigilant Watch.  An ancient order that has lost its purpose, but not its power.

Erebys was founded in very ancient times as an Elven fortress, built on one of the few navigable two-way access points to the Underdeep as a stopper for Drow raids.  During the Underdeep Crusades, the city was the most important base of operations for the Order of Light in Terra Trema.  The infamous Weeping War was waged in and around Erebys, as Drow refugees conquered the city in a mostly-unsuccessful attempt to escape massacre at the hands of the Order of Light crusaders.  While most cultures of Terra Trema have begrudgingly acknowledged the heavy-handed and unnecessarily violent nature of the Crusades, Erebys remembers the Weeping War all too well: official city policy is to kill all Drow on sight.  (This is hardly an issue since Drow are now quite rare, and steer far clear of Erebys.  But it speaks to the bitterly stubborn, conservative nature of Erebyns.)

Erebys fears aggression from an increasingly desperate, militarized Port Haru.  Just a decade prior, Port Haru paid Erebys a significant annual sum as a protection fee; Erebys had the superior military but a relatively underdeveloped economy.  Today, the reverse is true, and Port Haru has demanded a protection fee from Erebys.  This pressing political issue is on the minds of all Erebyns; paying the fee would insult the city's pride, but save it from a costly and potentially devastating war.  Not to mention, Port Haru's plight has saddened Erebys, with its citizens  requesting that more aid be given.  Word on the street is that payment will be given, but framed as emergency aid rather than a protection fee.

Economy: Erebys has suffered only modestly from the fallout of the apocalyptic economic collapse of Port Haru, its closest major neighbor.  Merchants are feeling pinched for coin, and more laborers roam the markets looking for work, but there is no sense of desperation: the city was never reliant on Port Haru, and this inconvenience will pass.

Appearance: Like many of Terra Trema’ cities, Erebys has a prominent wall and many towers.  Yet these towers are not orderly, sky-seeking spires; they more closely resemble a scattered clump of straws or sticks (the skewed towers) being held mostly upright by being stuffed into a cup (the walls).

Erebys' Governance Building, Iconic Structures & Landmarks:  Annex of the Order (just “The Annex”), Portalguard (a ring-shaped structure at the heart of the city that overlooks the pit to the Underdeep) Top-stair (below Portalguard; the main gate into the pit - the only non-lethal entrance.) The Vat (an ENORMOUS literal vat poised above & held in place by the Portalguard ring - used to pour deadly substances down into the Underdeep should an army rise up to invade.)  The Grand Parapet (the largest of the curiously slanted towers, with a base at Portalguard, but reaching up above Erebys’ walls and out over the nearby hillside), Western Arc (a set of curved towers), The Serrata (a set of towers that bend at right angles), Blades of Heaven, Shaft of the Sun, Drowpiercer, Warkeeper’s Stair, Crusaders’ Gate, Magister’s Gate, The Prison (really just a pit of spikes; Erebys doesn’t keep prisoners), Drow’s Gate (a gate leading directly to the “prison”).