The last city of splendor, Urbo Ĉielarko.

 The last city of splendor, Urbo Ĉielarko.

    

    The wealthy city-state of Urbo Ĉielarko has been ruled solely by Illustrious Sultanate of the Prismatic Throne for generations and has remained always neutral in foreign politics. This neutrality, and its position on the coast of a busy sea lane, has kept the city flush with wealth, for those with the means to hold it. Under the rule of Sultan Ohno-no the magnanimous, the city has been flush with nobles and courtiers ranging from far and near to curry his favor and the privileges necessary to conduct business in the city.  

     

    The wealthy and influential only make up a portion of the city though, and the majority of the residents and travelers that come through Urbo Ĉielarko are far beneath the notice of the opulent courts of the nobility. Most of the population live out lives of mundanity and toil, laboring in and never leaving the city. A few other intrepid individuals take their chances smuggling or engaging in piracy off the coast. Rarer yet are the adventurous, often short lived, souls that seek out and plunder the ancient remains of past civilizations and the deep caverns that twist below the earth.

 

   All manner of goods, services, and people can be found by those who know how to navigate the bazaars and back alleys of the city. Strange races of creatures from exotic locales bring goods to trade with others that are stranger still. Chimeric mongrel-folk mix it up with obnoxious Ganselvolk stopping by on their migratory paths. Desert nomads ply their delicate vine-sqeezed nectar, a substance worth well more than its weight in gold. Cultists of all stripes proselytize to any who will listen. 

 

 

     

    All of this ends at the walls of the city. The lands just beyond Urbo Ĉielarko are left to independent villages and nomadic communities that subsist without notice of the city. Some of these, such as the vine-tenders of the desert, and the corn-cobbler halflings, have made themselves wealthy trading their unique products in the markets of Urbo Ĉielarko.

 

    The topography outside of Urbo Ĉielarko varies extremely. Swamps, jungles, deserts, and mountains are dotted with ancient ruins and networks of caverns. Strange rivers divide the landscape: one flows with sticky tar, another is alight with blazing magma, others are salty like the sea, and another flows with an abundance of glowing algae. A couple of them are safe and perfectly normal.