The confluence of events that led to the Great City on the River is simple: the warmth of the Sky Shepard’s Sun melted the snow and ice, rivers formed and flowed across the plains and valleys of central Ar’rin, and the mortal peoples awoke.
Less obvious is the value of the mortal people. The Saltfolk are explorers and they flourished along the coast in the East. The Grassfolk were herders and were nomadic tribes traversing the low-lands, natural Shepards. But the Riverfolk were builders.
The flatboats and skiffs that are used to move goods and people along the great rivers from the Free Cities in the East to the Forests in the West are famous. Because they were built first, then shortly after the Riverfolk built trade. The communal growth of the people of the land, mortal and determined is the core of their identity to the immortal folk in the Age of Myth. The stories that were collected by the Dvarfolk and Elves all tell of the grit and wonder that filled their hearts and souls.
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It was this unified economy that sparked the creation of the Great City of Arised in the center of the continent. A hub sprung up of villages on riverbanks along the areas where the rivers were widest, and also where a natural pooling occurred.
The Riverfolk constructed a network of docks and stilt homers on the beaches. It became a refuge for travelers and a living market for goods to be bartered or sold. Once the Dvarfolk learned of it, it was the place where coin became the common language and liquor was the refreshment for most negotiations.
However, within a few generations, the attention of several groups turned to this place and its strategic location. A loose consortium of merchants in the East moved their operations to a large hall that was built, this hall was named the Arised Guildhall. It is from this decision to create a central location for a variety of goods and services that the city was birthed.
The second group that noticed was the wizards of the Shar Order. They desired a place for recruiting and training apprentices, and the centrality was too attractive to be ignored. The goal was to construct a city larger than any that had ever imagined before, and the wizards offered their services for transport and design to the three groups that now formed the council of Arised: the Riverfolk Leaders, the Guildhall’s most affluent merchants, and the Dvarfolk from Stirgaard.
The city was divided into two distinct halves, one on each side of the river, which ran in a diagonal from the northeast to the southwest of the city. To the north of the river, the wizards reshaped the earth into a rising mound and placed their spires farthest from the river. The docks were constructed on both banks, but the northwest side was set aside for storage and smithing. These became in time the Warehouse Quarter and the Iron Quarter, respectively. On the south bank, the marketplaces and farms were built out, this became seen as Eastern Arised and had a more independent air, run by the Riverfolk. A small area came to be known as the Black Quarter, where almost anything could be negotiated for, from contraband to stolen wares to assassinations.
The Guild set up their hall on an island raised in the river by a contract with the Shar Order. Specialty goods would be hosted and contracts taken there on the island. Often it was customary for famous or noble individuals to visit the Guild Isle in masks or disguises. The Guild alleged that wizards could not scry or spy upon anyone on the Guild Isle. It became the center of clandestine stories and rumors. This only served to heighten the value of the Guild and the wizards looked the other way for anything that happened on the island.
By the time Westgate had risen to shield the Storm Isles and forests in the West from contact with mortal folk, Arised had become a powerful city, the largest in Ar’rin. With this mystique, a deal was eventually struck to restrict trade to a specific route Arised to Westgate. This was named the Golden Road by the Guild, and the shiny coin that flowed back and forth across its cobblestone path. Taverns and Inns sprung up along the road, and eventually, towns followed as folk positioned themselves to get coins for their kin.
During the Age of Kings, Arised became a waystation for all travel and trade from Westgate to the Free Cities and back. With the oversight of the Shar Order knowledge, culture, art, and music flowed across Ar’rin. The only true threat was to the North, where the nineteen tribes and the rule of Arklin, Scourge of the Elves, held demesne.
The Shar Order recruited apprentices and built the first College of Magick in Arised, offering their services to lords, kings, and even the rulers of the Free Cities. There was hope, and there was unity in the air over Arised, yet conflict reared its head in almost every corner of the continent as the reach of the North grew monath by monath, yiar after yiar.
Arised would remain an iconic city even after the Rise and Fall of Balinor, but that is another tale…
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got to love old amateur map drawings.