Pathos
The gem of the North. Capital city of Porstella. It’s history is entrenched in war and was founded on a mound of blood. The new built over the old till all that remained beneath was a graveyard of maze-like ruins. Rich and poor split by the Palasian River. Sitting beside Lagos Lake it’s a port city with access to the ice filled Northern Seas—the Igadrith mountain looming in the western sky. With the Igadrith nearby, Pathos controls the only trade supply of selestrium steel in the continent. This is a wealthy city—an impoverished city. It is a city of change.
Palace of Pathos
Aged magesty. Like most of the city, time has been unkind to the Palace. Once a monument to unity, strength, and heritage, it is now only a shadow of itself. The white stone palace sitting atop the cliffs that overlook Lake Lagos and the city below. Gilded halls shroud the fallen. War has made it necessary to sell off riches—statues, paintings—leaving only the stains of the forgotten past in their wake. Built in the time of Maralt Brunning who united the north, perhaps this is the only monument that will survive age to age through the warring north.
Upper & Shipping District
The Upper District—home to nobility and the elite of society. Nothing screams nobility as much as lumenancy and trade. One is either of the blood, or they are nothing. Yet lumenancy isn’t all there is. A few manage to rise through the gaps of the gutters. The district sits below the palace and above the Market District, resting on a slow slopping hill that makes it quite literal above the rest.
The Shipping District—always alive no matter the time of day. Merchants cannot rest and trade must go on. Ships are in a constant rush coming in and out of slips on lumenanced winds. warehouses—some stuffed, some abandoned—litter the surroundings. The perfect place for shady deals, the perfect place for an ambush.
Lower Distrct and Ram’s Head
If the Uppers are a shining pearl, then the Lower District is it’s rotted cousin. The cobble is cracked, the gas-lit lamps are few. Houses built in identical rows by Taurus lumenancers on the cheap. Though the solid stonework is still a far cry better than living elsewhere. Better here than in the slums.
And inside the Lower District? The Ram’s Head pub. A building that nearly titters over the Palasian River. Headquarters of Aries in the north, it was chosen for a reason—acces to the water, access to the tunnels. For beneath the city lays a maze of tunnels. Cheap ale flows here, though many would call it the best.
City Ruins & Market District.
What happens when lumenancers built layers of new over the old? They leave traces. Traces found in the maze of the city underground. Traces of ruins from a time long before. Many use these ruins and tunnels for their own purposes and few have managed to map them. Time has picked them clean of artifacts and riches, but what else lays hidden is yet to be seen.
And where will they be sold if not the Market District? The greatest hub of trade in Portstella and all the north. If you can’t find it here, you can’t find it anywhere. Stalls line the lanes and stores from jewelry to sweets mark the rows. Numerous squares, resteraunts, markets make this the place for nobles to spend their coin.
River Valley & the North Slums
And if you don’t want to be found shopping for it in the market then the River Valley is where you’ll be. A sloping hill of dirt and mud, masks obscure every seller and buyer. Where the Market District thrives in elegance, diversity, quantity, the River Valley thrives on annoymity. Cheap thrift stores who won’t ask who owns what your selling. And why would they?
Which leaves the North Slums at the bottom. Always the bottom—the gutter of the city. Even the so called North SLum King, Bernard, thinks low of this place. Rats crawl the ground, black smoke from burning dung, thatched rooves that are half collapsed. Where lumenancy shines a shadow forms.