Prior to the Emperor’s war on his own dukes and viscounts, Safelster was divided into a number of counties. Each generally encompassed the natural trade and farm area around one of the major cities. Ilotos has temporarily suspended the county system, pending a top-to-bottom accounting of the area. His offi cials have begun the heroic task of cataloguing all lands, businesses and revenue-generating entities in Safelster. When this is concluded, imperial courtiers will redraw the boundaries and appoint new viscounts. No one doubts that the courtiers themselves will be the viscounts and that the county lines will be redrawn to the advantage of the most infl uential of them.
This confusion redounds to the great benefi t of troublemakers and outlaws. Each viscount used to maintain a staff of sheriffs to maintain order within his country boundaries. Imperial offi cials keep a more or less tight reign on the cities but exert little authority outside their walls. Banditry has reached epidemic proportions. Some of the worst offenders are former sheriffs fi red by the transitional regime.
Adventurers can gain from this either by taking advantage of lawlessness to perform their own shady deeds unencumbered by the law. More honest sorts can earn the coin of hard-pressed farmers by signing on for anti-bandit duty.
also create independent Chaos creatures, which they command with charm spells.
They claim to be good Malkioni, using the powers of Chaos for the greater glory of the Invisible God. Other monotheists have always shunned and persecuted them. The Autarchy tried to root them out, to no avail. Now it is the God Learners’
turn to try to extirpate this infamously tenacious and resilient cult. The deposed viscount did a good job of suppressing them, exposing several cells and putting their members to death. Unfortunately the Ducal Wars allowed them breathing space and in the past fi ve years the cult has staged a comeback.
Nearly a dozen of Suranos’ anti-Borist operatives have been slain or assassinated. Ordinary residents of Belstos are afraid to walk its streets at night. Broo and scorpion men have been spotted in the city’s decaying slum districts.
The countryside surrounding Belstos is one of the few areas in the Second Age where Chaos creatures are still commonly encountered. Members of cults and orders with anti-Chaos powers make pilgrimages here to test themselves against the foul spawn of Wakboth.
Reasons to come here: Suranos is hiring replacements for his lost anti-cultist squadrons. Honest merchants seek protection from both Borist extortionists and garden variety criminals attracted by the city’s current lawlessness.
Col
Known recently as the City of Exiles, Col sits in a lush green valley, its slopes covered by vineyards. Over a dozen orders of monks and nuns work the wineries, producing vintages coveted throughout the Empire. The same cloistered holy folk are also responsible for a variety of stunningly fi ne cheeses.
Col’s chief industry is food export. Its markets and food stalls make it a point of pilgrimage for wealthy gourmands from all around the world. The city’s inns and taverns cater to them extravagantly. Clack-pinching adventurers often complain about the infl ated prices.
Defeated military offi cers, disgraced courtiers and exiled nobles fi ll the monasteries of Col. By withdrawing to a cloistered existence, they signal their surrender to the Emperor, avoiding execution or assassination. Dozens of leaders toppled from power during the Ducal Wars now seek the contemplative life in its various abbeys. However, not all of them are sincerely retired from affairs of state. In quiet taverns they sit in their monks’ robes, sipping fi ne wine, swapping gossip and bitterly scheming for Ilotos’ comeuppance.
Notables of Col include the openly vituperative Aribert D’belstos, the deposed viscount of that city. Two years ago he founded a new monastic order, named after St. Prades, who
was martyred after speaking out against the corruption of the Autarchy. The Knights of St. Prades have unsubtly established themselves as a government in exile.
Col’s beleaguered administrator is Guarand the Ebullient, a jowly, gregarious cousin of the Emperor who wishes only to be left alone to enjoy his cheese and wine.
Reasons to come here: Indiscreet exiles may be targeted for kidnapping or assassination. Adventurers may be hired on either side of the equation, as executioners or bodyguards.
Anyone seeking political intelligence will fi nd it in Col. The hard part is sorting truths from fi ctions.
Drom
Drom is a stronghold of the Ancient Beast Society, an animist cult whose members worship their inner totem animals. They are the urbanised descendants of hsunchen tribes. Their religious ceremonies take place over many long hours, in which the celebrants drum and dance themselves into a state of ecstatic acceptance. As the ritual reaches a feverish intensity, the totem spirits inhabit the bodies of the most fortunate participants.
Malkioni authorities have outlawed all activities associated with the Beast Society. An offshoot of the Rightness Army, the Force for Decency, patrols the city on holy nights. When they sniff out a ceremony in the making, they burst in to attack the celebrants with truncheons. This draconian suppression arouses the chagrin of God Learner sorcerers, who would like to get inside the cult and rob it of any useful secrets it might be harbouring.
Drom also serves as a gathering point for caravans trading with Maniria. Although the two Empires are at war, considerable trade still occurs between them, to the immense profi t of Drom’s mercantile class.
Drom’s interim administrator is Adelgon the Filter, so named for his ability to remember only facts which please him. Real power rests where the money is, in the hands of Brarden the Exacting. As head of the Drom Mercantile League and the city’s wealthiest man, he works to shield the Ancient Beast Society from the Decency extremists. Everyone assumes he is himself a Loon, although he has never been observed at their ceremonies.
The statue of a forgotten horse-headed deity looms over Drom’s front gate. It protects the city, slaying attackers with its staring eyes.
Reasons to come here: Adventurers headed for the EWF can make money along the way by hiring themselves out as caravan guards. Opportunities for strong-arm work abound on both sides of the confl ict between the Ancient Beast Society and the Force for Decency. Infi ltrators of the Society can expect generous compensation from local God Learners.
Estali
Rule over the city of Estali requires possession of an ancient implement called the Purple Sceptre of Serpent Sentience.
Its owner has traditionally been styled an Arch-Duke. The artefact was wrested from the dying fi ngers of its previous owner during the Ducal Wars. The soldier who grabbed it, an uneducated sergeant named Hardguin, has since been unable to release it from his grip. The city has chosen him as its replacement ruler. Hardguin, a gruff man of simple pleasures, found himself elevated against his will to the position of interim administrator. He has turned this city, which derives its wealth from the fertile farming lands of the Estal River, into a haven for warriors, mercenaries and hard-drinking layabouts. Every season climaxes with a joust or arena free-for-all, with lucrative prizes for the winners and copious free healing for the vanquished. Garbage may rot fragrantly in the streets and women may not be safe to walk Estali’s laneways without a bodyguard, but it has become second only to Kustria as a magnet for recruiters of mercenaries and adventurers.
Beneath the smell of ale-breath that wafts ceaselessly through Estali is an animal musk. Like Drom, Estali is also a stronghold of the Ancient Beast Society.
Reasons to come here: Estali’s taverns overfl ow with shady characters offering missions to adventurers. Ne’er-do-wells who get into trouble elsewhere can luxuriate in Estali’s notoriously lax law enforcement. Its frequent tournaments offer opportunities for quick riches and easy glory.
Galin
This city is famed as the birthplace of the ancient horse god of the same name. Though not now the recipient of open theist worship, Galin was the region’s important human deity at the Dawn and for a century and a half afterwards. First Council missionaries largely redirected theist worship to Orlanth. The local Orlanthi identify Galin as a brother to their sun god, Elmal, who is also patron to horses.
The city that bears his name is still renowned for the quality of its horse breeding operations. Breeders and country folk pay homage to him as St. Galin, who lent his horse to Malkion the Seer, so that the prophet could spread his word more quickly to those who needed it. The ultra-devout wrinkle their noses at this, smacking as it does of henotheism. The compromise seems to work, however, and the superior horses Galin’s magic brings are a linchpin of the municipal economy.
Unusually, the city’s interim administrator is a local, the horse breeding magnate Lant Lantiet. Hale and jolly, he is cleverer than he lets on. Like any businessman, he wants peace and prosperity to rule Ralios. He maintains discreet contacts with the Orlanthi tribes of Lankst, who buy horses from him. A relentlessly practical man, he has little use for either crazed religionists or interfering sorcerers.
Reasons to come here: Orlanthi who need to visit a city come here, where they can go about their business unmolested.
Adventurers can sign on to transport expensive horses through danger-infested wilderness to their fi nal purchasers.
Jorgablan
Among Safelster’s youngest cities is Jorgablan, constructed by the God Learners as a safe haven during their initial foray into the region. As their power became well entrenched, sects of St.
Hwaros moved many of their operations to the area’s unoffi cial capital, Kustria. Still, the libraries and laboratories of Jorgablan are well-equipped and its magical accoutrement shops are second to none. Street merchants, many of them of Seshnegi extraction, sell Zistorite magic items at market stalls.
The city’s rigorously grid layout reveals it as a recent city, designed from the ground up. The roofs of Jorgablan are
of gleaming bronze, brass and copper. Weird towers rise improbably from narrow bases. Arrays of sorcerous measuring instruments jut out from them like bristles. A continual fl uting noise, created by the famous Chime Machine of Xenja Xorl, echoes throughout the city, exerting a calming effect on the populace.
Ralians seeking a member of a distant or obscure culture know that Jorgablan is the place to go. Its largely immigrant population includes miniature communities representing every place the Middle Sea Empire has touched. Among the large Jrusteli and Seshnegi population huddle communities of Kralori, Teshnans, Vithelans and Agimori. There is even a duck enclave. While representatives of the elder races are rare, an entire quarter of the city, Webtown, crawls with timinits.
For an embodiment of Jorgablanese cosmopolitanism, look no further than the city’s interim administrator, a Kralori convert to Malkionism called Zhang Mei. As if in compensation for his outsider status, he works too hard to please, attempting to satisfy all factions in any dispute.
Reasons to come here: In Jorgablan, Adventurers from oddball cultures can fi nd advice, comradeship, community worship, even marriage prospects, among their own kind.
Marost
The city of Marost was founded by Arkat in celebration of his military victories. 100 swords, taken from creature he had slain in battle, were built into this walls. Their magic ensures that the city can never be taken by siege.
Marost’s martial magic stands it in good stead as a garrison town. Legions of the Middle Sea Empire rest and resupply here in their ongoing battle with EWF forces over the northern Ormsland region.
Unlike Estali, this is no place for stray adventurers. Marost’s interim administrator is the commandant of local forces, General Hugueli. This grim-faced disciplinarian brooks no trouble in his city. Conveniently-placed gibbets on the city walls attest to his low tolerance for disorder and thuggery. Lucky adventurers who disobey his tightly enforced laws may merely be pressed into the army. More likely, they will be sentenced to the gibbet.
Legend has it that Hugueli’s battlefi eld Sorcery is strengthened every time he executes a deserving wrongdoer.
Those merchants willing to live under curfew and extreme rules of personal conduct make a lucrative living supplying the troops with food, weapons and sundry necessities.
Reasons to come here: Dedicated, well-disciplined agents of the God Learner Empire will fi nd Marost a safe, if dour, base of operations.
Others will likely want to move in and out of the city quickly, as their missions dictate. EWF or theist war bands may conduct acts of sabotage or espionage. Freelance adventurers could be hired for rescue missions, to spirit away prisoners destined for Hugueli’s gibbet.
Partan
The ring of hammers and chisels marks the ongoing construction of Safelster’s newest city, located near the shores of Lake Helby, between Drom and Galin. Constructed under the patronage of the Emperor’s devout mother, Partan exists as a spiritual way station. Although its primary mission is the conversion of the Beast Society people, missionaries of all stripes gather and pray here. They fan out through all of Ralios, seeking converts among the Orlanthi. One brave sect, the Order of St. Berisse, even attempts to bring the true faith to the trolls of Halikiv.
Cathedrals, chapels and churches dominate the cityscape of Partan. Its structures are predominantly in the old manner of Seshnegi architecture. They eschew the metallic sails, towers and panes of High God Learner design for the simple purity of monumental dark stone. Saints and gargoyles drip from Partan’s vaults and domes. When sins are committed in their presence, the saints weep and the gargoyles scream.
The nominal authority in Partan is Rengère Engoss, a reclusive fellow who steals time from his duties as interim administrator to complete his scholarly thesis on the roots of the Theyalan calendar. It is the imposing abbess Guiva Wimplefold who really dictates policy in Partan. Her partner in holiness is the Abbess Berthoma Glassfold, who happens to be her half-sister.
Guiva focuses her missionary efforts on trolls, while Berthoma takes care of the hsunchen descendants.
Reasons to come here: Appalled locals hire adventurers to recover their sons and daughters when they fall prey to excessive religious fervour and join a cloistered order in Partan.
Syran
The quiet city of Syran is famed for its glassblowing. It exports its products to the world. Syran’s well-fed burghers detest any disturbance. The municipal motto is: ‘Don’t break the glass’.
It is illegal here to shout, curse or to ‘engage in behaviour not conducive to trade’. These edicts are enforced by the infamous Syranese spirits. These are the ghosts of past criminals, executed for breaking the peace. Denied Solace, they engage in lethal spirit combat against wrongdoers. The spirits believe they will attain Solace after performing an undetermined number of righteous slayings. They are kept in beautiful, irregularly-shaped glass globes which dangle from light posts of burnished jade, imported from Kralorela.
Reasons to come here: Only Syranese glassblowers can maintain the degree of material perfection required for certain alchemical containers and implements. Sorcerers come here to personally oversee their creation. Even dwarfs come here to buy choice pieces of Syranese glass, which is a compliment indeed. If you want to chat with a Mostali without risking a trip to dwarfi sh home turf, Syran is the place.
Tarasdal
Tarasdal is called the Seshnegi City. Two generations ago, a devastating plague struck the craftsmen and farmers of the city and surrounding countryside. Entire families were wiped out.
The viscount, an absentee landlord, repopulated his land with eager immigrants from Seshnela, poaching the best serfs from the domains of his aristocratic brothers. Now one in seven Tarasdalites is of Seshnegi extraction. As is typical of immigrants, they display an exaggerated loyalty to their former homeland. Their memories of the place have been burnished by distance and nostalgia. They cultivate a pronounced Seshnegi accent, celebrate Seshnegi holidays and pugnaciously defend the Emperor against insult, no matter how slight.
Prominent citizens vie for status by forming militias to fi ght in defence of the Emperor and the Seshnegi values he represents.
Ironically, they are composed primarily of mercenaries whose devotion is to gold, not Seshnela or its Emperor. These war bands spend the bulk of their time bullying the minority of ethnic Ralian plague survivors within the city. On occasion, the adventurers who staff these militias take the initiative to launch a dramatic raid against real or perceived opponents of Seshnelan purity.
The city’s unusual personal loyalty to the Emperor made it an ideal base of operation for Ilotos’ forces during the Ducal Wars. Its loyalist viscount, the ostentatiously athletic Turgaros Postbreaker, led several decisive battles under the imperial banner. The nobles he helped to depose despise him as a traitor. He has survived four separate assassination attempts since the end of the Ducal Wars.
Reasons to come here: Wealthy patrons hire adventurers to lead their militias on raids against exiles, heretics and other symbolic enemies of the Empire. Turgaros Postbreaker and his knights all have prices on their heads, payable by the exiles of Col.
Tinaros
In this large riverside city, noted for its docks and shipping facilities, the name of Arkat is still revered. Each Sacred Time an enormous pageant is staged here. Its procession includes a parade through city streets and a waterborne masque held on a series of barges. At the climax of festivities, a passion play is enacted, recreating the ascension of Arkat to the God Plane in the year 500. Attempts by Malkioni zealots to suppress the ceremony have resulted in widespread rioting. Interim administrator Gais the Unmoving, a sharp-minded politician of staggering corpulence, has decreed that any disruptions of the procession will be harshly punished. God Learner sorcerers, wanting to remain on the good side of Arkat sympathisers so they can uncover more Stygian mysteries, support Gais back home. Religious offi cials lobby for his ouster.
Tensions escalate as Sacred Time approaches but Tinaros is otherwise a peaceful city devoted to river commerce. It is the last major centre within Safelster for travellers headed north to Vesmonstran. Orlanthi barbarians come here to engage in trade, in delegations led by emissaries of their Talking God, Issaries.
Reasons to come here: Gais the Unmoving hires adventurers
Reasons to come here: Gais the Unmoving hires adventurers