Cities of the ancient world

Brassa

Brassa was the Raklenger capital and lay on the slopes of Urdurim, the "black mountain", an extinct volcano. Centuries later, Korkarras, the capital of Kjaharsmal, would be built on its ruins, but in the period shortly after 800 Before it was ruled by the powerful Raklenger lords, whose power rested on the legacies in a bunker of The First People located in Brassa.

The upper city of Brassa was considered a sanctuary of Ertius, the Bear God, and could only be entered by those consecrated to him. 

 Torhal

Torhal was the largest city of the Aribonders and, due to its hegemonic supremacy, it can justifiably be called their capital; however, the prince of Torhal was, according to his self-image, a first among equals.

Unlike the Raklengers in the East, the Aribonders had little access to legacies of the First People, but were formidable warriors through their constant conflicts with the Corrupted, especially Varwulfir and Bhathazids, and thus feared by others. 

Arros

Founded only a generation ago, Arros was the capital of the warrior king Arkodoros, a brutal tyrant who, along with his sons, had subjugated large territories that were still heavily threatened by Corrupted.

Arros, like the entire Arkodorid Empire, was a rallying point for Phalopian Echyreans, Erseves and Arbarians who had no great prospects in their homeland and hoped for a better life in the new land.

No one knows why Arkodoros built his capital on a hill in the swampland, of all places, although strategic reasons are suspected. The young city was still under construction shortly after 800 BC, but the beetle races that Arkodoros himself had introduced enjoyed great popularity and even attracted curious travellers from the south.

Nessus

After 800 Before, Nessus was the capital of the powerful Empire of Charta and at the same time the holy city of the "Red Bull", the god Asdus, and the seat of the king.

Power in the empire lay in the hands of the Red Priests of the god Asdus, who ruled with a mixture of religiously worshipped technology and sinister magic; rumour had it that behind the face of the Red Bull hid the Primeval Sor-Tahot - but perhaps that was just vituperative propaganda by the enemies of the empire ...

Arephor

Arephor was part of a dual alliance with Amriphas, and during this period was the centre of the Echyrean cult of Adeos, whose main temple was a slender tower in the centre of the city, said to have been built by the gods themselves and to attract lightning during thunderstorms - but in fact it was a legacy of The First People, and many of the priests' miracles were based on their ancient technology.

Arimphas

Arimphas was the second part of the Dual Alliance and the "dark side" of the coin: While Arephor enjoyed a good reputation and was considered a haven of civilisation and honour, Arimphas was the gathering place of scum, a haven of pirates and other rather dubious riffraff. The city was most famous for its large slave market, where slaves from all over the Known World were traded.

Chalix

Chalix was a haven of knowledge and research, its tower-like temple was dedicated to the god Armis and, true to the god of trade, a major market for magical trinkets, Primeval sorceries and relics of The First People.

Draspon

Draspon was at the height of its power at the time: the warrior elite of the Draspiates ruled the city and were feared throughout the Known World. Trained from an early age to fight, the Draspiates enjoyed a reputation for being invincible, which was certainly not due to the fact that at that time many Draspiates still went to war in the Power Armors of The First People ...

The city was the centre of the cult of Arkos, the god of war, to whom a huge statue was dedicated in the temple, which was placed on a rotating pedestal so that the god of war could always look in the direction of Draspon's enemies.

Karkarra

Karkarra was the least important city-state of the Phalopos and was mainly known as a place of pilgrimage for the Tertemians, who worshipped the Golden Maile, the ever-green, ever-fruitful tree under which the hero god Asiranas had once rested.
For the Karkarrians, the sacred tree had a connection to the mother goddess Gena, and the neighbouring Charyans also made pilgrimages to the city to worship the tree.

Nexos

Nexos was not yet the heart of Phalopos that it would later become. The core of the city was still the Nephideon, the old temple-palace of the depraved Nephides, which still held many secrets, but was now considered the gateway to the underworld and was guarded by the masochistic priests of Athis, the god of the dead.

Tertemes

Tertemes, the City of the Purple Fire, was the sacred city of the god Asiranas, in whose temple the Eternal Purple Fire burned. The Tertemian people were rich in influence and money, the latter mainly because legacies of The First People kept appearing in the area.

Topeia

Topeia began its eternal strife with Draspon during that time and had one thing above all to oppose the powerful Draspiates: Magic. The most skilled magicians of the Phalopian Echyreans were trained at the famous acropolis of Topeia, which was dedicated to the goddess Soukynche: Who was the patron goddess of the city under the name of Soukynche Isthanis ("Souknyche by the city") and patron goddess of magic under the name of Soukynche Hekidna.

Saphra was the queenly seat of the Eneathians, that almost mythical people where only women were free and all men were slaves.  Proud female warrior nobles ruled over enslaved men and revelled in the luxury that came to Enneathia through cotton.
The feared warrior women defied the Erseves and Draspiates alike, by their courage alone.

The city of Saphra was surrounded by a moat where a special kind of fish was kept. This was very aggressive and even attacked people, but only men.

Edija

Edija, the "Shield of the North", was a mighty fortress city whose warriors defied the Corrupted who constantly threatened the land of the Erseva from the north. Although Edija was actually the weakest of the Ersevan kingdoms, its fight against the Corruption was considered so noble that the other kingdoms kept sending warriors to Edija to support their struggle.

Perusant

Perusant was the centre of Ersevan culture and learning and also the centre of the Ersevan mages.
It was said that when the school of magic was built, one thousand spirits were banished into the foundation alone. Other rumours said that a spirit was trapped almost everywhere in this strange structure and that therefore every threshold, every door, every window, indeed every stone would be able to observe and whisper.

Because of its school of magic, Perusant was always the starting point of local corruptions, especially when experiments went wrong or mages overestimated their power over the Otherdark.

Phyta

Phyta, built at the foot of a volcano, was the centre of the then still Ersevan sun god Phabis, whose voice was heard by Phyton, the holy oracle with the golden tongue. At that time, the cult of Phabis spread further south and more and more Phalopians made pilgrimages to the oracle to benefit from the wisdom and knowledge of the sun god - even if his divinations became more and more confused; - as the power of the oracle was based on an AI of the First People, which became increasingly unreliable ...

Velosija

Velosija, the home of the Dragon Riders, was the most powerful of the Ersevan kingdoms. Its power was based on the "dragons", ancient fighter jets of The First People, but was slowly but surely in decline.

Venuva

Venuva was the centre of the god Aspharim and centre of Ersevan medicine, fostered by an ancient medical centre of The First People.