Sharn

Sharn

(think New York City or Hong Kong)

- Population: 211,850. The largest city in Breland and in all of Khorvaire. 33% human, 17% dwarf, 9% halfling, 9% goblinoid, 8% gnome, 7% elf, 5% half-elf, 4% shifter, 3% changeling, 2% orc & half-orc, 1% warforged, 1% kalashtar, 1% other.

- Known as The City of Towers, and by many other names including The City of Knives, The City of Lost Souls, The City of a Thousand Eyes, The Gateway to Xen'drik, and The Gateway to Perdition.
- Weather: Located close to the equator, Sharn enjoys a tropical climate. Most days range from hot & humid to hot & rainy, and it is rare to have a day without a little precipitation. The Skyway and Upper-City of Sharn enjoy cool, gentle breezes that offer some relief from this muggy weather for the city's more wealthy citizens. The Middle-City and below feel the brunt of the hot, humid conditions.

     There has been a major settlement on the Hilt of the Dagger River since before recorded history. The current metropolis, Sharn, has existed since the formation of the original Five Nations, about 700 years after humans rose to prominence on the continent. For more than two millennia, the towers of Sharn have grown, rising thousands of feet into the sky. This vertical expansion has given the metropolis its title: The City of Towers.

     A riot of architectural styles and designs play through the city's impressive skyline. From its deepest foundations to its highest spires, Sharn displays the history of the continent for all to see. Heavy, oppressive goblinoid architecture provides the base for much of the city, its stonework reaching back to a time when humans did not exist on this continent. Atop this ancient foundation, the periods of human civilization stack one on top of the other as the city reaches for the clouds.

     The City of Towers can be as impressive as it can be oppressive. The same skyscrapers of stone can make one person laugh with excitement and another weep from the size and weight and impossible heights. Whatever emotion the city inspires, the place remains a bustle of activity at all hours of the day and night. With a tremendous array of cultural, culinary, and commercial delights to sample, and its position as the gateway to Xen'drik, Sharn attracts visitors and adventurers from around the world. It is a hotbed of activity, known in equal measures for its wonders, its crime rate, its amazing amount of corruption, and its genuinely exciting atmosphere.

     Sharn rises from the cliffs overlooking the Hilt, a wide bay at the mouth of the Dagger River. This inhospitable outcropping of rock allowed the city to grow in only one direction – up. The ports at the base of the cliffs load and unload cargo and passengers from seafaring vessels, raising and lowering goods and travelers alike on massive lifts operated by ropes and pulleys that travel through the neighborhood of Cliffside. This working -class region is built into and upon the steep cliffs overlooking the river and bay. At the top of the cliffs, the rock walls seamlessly blend into the earliest stonework laid in ancient times. Here, the city and its amazing towers really begin.

     The City of Towers is rumoured to sit atop a massive lake of molten lava. Those who work in the bowels of the city, a subterranean region known as the Cogs, claim to feel the heat rising off the lava streams, but few have ever gone below the great furnaces and foundries of the Cogs to seek for the fiery lake itself. In the Cogs, heat and magic cooperate to allow workers to process ores and other raw materials needed to sustain Sharn's industrial machine.

     Also within the depths, ancient ruins, labyrinthine sewers, vertical shafts, and forgotten chambers pile level upon level, climbing higher and higher until the inhabited regions are reached. These higher levels, made up of towers growing like trees in a forest of stone and brick, contain most of the city's residents and visitors. Poorer members of society live in the deeper portions of the towers, while those above gain wealth and status the higher up they live. The uppermost levels feature open-arched towers, balconies, bridges, and platforms that form a strange lacework of “solid” ground high in the air. Above it all floats the neighborhood known as Skyway, where the most affluent citizens live and play.

     Sky coaches move slowly from tower to tower, transporting people. Otherways to get around include walking (almost every tower can be reached by multiple bridges that connect the platforms and walkways at different levels), lifts that ride up & down and side to side along magical strands of light, and magebred animals trained to carry passengers within the city's limits.

     There's a popular saying on the elevated streets of Sharn: “If it can be bought, it can be bought here.” Shops and trading stalls abound, usually gathered in trade districts, open-air markets (“exchanges”), or merchant halls (called “tower markets”, often multileveled) found within many tower and building complexes. Some shops jut from the sides of walls and bridges, ramshackle structures of wood hastily thrown together or built around a crack in the stone. The tower markets present the most elaborate market exchanges, where shops selling different wares sit side by side and one atop the other inside the open cavity of a tower or multistory blockhouse.Beyond these more or less legitimate business ventures, Sharn boasts a thriving black market where everything from exotic fruits and animals to illegal spell components can be traded. Sharn's authorities do their best to curtail this activity, but supply & demand make it next to impossible to really control.

     The City Watch enforces the Galifar Code of Justice throughout Sharn, but in practice, residents are more likely to encounter a law officer among the higher spires than in the lower bowels of the city. Constables conduct regular patrols along the higher bridges, platforms, and walkways, venturing lower only when necessity or prudence warrants. Watch towers can be found in every ward, though there really aren't enough Constables to adequately serve & protect all of Sharn's populace.The Watch, reluctantly, calls on agents of the King's Citadel (who maintain a presence in the city) when it needs additional manpower.