Black Delta

If you manage to cut through the hostile Blightmire swamp from the Far Grasses to the Mestran Sea, you'll find yourself on the muddy clay shores of this dingy port. Black Delta is a Liothan port and the third largest city in the empire, behind Hammersong and Southport. It is surrounded on all sides by thick swampy wilderness or open sea, and is a highly trafficked port. It sits on the nexus point of numerous shipping lanes, making it highly important for the sea trade of several nations, especially Liothe. The city gets its name from its location on the swampy river delta, and the fertile black clay of the riverbanks.

The city is walled on its terrestrial borders with thirty foot tall palisades, plastered with a mixture of pitch, garlic, and vinegar repel the disease carrying mosquitos and black flies that infest the swamp. The prevalence of disease in Black Delta makes the city a hub for the practices of medicine and botany.

Geography

Black Isles

In the waters just south of the city's docks lie five isles of the same black silt that comprises the city's delta. Claystone Islet is tiny, little more than a skerry, and is uninhabited. Two of the isles, Cranberry Isle & Pelican Isle are inhabited by a small collection of delta folks. The island closest to shore, Red Sky Island, is the site of a monastery from the dawning days of the Mestran Empire.

The largest and furthest, St. Auria's Isle, holds one of the largest structures in the city: St. Auria's Asylum, a hospital for both the physically and mentally afflicted.

City Proper

Everything contained within the palisade walls and the shoreline is the city proper of Black Delta. The northern half of the city is built on dry land, while the southern half is mucky and supported by stilts or wooden pathways rising out of the delta. The structures are mostly built of wood and clay, and few stand higher than two stories. The buildings are packed very tightly together, and the wooden pathways that serve as streets for much of the southern city are heavily trafficked and worn. They creak with every step taken on them. The city is one of the darkest in the world, owing its deep shadows to the black soil, high forest canopy, and the thick swamp fog that never seems to abate. Torches are lit around the clock, especially in the northern half, where the shadows are at their most stygian.

Outer Farms

Cranberry, onion, potato, herb, and spell farms stretch for a couple miles outside the high palisade walls, typically along the riverbanks. The soil is extremely fertile, giving rise to a large community of farmers flanking the city limits. Much of these farmers make their bread by selling the food in the city, the docks, or shipping it north to Hammersong on the mighty Tar'Kwen river.

Without the high walls to protect them, these farmers succumb to the dangers of the swamp at a much greater rate than Black Deltans who live within the city proper. Disease is a common killer among the farmers of Black Delta, especially those who live furthest out from the city walls, deeper into the swamp. Beyond that there are worse things that take advantage of the farmers like swamp hags, zombies left over from the Lich War, Will-O-Wisps, bloodthirsty blights, gators, and worse.

History

Mestran Colony

Black Delta began as a small fishing village and rest stop for ships traveling along the towns of the Mestran empire. The settlement quickly grew, expanding north into the swamp. After the collapse of the Mestran empire, the city functioned as a city-state for a short-lived period. Shortly thereafter, it was annexed peacefully by Liothe.

The noble Tarquis family who led military and exploratory expeditions into Lowmarsh, married into the city-state's ruling family the Blackwoods, a minor noble family of Human Mestran descent. The Blackwoods were quickly absorbed into the Tarquis family, and vanished from relevance.

Black Delta continued its Mestran traditions of sailing, sea trade, and fishing. In addition, The Manarian monastery on Red Sky Isle continued

Cedar-Star War

Two centuries ago, the empire of Baelgarde invaded Lowmarsh and captured Black Delta. This marked the beginning of the Cedar-Star War. This annexation was seen as a great victory for Baelgarde for only a brief moment. Baelgardi warriors had an extremely difficult time fighting the locals. The House of Tarquis quicly assembled a ragtag militia who knew the swamps well and how to fight in them. Swamp warfare proved to be the undoing of mighty Baelgarde. Those who didn't succumb to Liothan steel succumbed to an outbreak of Swamp Lung.

With the help of greater Liothan forces arriving from Hammersong, the Baelgardi warriors were driven out of the Blightmire and back into the Seven Sands. Black Delta was liberated.

As a consequence, disease-ridden zombies of centuries-dead Baelgardi warriors wander the deepest parts of the swamp.

Lich War

Black Delta faced a small force of zombies directed against it, but only a few dozen of its people died, and they were able to pick most of them off from behind the walls of the city. It is a mystery which of Sharev's liches sent them or why.

The greatest blow that the Lich War dealt Black Delta was in how many able bodied men and women were called up to the front lines, never to return. the city lost a tenth of its population to the war's bloodiest fronts, and another tenth to The Four Agonies.

Politics

Black Delta is the provincial seat of Lowmarsh. All governing concerning the cities and villages of the province emanates from there. Lowmarsh is a feudal society like all of Liothe's provinces, and is home to many of the ruling lords of the region. The city has no mayor and is presided over directly by the province's count, the highest rank of nobility short of a member of royalty.

The House of Tarquis

One of the five noblest families of Liothe, the house of Tarquis presides over the province of Lowmarsh. Count Oswick Tarquis is a sickly and weak man in his mid-fifties who governs the entire province from a keep in the geographic center of the city called Blackwood Hall. Blackwood Hall serves as both the ancestral home of the Tarquis family, and the offices from where Lowmarsh province and the surrounding city are governed.

The Tarquis are a human family of ancient aristocratic heritage, dating back to the time of Liothe's existence as a city-state. The claim descent from the Miraldi dynasty that once ruled Liothe, but fought against them in the Monperidote coup that killed every member of the royal bloodline.

As far as noble families go, the Tarquis keep a relatively low profile. Controversy is relatively less common among their line's history, save for recently. Oswick was burdened with having had to lock the heir to Lowmarsh in a sanitarium indefinitely.

Few seek ambitions or stations beyond the bounds of Lowmarsh. They are not adored by their subjects, but are generally regarded as fair and wise lords. They are seen as a grim, dour, and just lot. They rule with a gentle hand, focusing the bulk of their resources on trade and patronizing medical studies within Black Delta.

The Tarquis coat of arms depicts a black catfish swimming over three blue rivers on a dark green background. Its banners can be seen along the road to Black Delta, and on every one of the city's palisade walls.

Succession Snafu

A succession crisis for the title of count is brewing between the children of Count Oswick Tarquis. Normally, the position would be awarded to the eldest child, Corlan Tarquis. However, Lord Corlan was afflicted with madness, and committed to St. Auria's Asylum indefinitely. The problem being, Corlan was groomed from birth to be a worthy heir to the position of count. His younger sister, Corellia Tarquis, a religious zealot with possible ties to the Burning Ray (a rogue order of extremist Ilaromite paladins) may be the future countess if Corlan is locked up in the sanitarium. It is no secret of her hopes that her brother's madness will further consume him, so she can remake Lowmarsh in her own image.

A future that many Lowmarshers dread.

Red Sky Monastery

Red Sky Monastery is the oldest structure standing in Black Delta, even though it technically lies on Red Sky Isle, outside the city proper. It was built in the first year of the Black Delta settlement, when the city was little more than a tiny fishing village. For centuries priests of Manaria would study and be trained in this monastery. Many of the Mestran's Stormlords and paladins of the Blessed Order of the Forking Flame train, worship, and originate from this holy place.

In recent years, its monks and structures have come under attack by pirates associated with the Burning Ray.

Saint Auria's Asylum

A mile off the coast of the city proper, on the black shores of Saint Auria's isle, stands a hospital for the physically and mentally unwell. The institution and the isle it sits on are named for Auria of Barrenhill, an ancient elven woman who was a saint of Azkarom, goddes of mercy. Saint Auria's Asylum, is run by a small collection of Azkaromite monks, apothecaries, and healers. Supplies, patients, and visitors travel to the island on a ferry called The Moray, moored in Black Delta's docks. The asylum is run by Lacquin Korth, a grim-faced elven priest who has run the institution for three centuries.

Despite their goddess' domains of mercy and healing, the conditions of the institution are filthy and bleak. The asylum is overrun with mosquitos and vermin. Seawater floods the asylum's halls regularly. Some of the staff have even been rumored to be as psychotic as their patients. On a calm night, sailors passing by have heard screams echoing out from dimly lit windows.

The foggy exterior of Saint Auria's Asylum, rising out of the foggy shores of the Mestran Sea.

Beyond poor conditions, the asylum has a sinister and even fiendish reputation. Patients go missing yer after year with no explanation. Superstitious sailors claim the waters around the isle are haunted, and won't go near them. Rumors abound of fiends and dark spirits communing with crazed warlocks in the asylum.

Saint Auria's asylum is seldom a place someone sails to willingly.

Count Oswick Tarquis

Count Oswick Tarquis is the highest authority in the province of Lowmarsh. His family has ruled there since Liothe's annexation of the region centuries ago. His reign has been marked by decades of peace and abundance, despite the hardships that the Blightmire doles out to its residents. Those halcyon days however, have come to an end.

The Four Agonies robbed Oswick of the remainder of his life, and the old count likely has only weeks to live. His firstborn, the only worthy heir, went mad and was committed to Saint Auria's Asylum by his own father.

As a man in his early sixties, Oswick has arrived at the final weeks of his life, thanks to the horrors the Four Agonies wrought on human life expectancy.

Lord Corlan Tarquis

Corlan Tarquis is the firstborn of Oswick, count of Lowmarsh. A troubled youth with an adventurous streak, Corlan spent much of his time alone in the swamp, searching for the hidden city of El'Dnak, in hopes of bringing it under Liothe's dominion. Corlan became a skilled ranger and Shadowhound, spending more and more of his time in the Blightmire against his family's wishes.

After a long stint in the swampy wilderness, he returned an apostate of his former, deity Ilarom, Goddess of Light. He cast aside his sword and bow to become a preacher. Corlan wandered Black Delta day and night, proclaiming the terrible power of his new master, The Reveler, God of Wine.

His frothing religiosity quickly became frenzy, and the young lord succumbed to a terrible madness. His father had him locked away in St. Auria's Asylum, in hopes that the monks of that Azkaromite sanitarium will be able to return Corlan to sanity.

Byron Buttercup

Infamous necromancer Byron Buttercup grew up on a spell farm outside the walls of the city. After several incursions into the swamp, a young Byron met and befriended a green hag called Gleengreyl, and became a student of hers in magic. He later fled Black Delta after a near-fatal duel with a shadowhound after his eighteenth birthday. Years later, Buttercup reappeared in Hammersong as a prized student of Sharev of Erevel in the Academy of Endings. He flourished in the academy, becoming one of the most accomplished necromancers of his day.

He was one of the last people to see Sharev before the Lich War, and was seen leaving the city of Erevel, the day before it fell to the curse.

He was assumed an ally of Sharev's and killed in the Lich War, until ten years ago when he appeared in Albatross City during diplomatic negotiations between Liothe and Halfmoon. He currently resides in Moonset, the capitol of Halfmoon, and serves as the nation's archmage. He is wanted by most nations dead or alive, with the highest bounty of any criminal or outlaw, for his alleged role in the genocides of the Lich War.