Seilva (sehl-vuh)

Seilva has a rich blend of peoples and ethnicities within its boundaries. Humans have the plurality of the population, with around 30%, but there are many other races and peoples in varying concentrations.. Tieflings, who originally hailed from the nearby desert, have been settled in the city for several centuries and make up the next largest sector of the population, with around 20%. The rest of Seilva's population is a blend of the usual (dwarves, halflings, gnomes, goliaths, orcs) and the not-so-usual (such as the yuan-ti, tritons, lizardfolk, bullywugs, and kobolds).   There is a large blend of industries in the city, as well, from trading and merchant endeavors to fine art and rare item acquisition. The majority of Seilvars are menial workers making relatively little money but about as much as one would expect for other large cities. The few aristocratic families are noticeably better off than most other citizens, but the wealth disparity is not nearly as pronounced in Seilva as it is in other, larger cities.

The city of Seilva is governed by a Mayor who is elected by the people every three years. The laws do not limit the number of consecutive terms a mayor may serve, so there have been instances of people serving for several decades until they died in office, as long as they and their policies were popular enough in the city to keep getting elected. Each mayor appoints a council of up to ten individuals to assist with the governing of the city; most of these advisors are representatives of the various industries and guilds in Seilva, but some are just political appointments who are friends or relatives of the mayor.   At the end of each mayor's time in office, he or she submits a list of nominees for the various judgeships throughout the town - of which there are three (civil claims, criminal court, and one that presides over appeals and "matters of grave concern" such as treason or mass murder). The incoming mayor will review the list of nominations from their predecessor and choose one of the candidates for each position. If none of the candidates are worthy - which has happened a few times as a scandalized or deeply corrupt mayor has left office - the mayor can call on a period of two weeks for the public to provide new nominations. This usually produces several dozen candidates, so most incoming mayors try as hard as they can to find suitable candidates from the previous office holder's lists.

Despite having no formal exterior wall, Seilva maintains a healthy defense presence on its outer perimeter. There are guard towers stationed every few hundred feet around the city's outskirts to watch for any invasive parties or creatures. The age of yuan-ti raids on the city ended roughly a century ago, but old habits die hard, and the sentries are still on the lookout for those patrols.   The port facilities in Seilva are equipped with long-range trebuchets to harry ships several hundred feet offshore. There are also two arcane cannons placed upon their own towers to attack and deter ships much further out than the trebuchets or conventional weapons are able to reach.

Seilva is a gem of a city, with all of its roads cobbled and well-maintained, plus a water purification system to provide clean drinking water from the ocean and swamp morass. Near the port facilities and their warehouses, one can also see a system of very light rail at work, with tracks leading down each dock and connecting to the network of warhouses nearby. Metal carts - both flatbed and container - can be pushed along these tracks by teams of men or pulled by a team of horses. Many sailors who disembark at ports around the world remark at how unnecessary such a system is for a relatively small port like Seilva, but they all wish other cities would implement similar systems.   Because of the swampy land and general low elevation of Seilva, it is built upon several canals, with bridges spanning each one. It is not quite as canal-heavy as Venice or Amsterdam, but similar in layout to the latter. The port and its warehouses make up one district of the city, with a canal separating that from the next area. The main government buildings and temples are located just off the geographic center of the city and are surrounded by their own canal, a remnant from when the central area needed a moat to fortify it against invasion.

The city of Seilva was founded by Skerrittese sailors who recognized the need for a stopover port between their homeland and the ports they visited further east. The swamps of eastern Caladrem presented a challenge, however, in figuring out exactly where that city would be built. With the help of a group of geologists and masons, they eventually found a large, slightly elevated plain of stable ground in the northeastern part of the island.   At first, Seilva was a small settlement with a port facility located slightly apart from the main town buildings. In the 1400 years since its founding, the city has closed that gap and has expanded in all directions to cover most of the liveable land in their swamp clearing. Efforts have been undertaken in the last decade to terraform the swamp to create more living land, with mixed results. Some areas have been able to add new land and buildings, while others have seen the test buildings sink into the swamp along with the formed ground they were built upon.

The city of Seilva is a mix of high-density neighborhoods with Victorian-style rowhomes of various pastel colors and single story homes reminiscent of what one might see in suburban Florida or certain Caribbean areas. These houses are also painted in a variety of pastels, giving the city a colorful vibe. The government buildings and large temples are built in either Spanish Renaissance style or a Moorish/Almohad style that one might see in Morocco or southern Spain. Many houses and businesses are made of wood, but the paints that are used contain some amount of resin or tar to help seal the wood against the humidity and odors of the swampy land.