Nicodranas

With a population of 53,500 by the year 835 PD, Nicodranas is the second-largest city on the Menagerie Coast. The racial breakdown of the city is 64% humans, 10% halflings, 9% dwarves, 6% half-elves and 11% other races. Many of the inhabitants have connections with the Dwendalian Empire to the east. Most work here is once again tied to trade and the mercantile businesses. There are a variety of merchant and crafting guilds which supply and operate the international trade that flows through the city. Most individuals work as laborers, dock workers, sailors, farmers, hunters, fishermen, etc.

Nicodranas is currently led by Marquis Zhafe Uludan, a powerful guildmaster who is related to Lord Athesias Uludan, a respected member of the Cerberus Assembly. This connection has enabled Zhafe's family line to maintain the tenuous truce between the empire and the Clovis Concord, including the controlled trade and travel between borders. The Zhelezo who guard the city intermingle with assigned Dwendalian sentries, though the overlapping jurisdiction occasionally causes conflict.   The awkward intersection of Dwendalian and Concord law makes Nicodranas an especially dangerous place to delve into criminal activity. Both factions are competitive in their enforcement of the laws, so the local criminals are extremely cautious to avoid attention. However, many things considered unlawful within the empire are carefully regulated but nonetheless legal here, giving Nicodranas the dubious honor of being the safest place in Wildemount to indulge in one's vices.

Nicodranas has an enormous harbor and dockyard only eclipsed by that of Port Damali within the coast. In addition, it has a complex sewage system built beneath the city meant to help keep the city itself clean and healthy. In addition to sewers, there are an underground network of tunnels with a series of engines built into them, meant to help power the city and its businesses. This structure is similar to Port Damali and leverages similar technologies, although the public is not allowed to see the network beneath the city.

The Restless Wharf The Restless Wharf marks the eastern end of the city's shoreline, with a number of docks, warehouses, and a massive shipping bay run by the Glisteners guild, a privately owned subsidiary of the Uludan family. Many ships are guided into port by the Mother's Lighthouse, a colossal lighthouse carved in the image of Melora. In perpetual competition with the Open Quay docks, the Restless Wharf is filled with cheap entertainment, pamphlets for services, and false promises of competitive prices. The dock yard in the wharf has managed to keep a tight hold on repair supplies coming into the city, leaving the Open Quay starved for materials.   Open Quay On the western side of the city, the Open Quay is privately owned by Yussa Errenis, a wealthy merchant mage who purchased the land two centuries ago after most of it burned down. He ignored offers to sell the land to the Uludan Family, and instead built an affordable bastion of rentable business space out of spite for the monopolizing family. Considerably seedier than the Restless Wharf, the Open Quay is known for the merchants' loyalty to Yussa and the diversity of work found throughout the area.   Opal Archways The Opal Archways, a loop of eleven stone arches placed seemingly at random, were created when Nicodranas was founded centuries ago to mark the edges of the city, before it expanded far beyond its original boundaries. Now the Archways are markers for the lively social center of the city, glowing with multicolored torches and incense at dusk when music and evening commerce fill the streets. Housing is quite expensive in this vibrant district, so only nobles, well-off merchants, and political figures can afford to call the Archways home. It's also common for foreign diplomats and moneylenders to own a part-time leisure home within the area.   The Skew The Skew encompasses the residential sprawl of the city, a colorful collection of mismatched homesteads whose varying heights and sizes create a jagged skyline. The streets are safer the closer to the Archways they are, but at night the lack of well-lit walkways makes it dangerous to walk through this region alone.

The second-largest city of the coast, Nicodranas is similar to its larger sister city, Port Damali. Although it lacks the bustle of the unofficial capital, Nicodranas is preferred by travelers who dislike the crowds and rapid pace of Port Damali.

The city has colorful rooftops and towers vary in height and design, giving an eclectic visual of a jumble of cultures having built this space without unified vision. The city exterior wall has many gates and archways with portcullises that are held up by a chain mechanism beyond the wall.

This vivid, lively port city is built below the mouth of the Wuyun Valley, where the Cyrios Mountains form the southeastern border of the Dwendalian Empire. The districts within the city vary in architecture and atmosphere, meshing colorful Menagerie pavilions with the gothic, brooding Dwendalian aesthetics as the cultures clash and mingle. Divided into four loose regions, each section is further divided by the lifestyles of the denizens based on which side of the valley they hail from.