Serpents Bay Harbour

Serpents Bay Harbour has a relatively diverse demographic, given that it is a harbour town and was the capital of a kingdom in the past.
During the time where Karus was still a kingdom of it's own, the royal family of Karus had it's usual residence there. This caused quite the rise in various traders settling there, since good employment was to be had building and renovating the Palace. There were also many guards, servants, bards and whatever else a royal court brings with it.

In addition to being a capital, it was and still is a trading hub. Ships from all over the central sea come and go from the port of Serpents Bay Harbour. They carry goods from many different cultures, travelers and artifacts to the city and the lands beyond. This has created a very diverse population in the seaside trading districts of the town, which is a strong contrast to the more inland parts of town which are almost exclusively inhabited by humans.

Given that it is a harbour town, one of the most important buildings in the city is it's harbour. It was built as one of the very first things in the city as it was created and comissioned by the king of Karus. There was also a harbour minister responsible for anything that was needed for it.
After Karus was defetead by it's northern neighbours, the harbour ministry was moved to Idris and later put in chage of not just the harbour of Serpents Bay, but all harbours in the Empire. This change, while good for the emperor and his needs, was seen as rather rude by the Trade Guilds that had settled into the buildings around and who had quite a lot of influence on the ministry. Being quite powerful, they decided to largly do their own thing in the part of the harbour known as the trader docks. Everyone else however was left to struggle with the far away administration.

It's most famous landmark however was the tower, which had many uses throughout the years. Castle, prison, barracks and naval base were all use it has seen or still sees at times. Despite the amount of changes that have happened, the Dragon of the Tower remained in charge of it. Some would think that strange but he has kept the place running smootly throughout it's entire existence and will keep doing so in the future.

In the past the area was uninhabited, with the exception of a few stray farm villages a bit inland of the coast due to the treat of the great serpent in the bay. It made fishing impossible and very few traders dared to make their way through the bay and up the river. Most who wanted to reach inland areas would land further north just west of Kendolyns continent.

That area didn't belong to Karus and the royal family was getting rather annoyed that her northern neighbours were getting all the goods and trade relationships when the river would have been a much more comfortable way to travel through the lands than the practice of loading everything onto carts and carrying it over land. If it weren't for that serpent ...

Luckily, for the King of Karus anyway, there was a sorcerer born in his land. It was roumoured he may be the child of a princess of Karus, which was never confirmed, but regardless of it, the King gave orders to raise him well and train him as a champion, with the hope of him becoming strong enough to destroy the terrible beast.

It worked and with the serpent gone a new city was swiftly established. Harbour, defenses, palace and a monument to the kings greatness all were swiftly built while the settlement grew around it with craftsmen, labourers and the first trade network outposts settling into the city.

The location proved a good choice. The income from taxing traders swiftly created much more wealth than was originally used to build it, so the royal family got to fancyfying their palace and improving the general state of the country. A navy was created to protect the bay and there was relative peace for a while.

Sadly it didn't last, because the northern kingdom was rather upset to loose their superior trade position to taxes from Karus. Unfortunately for Karus, they also had the more powerful military and annexed Karus into their now Empire as the first strike. The royal family was killed during this incident, but depite the new rulers one thing didn't change: The person in charge of the Tower. That was still the Dragon of the Tower, who had once slain the great serpent, because legend said it would bring bad luck to rob him of this position.

With the new ownership it wasn't a capital anymore, because that title went to Idris, the capital of the north, but it remained a flourishing trade hub and port to the world.

Serpents Bay Harbour lies at the edge of the bay with the same name, at the mouth of the river than flows into the bay. It is a very strategic position, given that Idris, the capital of the Empire, and the home of the Silvervalley Dwarves lie up that river.

Aside from water, there are open fields surrounding the city. Quite a few of them were quite forrest heavy in the past but that was used for construction and ship building when the town was created.