Baijal

Many of the Baijan are able to get by alright - just over 40% of the population makes a modest-to-comfortable living. But enough of the citizenry struggles to survive that about 40% live in poor (or worse) conditions.

The wealthy and aristocratic crowd make up just under 20% of the city's populace, with a scant 3% truly of the elite aristocrats.

Bellahan Baral has instituted an 18% sales tax on all goods that are sold within the city limits.

After a recent hurricane that completely depleted the city's resources as they attempt to rebuild the sea wall, the Baijan tax collectors are quite zealous in their pursuit of dues owed.

Baijal's agreements with its fellow Karasan cities is as is expected: trade flows back and forth with little trouble.

Its trade agreements with Ilatros, The Islands of Atropae, and Dopplefen are less secure - the first two due to the treacherous nature of sea travel when Nerovae is not feeling generous, and Dopplefen is simply a small collection of towns and villages with a complex series of protection agreements. Their buying power is diminished compared to other trading partners, and as such Baijal does not put much stock in those routes for its own prosperity.

Due to Bellahan Baral's status as the Father of Gunpowder, Baijal has become Mercuria's top producer of firearms and ammunition. The other top trade produced in Baijal is wine.

There are several vineyards on the western side of the city, away from the coastline, with most of them producing amber wines (orange wines - using white grapes and allowing the skins to ferment in the wine akin to how red vs. rosé wine is made), but there are standard white, red, and rosé wines made as well.

The grapes that grow best in this environment are known as the Dai variety, and are extremely bitter before fermentation (the wines made from Dai grapes are the exact opposite of a dessert wine would be).

Alcazar Viage

The land on a hill to the north and set back from the sea wall is known as the Alcazar Viage - the Castle of Journeys. It was once a vacation home for the Karasan empire's royal family, but nowadays the easily defendable (and highly unlikely to flood) hillside houses the city's government.

The alcazar itself has been given to Bellahan Baral, with the surrounding houses that once were used for the mistresses, wives, advisors, and wisemen that traveled with the Karasan czar.

Asha Strait

A small, narrow pathway crowded with temples, altars, and shrines, most of the major pantheon is represented in the Asha Strait.

Out of all the places of worship in Baijal, however, the Temple of Moonbroch is the most curious: a dual temple to the god Nerovae and the goddess Venebri. The priests at Moonbroch say that the two are, in fact, lovers, and that Nerovae sometimes encircles the moon with a halo of sea mist (visible to even those on the shore) as an invitation to the goddess of dusk. This foreplay almost always precludes a violent storm at sea (the two in the throes of passion).

This is not a common belief, however, as many say that Venebri is as close to a virgin goddess without outright saying it - and that she is simply too quiet and withdrawn to be a partner to such a dispassionate, violent god as Nerovae.

Bahaar Beach

Bahaar Beach is not a vacation spot. Instead, it is the dry docks, barracks, port, and training grounds reserved for the Karasan navy.

Despite this fact, many poor Karasans enlist into the military for hope of ending up at Bahaar Beach - because after the work and drills are done for the day, the beautiful white sand in between the large ships pulled up to scrape barnacles and to reapply tar to the seams still sat invitingly open.

Rather crudely, it is also sometimes said that the affluent students of the Maryn Archives are always looking to have a fun time and/or settle down with a navy sailor - and so those looking for a spouse or simply lured by the idea of educated, rich, beautiful co-eds may find their way to Bahaar Beach as well.

The Maryn Archives

Taking up a good portion of the footprint of the district named for it is the Maryn Archives: a library and historical repository for the Karasi empire. But it is most often used to also describe the college attached to the archives.

It is a sprawling campus, with dorms for young adult students (separated by area of study) and university buildings for classes, but also smaller cultural buildings like theaters and art galleries. They are not the vast establishments of a Brillante amphitheater, but there are many, many more of them that house student productions rather than professional ones - this does not speak to the quality, however. There have been just as many with glowing reviews as there have been bombs, just as there are in Brillante.

Praya

Where the sea wall falls away, large open stone pathways follow gentle curves as they connect to docks along the water front and then lead back out into the rest of the city.

Praya, the docks and seafront trade hub for Baijal, is protected by the Spindrift Slums that jut out of the coast line at just the right angle to take the brunt of the harsh sea waves, making it a peaceful and picturesque place to spend an afternoon.

The areas devoted to large commercial trading is sent to the south, nearer to the slums, while docks for pleasure boating, shops, restaurants, and waterfront vacation homes and inns are built in the north. It is normally warm, sunny, and pleasant in Praya - and even when the storms pick up, the water only comes crashing into the shore by a few feet and the rain spits at best.

Spindrift Slums

Jutting out into the sea and having nothing to protect it but the sea walls are the Spindrift Slums.

It is constantly wet and rainy there - not because of storms, but because the waves crashing into the sea wall causes ocean spray to rain down onto the road and buildings constantly. It is a fool's errand to try and air dry your clothing on your balconies or to cook by the fire on your roof.

The children, drunk, or foolish sometimes try to climb the sea walls, but it is considered an extremely dangerous thing to do - Nerovae is not a kind or considerate deity, and tempting them is not a wise idea.

Many drown every year climbing the sea wall.

Currently, the northern end of the slums is under construction after a devastating storm washed out the sea wall. It has been slow going (the government claims that it is an expensive project that they don't have the money to put into the construction all at once), so in the meantime the people who lived in that area whose homes were destroyed must simply wait to even try rebuild, living with friends or on the damp streets until that happens.

The White Fields

The White Fields is used to refer to the area outside of Baijal proper, but it refers to two different areas, which unfortunately can only be differentiated by context.

The first are the vineyards that grow (mostly) Dai grapes, which are a white grape variety that are exceedingly bitter.

These White Fields stretch around the northwest of Baijal and are the source of a great deal of the city's wealth (what doesn't come from being a major port city).

The second White Fields are set to the southeast, close to the ocean. It is an inhospitable place - there are no white beaches or gentle waves. What there are are many, many hot springs, whose foamy surfaces are what gives these White Fields their name.

The hot springs are extremely unsafe to swim in (with boiling temperatures in most areas), but the sulfur found in the area is used in making gunpowder, and so laborers often clamber amongst the dangerous pools to find the ingredients needed to craft these munitions.

Made of concrete with ceramic tile roofs, the two-story homes that the Baijan live in have intricate carvings and statuary to decorate them - poured into molds by master craftsmen and the details hammered out once the molds are broken.

To protect from the storms off the coast, the entire city is protected by large stone walls. The districts closest to the coastline are invariably damp from the constant waves that crash into these walls, raining down splashes of saltwater onto the buildings and streets on the other side.