Kaldoran

Kaldoran has a largely human population with small populations of goblinoids, genasi, half-elves, gnomes, and kobolds. The city sees many enterprising individuals however, so it would not be surprising to see one of the beastman races from nearby Erimia, or perhaps the odd elf or dwarf hailing from Central Midasfjall, while travelling through Kaldoran, particularly in the Guildfare District.

Kaldoran's system of governance works as a pseudo autocratic republic. The people are ruled by a chieftain who makes all of the decisions to do with the governance of their people with the aid of respected elders within the tribe who offer their knowledge and advice to help the chief govern, if the members of the tribe become dissatisfied with their chieftain's performance then they are allow to invoke an ancient tradition; the Krav Mondir. The Krav Mondir allows the people to vote on a new candidate for chief who will then go on to challenge the standing chief for the right to rule, but only if the majority of the people vote for the contest to go ahead. The loser faces exile and most likely death upon the plains of Southern Midasfjall and the new chieftain steps in immediately to take the former's place. Those of wealth and standing within the city are able to petition the chieftain and their elders for laws to be made or amended but the chieftain always has final say.
  The current chieftain of Kaldoran is a descendant of Kaldor Leaping-Raptor himself, a shrewd but miserly man named Jeorlan Wily-Fox. Chief Jeorlan is supported by a small council of elders from the various founding tribes of Kaldoran which consists of one elder from each tribe.

Military

  During the early stages of Kaldoran's development, the small settlement consisted of two areas which are now known as the Old Kaldoran district and the Gulfwalker district. The early Kaldorians built a wooden palisade wall which still surrounds the district to this day. The palisade is made of timber taken from nearby woodlands and stands 9ft tall. Over the years, the palisade wall has been reinforced and upgraded. The Kaldorians began coating the outer face of the palisade walls with the same crushed oyster shell paste that they used to strengthen their buildings, which increased the durability of the palisade walls and made them more resistant to rain and fire. They also build a wall-walk so that guards could patrol the parapets atop the walls, allowing them to spot threats from far away.
  The newer districts of Kaldoran are surrounded by a wall of rock made of limestone blocks which are mined in a nearby quarry at the edge of Hushed Wave Gulf. The impressive stone wall is 30ft high and 10ft thick, and features many rounded stone watchtowers where defenders can easily shoot down upon attackers through arrow slits cut into the fortifications.
  Kaldoran's citizenry is a melting pot of many cultures due to the settler population who made their way to Kaldoran from other regions of Midasfjall and decided to stay, but the main demographic in the city are the descendants of the four original nomadic tribes who came together to found the city. As such, the guards of the city are predominantly a militia of these these tribesmen who are charged with keeping the peace within the city. The city guard answer to the lawmaster of the city, who is a member of chieftain Jeorlan Wily-Fox's council. Wealthy merchants traveling to Kaldoran will often hire mercenaries to guard them during the journey and when they arrive in Kaldoran, these mercenaries are either retained by their patrons as protection or tend to seek work for one of Kaldoran's many guilds. Part of the agreement that chief Jeorlan made with the guilds when they first arrived in the city was to have the guildmasters agree to send their members to aid in the defence of Kaldoran if the city should come under attack, meaning that the city has a militia of considerable experience to call upon if it should come under attack.
 

Natural Defences

  The city of Kaldoran looks out onto the open plains of Southern Midasfjall, the advantage of this is that the guards who patrol the city's walls are able to spot threats from a long distance away. In addition to this, the newer districts of Kaldoran are built further up the hill than the rest of the city which offers the advantage of higher ground for defenders against attackers who make it through Kaldoran's palisade wall. Lastly, Kaldoran borders the Hushed Wave Gulf, which defends a portion of the city from direct attack.

Imports

• Metal products (tools, weapons, armour)

Exports

   

• Pearls
• Salt
• Dinosaur Meat

Old Town District - The Old Town District was where the original settlement of Kaldoran grew out from following the influx of merchants. It is mainly home to the original settlers who's families had lived in Kaldoran since its founding. It is mostly avoided by visitors to Kaldoran as the main attraction of the city are its marketplaces and guilds located in the Guildfare District.    Guildfare District - The Guildfare District is located in the the heart of Kaldoran and is the financial center of the city. Within you can find bustling marketplaces, guild-specific taverns as well as the various guild's headquarters.     Pearl Ward - The Pearl Ward can be found on the eastern front of Kaldoran and is where the newer residences have been built to accommodate the influx of visitors to Kaldoran. It is inhabited by a mix of townspeople and members of the various guilds of Kaldoran   Gulfwalker District - The Gulfwalker District is located on the western front of the city at the base of the hill that Kaldoran sits on. Due to its proximity to the nearby gulf it is the ideal location for the artisans of Kaldoran to set up shop. Fishermen and boatwrights are the most commonly seen profession within but the district is the location of all sorts of craftsmen's workshops.    Kaldoran Heights - Kaldoran Heights is the upper district of Kaldoran, located in the northern section of the city-state where the land inclines upward. The view from the cliffs overlooking Hushed Wave Gulf is beautiful and is the reason why the wealthy have flocked to this region of the city and made their homes there.    Highcrop District - Highcrop District is the southern-most district in Kaldoran and is located close by to the city's farmland for which it is named. Residents of Highcrop District tend to be those with jobs on the nearby farms and ranches.

Guilds

 

Cartographers

  Cartographer guilds endeavor to map the un-walked regions of Southern Midasfjall. They send their members to unvisited region to gather information on the local flora and fauna as well as any inhabitants of the area. Map making is a large part of a cartography guild member's job and their members are praised for their accuracy; a well detailed, accurate map is a valuable thing to the opportunists of Kaldoran and they are willing to pay through their noses for a quality map. The cartographer guilds value the maps their members make and pay them based on the quality for which the maps will sell for.

• Compass Rose Guild - The Compass Rose Guild are a guild of cartographers who's interests are the lands between Kaldoran and the Greatrock Lake. They pride themselves on making high quality, detailed maps which they can sell for a steep price.

Settlers

  Settler guilds are on a grand mission to establish new settlements in and around Southern Midasfjall in an attempt to tame the wild lands of the region. Members of the guild are expected to assist those who come to settler guilds for help in establishing a new settlement. Their work depends on the customer, but the most common use for settler guild members is to clear out new areas to settle, guard a newly established settlement, scout out nearby areas for resources. Members of settler guilds pay a stipend for the guild to advertise them to prospective customers, who then meet with the selected members to agree upon their reward depending on what the job is.

• Hearthfire Guild - The Hearthfire Guild are an agency guild who provide workers to perform a range of establishment tasks that starting a settlement requires. Typical customers of the Hearthfire Guild range from rich nobles to groups of people who wish for a place to call their own and they pay well for the aid of the guild's members.

Hunters

  Hunters guilds are in the business of creature-part procurement. If an alchemist requires a the eyeball of a ferocious creature for a potion or a wizard is looking for a rare crystal found only where dangerous monsters dwell, then the hunters guilds put out a contract which their members can choose to take on. The guilds take a percentage of the contracted price and in return offer their members access to lodging.

• Silver Plume Hunters Guild - The Silver Plume Hunters Guild are hunters who view the act of hunting a great beast as a noble undertaking, they prefer to hunt with ranged weapons and show respect to their prey by only taking what they require from the bodies of the beasts they fell. The Silver Plume Hunters Guild has an upstanding reputation among the guilds of Kaldoran which is very important to them. Members of this guild are expected to uphold the guild's rules regarding the hunting of beasts, but are usually paid better because of it.
• Tyrant Tooth Hunters Guild - The Tyrant Tooth Hunters Guild are a guild of hunters who seek to pit themselves in bloody death matches against the biggest creatures they can find; the more dangerous the better. They have a reputation in Kaldoran for being brutish and their members can often be seen walking around wearing armour and weapons made out of the hides and bones of their quarries.

 

Factions

 

• The Right People - As with any city, the opportunities that arise from major gatherings of people are too great for criminal syndicates to ignore; and the same is true for Kaldoran. The Right People have taken root somewhere within the city and seek to gain power and influence from the shadows.
• The Viridis Genus - The The Viridis Genus have a small headquarters within the city of Kaldoran granted to them by the founding chieftain Kaldor. Their role within the city is to advise those who venture out into the wild lands of Southern Midasfjall, they value the preservation of nature above all and often take issue with the hunters guilds in the city as they oppose the hunting of rare animals.
• Order of the Piercing Gaze - The Order of the Piercing Gaze are a faction of scholars who seek hidden knowledge. Above all else, the Order of the Piercing Gaze seeks to unravel the mysteries of the ancient Ordentian civilisation in order to discover how the cataclysm that ended their empire came to pass.

Kaldoran was founded by the cheiftain of one of the nomadic tribes who wander Southern Midasfjall; Kaldor Leaping-Raptor. Kaldor belonged to a tribe known as the Scale Strider tribe which would wander the plains of Southern Midasfjall moving from pasture to pasture and never settling down. Things changed when Kaldor challenged his predecessor in the Krav Mondir and overcame the previous chieftain in ritual combat by pouncing on his opponent much like the Deinonychus do when hunting, which earned him the name Leaping-Raptor. Kaldor urged the Scale Striders to roam towards the east where they found the bountiful Hushed Wave Gulf; a shallow gulf home to a beautifully colourful coral reef which grows beneath the calm waters. Chief Kaldor made the decision to have his people try and settle the land. There was an abundance of food and resource granted by the gulf if his people could learn how to interact with it.
  The newly settled Scale Strider tribe took to their new home uneasily, but after a short time began to learn how to make use of the bounties provided by Hushed Wave Gulf, they caught the crustaceans living within the coral reefs to eat, they figured out how to make a sort of quicklime plaster by heating oyster shells in a kiln which they used in construction to make their rickety wattle and daub walls more durable, and found an abundance of pearls which were used to make jewelry. The success of the Scale Strider settlement attracted the attention of some of the other wandering nomadic groups who came to visit, and when they saw how quickly the Scale Striders had discarded their nomadic ways in favour of a Neolithic lifestyle they grew jealous. Some went away to start their own settlements on the nearby plains but were often forced back into their nomadic ways after stampedes of dinosaurs rampaged across their settled land, while others tried to take control of the gulf by force. These tribes were quickly rebuked however, as the Scale Strider tribe had made allies. Three of the nomadic tribes had approached chieftain Kaldor and asked if he would allow them to join him and the Scale Strider tribe to create one larger, stronger tribe. They were known as the Verdant Wind tribe, the tribe of the Black Aurochs, and the Winding River tribe. Chieftain Kaldor agreed, he recognised there is strength in numbers and that more members would mean that they could venture further into the gulf and bring in more resource. Outmanned, the aggressor tribes were forced to fall back to wandering the plains as nomads. The four settler tribes decided to unite as one under chieftain Kaldor and named their settlement after him in his honour. As the years went by the sons of Kaldor took on his role as chief and their sons after them, and not once was the Krav Mondir invoked against any of them.
  The Kaldorians continued to expand the settlement and it quickly grew to the size of a small town, but opposition from the dangerous beasts of the land and the disgruntled aggressor tribes meant that Kaldoran was less than safe. There were a few instances in the settlement's history where Kaldoran faced utter destruction, on two instances, years apart, the settlement was attacked by a Tyrannosaurus Rex; a colossal beast with a fierce temperament. Fortunately on both occasions the Kaldorians prevailed. The first was driven away and the second fell to Kaldor's youngest son at the time, a cunning warrior named Terlan Silent-Viper who threw his spear into the beast's eye and pierced its brain. The head of the second Tyrannosaurus was taken as a trophy and how sits in the chieftain's hall in Kaldoran with its jaws set wide open and the chief's seat placed within. Kaldoran has also had to deal with raids from the tribes who wished to take it for their own. The raids weren't very threatening as the Kaldorians had the numbers and thick palisade walls to defend from, but after a series of failed raids the aggressors retreated for a while only to return having united themselves with the giant worshipping goliath tribes, who wish for all semblances of society to be wiped from Southern Midasfjall. The Kaldorians and the aggressors fought a great battle outside of Kaldoran's wooden palisade walls. The goliaths smashed their way into Kaldoran and wrought havoc but the Scale Strider dinosaur-cavalry swept in from behind and cut the rampaging goliaths off from the rest of their forces where they fell to the axes and arrows of the Black Aurochs and Verdant Wind tribe. The raid cost the Kaldorians many lives including that of the chieftain at the time, a grandson of Kaldor named Kedrick Raging-Bear. Kedrick's younger brother, Lian Wise-Owl survived the battle and took temporary leadership of Kaldoran until Kedrick's son, Jeorlan Wily-Fox grew old enough to take his rightful place as chieftain. Following the great battle with the goliaths, Kaldoran has been mostly left alone, which allowed the Kaldorians to begin to travel outwards.
  In 1380, Chief Jeorlan Wily-Fox, a son of Kedrick Raging-Bear, sent prospectors to the other side of Hushed Wave Gulf to see if it was inhabited on its northern shore. What they found was a uninhabited swampy marshland but as they pushed beyond that, they discovered the river folk kingdom of Jingfei. The Kaldorians traded with the people of Jingfei and returned home bearing exotic new herbs and medicinal plants which they had exchanged for their pearl jewelry. This single expedition sparked the interest in Kaldoran as the stepping stone for enterprise into the mostly untouched wild lands of Southern Midasfjall, Chief Jeorlan encouraged merchants to visit Kaldoran and share their knowledge of city building and economics and as the years passed Kaldoran began to transform from a rural township to a small city-state. With the presence of the guilds, Kaldoran is now the bonafide place of work for those daring enough to try and tame the wilds of Southern Midasfjall.

Inns & Taverns

• Leaping Raptor Inn - A hub of Kaldorian history where visitors can find good food and a cosy place to stay.
• Crab Claw Tavern - A small tavern located in the Guildfare district which offers a large variety of seafood dishes.
• The Black pearl Courtesan House - A high end brothel located in the pearl district. The brothel is owed by one Madame Jelenneth Amakiir who frequently has her girls put on dazzling shows to bring in new customers.
• The Grand Quetzl Inn - A place to stay for those with coin in abundance located in the Pearl District. This Inn boasts comfortable rooms, delicious fresh food and respectful customers.

Merchants & Artisans

• Goldflame Smithy - A small but well known smithy located in Kaldoran's Guildfare district. The owner and sole worker is a friendly golden dragonborn named Odyssian Donaar. The smithy offers all weapons and armour that can be found in the PHB pages 145,149, as well as barding for mounts. (some items may require Donaar to make them and will require time to pass).
• Scribblequill's Tome and Scroll Emporium - Located within the Guildfare district, on the perimeter of Kaldoran's main marketplace, is a charming bookstore which sells spellbooks, spell scrolls and resources for wizards. The owner is a bookish but brusque human male named Rigby Scribblequill. The store's spells croll inventory changes every tenday. (see Scribblequills Tome and Scroll Emporium Handout in roll20 for weekly inventory and estimated prices).
• Cub's Alchemy Alcove - Within the main market of Kaldoran, you can find a stall selling tincture, oils, ointments and potions of a wild variety of purposes.The stall belongs to an eccentric gnome named Cubblewubble Fizzlewizzlepop who can be found in a shouting match with Skulb, a nearby merchant with a stall of his own. (potion stock to be created for roll20)
• Skulb's Rare Trinket Stall - What could be mistaken for a pile of garbage that no one wants to deal with in Kaldoran's main marketplace is actually a stall belonging to an armless goblin merchant named Skulb. Skulb loves trinkets more than anything and will buy them for gold... yes actual gold for silly trinkets. Dont ask where Skulb gets his gold from though...
• Plain Rider Stable - The stable is located just outside the city's palisade wall, near the Old Kaldoran district gate. The offers a range of mount related services, from riding tackle to the mounts themselves, and they will also look after your mounts while you travel the city, for a fee of course. The stable is owned by a matronly goliath lady named Arla.
• Brother Bombastus Liliardino - Brother Bombastus is an eccentric cleric of Ordentia who can be found in the Folk Temple within Kaldoran's Guildfare District. He creates and sells spell scrolls befitting those with divine spellcasting. 
• Reginald the Slightly Green - Reginald the Slightly Green is the Keeper of the The Viridis Genus in Kaldoran. His admininstrative talents are not all he boasts though, as he also makes and sells spell scrolls for those with spellcasting abilities in the nature domain. 

Organisations

• Nel Ambrose's Soup Kitchen - The soup kitchen, owned by old tabaxi Nel Ambrose, is well known among the homeless and hopeless who sleep in Kaldoran's streets. Nel feeds as many she can of those who need it and has little patience for those seeking to take advantage of her services.
• Nanna Nemiea's Spicy Pie Shop - Nanna Nemiea is an old tiefling lady who bakes delicious pies for the workers in the Gulfwalker District. Sher uses her secret method to make the pies deliciously spicy.
• Wavecrest Company - The Wavecrest Company are a maritime shipping company who run ships between Kaldoran and Eastern Midasfjall. 
• Chabot Maritime Shipping Company - The Chabot Maritime Shipping Company are a shipping company based in the Empire of Draugheim. Their favoured shipping routes take their ships north along the coast of Erimia and occasionally south to Kaldoran. 

The bounties of Kaldoran lie in the tropical Hushed Wave Gulf that the city was built on the edge of. Unfortunately for the early Kaldorians, the surrounding terrain was not as forthcoming with natural resources like wood and stone, so they were forced to get creative when building their homes. The Kaldorians were able to get a small supply of wood from the scraggly woodlands that dot the plains of Southern Midasfjall and a wattle and daub technique was used in early Kaldorian architecture. These early structures were relatively cheap and easy to build, but often would not stand the test of time; they were extremely vulnerable to raids from hostile nomad tribes and dinosaur stampedes. Eventually it was discovered that a paste could be made out of crushed oyster shells which the Kaldorians the slathered over their wattle and daub walls to harden them. Structures coated with the crushed oyster shell paste were far more durable, rain resistant and couldn't be burned as easily, while still being cheap and easy to build. This groundbreaking architectural discovery is what many theorise to be the reason why Kaldoran was able to survive for as long as it did before the quarry was established on Crustoral Isle.
  In present day, Kaldoran has a mixture of architectural styles which differ from between districts of the city. The Gulfwalker and Old Kaldoran districts were the original settlement of Kaldoran before its recent expansion and the architecture in these districts has not yet been updated. The buildings found within are wattle and daub single storey houses which have been coated in coated in white oyster shell paste. These houses tend to be one single rectangular structure, where the space with is divided into three or four rooms by thinner walls made out of wattle which has been woven within a timber frame. Kaldorians all over the city use wattle-weave walls for fencing and animal pens but the use of these structures is prevalent in the older districts. The Highcrop district is the newest district to be built in Kaldoran and the vast majority of the buildings within use the same coated wattle and daub technique for their foundations.
  With the recent influx of merchants from other regions of Midasfjall to Kaldoran, the city has undergone a rapid evolution. Not only has the city grown exponentially in size over the past 50 or so years, but the knowledge of the citizens has grown as well. Architects from other regions soon followed the first wave of eager merchants to visit Kaldoran, commissioned by the wealthy businessmen to build them accommodations that weren't so primitive in design. As a result, in the newer Guildfare, Pearl, and Kaldoran Heights districts, the architecture makes use of slate as the main building material. Slate is quarried on the nearby Crustoral Isle and shipped to Kaldoran to be used in the newer buildings, the slate is stacked and then coated with the same crushed oyster shell paste which forms resilient and sturdy foundations. A typical slate building is often two storeys high and feature three or four rooms on both floors as well as a larder beneath. 

Kaldoran is built at the base of a large bluff which borders Hushed Wave Gulf and faces out into the ocean. The bluff's grassy side is dotted with rocky protrusions and inclines lazily upward, growing higher and higher before dropping steeply into the straits which flow between the mainland and Crustoral Isle. The top of the bluffs feature a breathtaking view of Hushed Wave Gulf and you can see the eastern edge of the Gigantiaia Jungle as well as the rocky chasm-ridden Crustoral Isle from the vantage point. Kaldoran was built on the edge of Hushed Wave Gulf and part of the city includes a section of the craggy shelf of rock which skirts the outer edge of the gulf. The rocky border wraps all of the way around the gulf and gives way to the flat grassy terrain that dominates the plains of Southern Midasfjall.

A large portion of Kaldoran's natural resources come from the nearby Hushed Wave Gulf, where the Kaldorians fish for food and go diving for clams and oysters which yield pearls to be used in jewelry making and the oyster shells can be used in construction. In addition to this there is a small woodlands south of Kaldoran where a quick supply of lumber can be drawn from. The Kaldorians have a couple of lumber camps set up on the edge of the Gigantiaia Jungle where a wider range of materials can be gathered, but the camps are days away from Kaldoran even with carts hauled by dinosaurs and the area is populated by roaming predatory beasts so the supply train is often hindered or cut off entirely. Kaldoran does have a few mines scattered up the hill to the north of the city, but most of it's stone is quarried on the nearby Crustoral Isle to the northeast which is accessible by ship.