Emberforge

• Species breakdown:
• ~30% flame elves (primary nobility, administrators, high artisans)
• ~25% molten dwarves (leading many forges and engineering guilds)
• ~15% dragonborn (city guards, elite warriors, merchant clans)
• ~12% fire genasi (mages, rune specialists, high crafters)
• ~10% kobolds (logistics, runners, minor workshops)
• ~5% salamanders (often involved in steam and heat management systems)
• ~3% other (including ember sprites, visiting outsiders)
• Wealth classes:
  The city is heavily stratified. Lavish estates and tower manors of noble houses cluster around the palace, while skilled crafters and prosperous merchants fill the middle tiers. Lower levels near the slag pits and outer foundries house common laborers.
• Professions:
  Rune-mages, master smiths, merchants, soldiers, steam engineers, alchemists, high clerics, artisans, miners shipping in raw goods from outlying settlements.

Ruled directly by Ignis from the Cinder Crown Palace, with governance executed by the Council of Embers, comprising major house heads and key representatives of the Order of the First Thought. Taxes are levied on commercial activity, forge production, and land grants, collected by palace-appointed stewards.

Local justice is managed by High Flame Adjudicators, who interpret the Flame Tablets—Embergarde’s core legal code. The Order of the First Thought has its own courts for arcane disputes.

• Immense lava moats circle the city’s core, regulated by sluice gates.
• Ring walls of obsidian-reinforced basalt studded with defensive rune pylons.
• Dozens of watch towers equipped with fire lances and drake handler stations.
• Garrisoned by elite Pyrelegions, supported by summoned elementals and trained war drakes.
• The palace itself is encircled by a secondary wall studded with warding monoliths that flare to life in times of siege.

Emberforge is the central hub of Embergarde’s economy.

• Oversees finishing and enchantment of weapons and armor shipped in from Ashvault and Glimmerdeep.
• Houses the most sophisticated rune laboratories and alchemical halls in the kingdom.
• Hosts grand markets where traders from the Lilted Vale and Virellia barter for enchanted arms, luxury crafts, and volcanic glass artworks.

Main exports are masterwork rune gear and ceremonial arms. Major imports include food staples, rare silks, specialized woods, and scholarly tomes.

• Lava canals regulate heat flow and power public smelters and bathhouses.
• Complex multi-tiered road networks supported by rune pillars, with large avenues wide enough for caravans and drake convoys.
• Enchanted lanterns fed by slow-burning pyrestone line streets, never needing mundane oil.
• An intricate aqueduct system channels cooled water from distant peaks to cisterns and ornamental fountains.

• Cinder Crown District: Houses the royal palace, noble estates, and grand embassies.
• The Forge Galleries: Vast interconnected halls of master smiths and rune-carvers, also hosting seasonal competitions.
• Mercantile Arches: Covered markets selling everything from enchanted jewelry to exotic spices.
• Ashwalks: Bustling middle-class neighborhoods known for busy taverns and trade hostels.
• Outlying Slag Fields: Lower sectors near slag disposal pits, home to poorer workers, traveling caravans, and transient labor camps.

The city controls the kingdom’s most extensive vaults of enchanted arms, private reserves of pyrestone, and ritual halls of the Order of the First Thought. The royal drake stables house dozens of trained battle drakes.

• Emberbound: The capital chapter sets standards for all forging and rune-crafting, issuing prestigious certifications.
• Order of the First Thought: Holds its largest sanctum here, administering magical law, education, and high ritual observances.
• Opaline Brokers: Though based in Virellia, maintain a major counting house to handle trade contracts and luxury imports.

• Cinder Crown Palace: A towering fortress-palace of black stone and flickering rune lines, seat of Ignis’s power.
• The Grand Crucibles: Stadium-sized forges where master smiths perform ceremonial works.
• Hall of the Eternal Forger: Largest temple to Aurenos.
• Runeblood Arena: A coliseum where smiths and warriors compete to test arms and tactics under controlled elemental hazards.

Draws pilgrims to the Hall of the Eternal Forger, merchants seeking rune contracts, and wealthy collectors looking to commission unique arms or jewelry. Visitors often stay in luxurious multi-story inns near the Mercantile Arches or in smaller, exclusive guest manors managed by noble houses.

Structures favor monumental scale with soaring archways, thick columns engraved with rune histories, and sharp spires designed to resemble rising flames. Built primarily from black basalt accented by pyrestone inlays. Residences and temples often have open lava pools or controlled flame pits as features.

Located at the foot of the largest volcanic vent in the Ember Range. The surrounding terrain is rugged and broken, with rivers of cooled basalt twisting through old lava fields. Some outer neighborhoods sprawl up the lower mountain slopes.

Exceptionally hot year-round with frequent ground tremors. Ash drifts are common after vent eruptions. Occasional sulfur storms drive people indoors for days at a time.

Built atop vast magma reservoirs and surrounded by rich deposits of iron, pyrestone, and rare flux crystals needed for advanced rune forging.