Platinus

The Demographics of Platinus: A Portrait of the Gilded City

Platinus, home to roughly 155,000 citizens, is Kendron’s most populous and diverse city—though even its diversity is structured by design. Every inhabitant has a defined role within the city's social and professional hierarchy, making its population feel less like a crowd and more like a carefully tuned mechanism.

Humans dominate the population, making up about three-quarters of the citizenry, with the remainder composed of dwarves, Balpura, Shiira, Jen’mahadim, and other rare species drawn by opportunity, prestige, or purpose. Dwarves serve as industrial and military specialists; Balpura are healers, mediators, and spiritual guides; Shiira thrive as tinkerers and information brokers; Jen’mahadim appear rarely, usually on specific diplomatic or academic missions. A small number of outsiders from distant lands pass through, their presence notable but fleeting.

Class divides are clearly delineated. The elite—nobles, senior officials, and military leaders—occupy the Highdrake Enclave and Aurumalia, comprising a mere five percent of the city but holding most of its power. A prosperous middle class of scholars, engineers, merchants, and master artisans inhabit the Collegium Quarter and Vaerocasian Bazaar, driving the city’s innovation and management. Half the population belongs to the working class, laboring in the docks, barracks, foundries, and service sectors that keep the city running. Beneath them lies the underclass, concentrated in the Shadowmere Depths—those without formal status, living in poverty or subsisting on the edges of legality.

Professionally, over a third of Platinus is employed in government and military service. Commerce and craft make up another third, followed by academia and arcane professions. A smaller share works in manual labor or household service. The remaining five percent operate in the city’s shadow economy—smugglers, fences, spies, and the unregistered poor who slip through the city’s carefully controlled systems. Even in a place built for precision, the edges of the machine still fray.

The Mandate Council

Though subordinate to the national authority of the Stormlord and Heliox Assembly, the municipal government of Platinus operates as a vast, finely tuned bureaucracy responsible for the capital’s daily function. It is a civic machine, calibrated to enforce order, manage infrastructure, and uphold the standards of Kendroni progress.

The kingdom is an idea. The city is a machine. And a machine requires constant, meticulous calibration to function. That is our work. We are the calibrators.

— Lord Mayor Valerius Kane, addressing the undefined Mandate Council

At its head is the Lord Mayor, appointed by the Stormlord and approved by the Heliox Assembly. This figure holds executive control over the city’s departments, budget, and enforcement. Beneath the mayor sits the Mandate Council, a legislative body composed of district representatives and guild leaders who draft city-level laws and ordinances. Their authority extends across zoning, trade, sanitation, and public conduct, all of which must align with the national Accord Lexicon.

Funding and regulation flow through a rigid tax system managed by the Office of the Ledger. Property taxes, market tariffs, and guild tithes sustain the city’s operations, with revenues split between the city and national treasuries. Laws are publicly displayed on crystalline tablets in each district, reinforcing visibility and compliance.

Platinus runs through the efforts of specialized departments. The Brotherhood of Protectors enforces civic law and maintains peace. The Ministry of Conduits oversees vital systems—power, water, and sanitation—without which the city would collapse. The Office of the Ledger manages all finances and payroll, while the Guild Registry regulates the rights and responsibilities of guilds, wielding quiet yet immense influence over the city’s economic life.

Together, these bodies form a seamless municipal engine—structured, efficient, and relentlessly ordered in the image of the Accord.

The Gilded Fortress

Platinus is not merely protected—it is fortified in principle, form, and function. The city’s outer Accord Walls, rising a hundred feet and clad in rune-etched drakemetal, form the first visible defense: a gleaming bastion that deflects siege and spell alike. Three massive gatehouses, each a self-contained fortress guarded by the Drakemetal Vanguard, tightly regulate entry, their locks bound by magic and protocol.

Beyond stone and steel lies the arcane shield: a network of passive wards humming quietly beneath the surface. These block scrying, intercept teleportation, and anchor Platinus in a veil of enforced secrecy. In emergencies, power from the city’s dragocite grid surges into crystal towers, generating the Canopy Ward—a radiant, golden dome capable of deflecting even draconic fury, though it drains the city’s lifeblood with every second.

The city’s design is its next defense. Grand boulevards spiral deliberately to control troop movement, feeding would-be invaders into zones flanked by towers and kill-points. Bridges across the Gallor River and inner canals can be raised or collapsed, isolating districts and turning the city into a layered trap of fortified islands. Core sectors—like Kelhun’s Vanguard, the Sanctum Core, and the Collegium Quarter—are built as redoubts, each capable of holding its own against a siege.

Above, Platinus watches the skies. The walls bristle with turreted watchtowers, each armed with elemental cannons. The Sky-Port maintains a fleet of warships held in constant readiness, while high overhead, the Dragon Knights patrol on their sacred mounts—the city’s final and most awe-inspiring line of defense. In Platinus, war is not awaited; it is accounted for.

The Engine of the Accord

Wealth is not a treasure to be hoarded; it is a current to be directed. Here in Platinus, we have built the grandest dam in the world, and every transaction, every invention, every shipment is merely us opening another sluice gate.

— First Merchant Kaelen of the Vaerocasian Bazaar

Platinus thrives not by chance, but by design—its economy a precise mechanism of invention, refinement, and control. As the industrial and financial heart of the Golden Dominion, the city transforms raw potential into power: unstable dragocite is purified in the Collegium Quarter, fused with drakemetal in the foundries of the Artisan’s Alcove, and shaped into magi-tech that fuels an empire. Elemental firearms, skyship engines, and intricate clockwork devices are all crafted within its walls.

Guild artisans produce masterworks of textile, jewelcraft, and invention for export, while the city's lifeblood—refined dragocite—flows to every corner of the kingdom. Imports feed its hunger: raw ores, grain, preserved fish, silks, and rare reagents arrive daily by rail and river.

The people of Platinus move with purpose, each a cog in the greater machine. Engineers and smiths fuel the forges of progress. Merchants and bureaucrats steer the currents of commerce. Soldiers, dockworkers, and laborers uphold the city’s infrastructure with tireless discipline. Beneath it all, in the alleys of the Shadowmere Depths, a shadow economy thrives—illicit, unregulated, and ever watching for cracks in the gilded order.

The Infrastructure of Platinus: A City Engineered for Eternity

A road is not merely a path; it is an argument. A bridge is not just a crossing; it is a statement. In Platinus, we have built a city that makes an unassailable case for the perfection of order. Every stone, every conduit, every gear is a word in that grand declaration.

— Lord-Minister Vereth Solmir, overseeing the calibration of the Grand Aqueduct

Platinus is not merely inhabited—it is composed. Every structure reflects the principles of the Draconic Accord, built to endure and to declare the supremacy of order. The city's infrastructure is a seamless blend of state-built foundations and privately driven innovation, each layer reinforcing the machine of urban life.

The state provides the essential framework: a dragocite-powered grid hums beneath the streets, distributing refined energy through leyline conduits to fuel the city's systems. Monumental aqueducts deliver magically purified water, while wide, drakemetal-paved roads connect districts and enable swift military and logistical movement. These public systems form the skeleton of Platinus.

Upon that foundation, guilds and visionaries have erected the city's flesh and character. The Artisan's Alcove roars with privately owned blast furnaces, drawing on state power to supply the kingdom’s arms. At Windemere Wharfs, merchant families manage sprawling docks, shipyards, and dragocite-powered cranes. Bridges arch gracefully over the Gallor River, each a noble house’s statement of wealth and style. Public plazas bloom with privately funded gardens and fountains, maintained by patrons eager to leave their mark.

Beneath it all, ancient sewers channel waste through deep, layered tunnels—maintained in part by the state, but often overseen by guilds or landowners responsible for their sections. The result is a city of overlapping systems: visible order above, silent complexity below. In Platinus, infrastructure is not merely utility—it is legacy, competition, and control.

A Wanderer’s View

To the uninitiated, Platinus may appear seamless—a gleaming capital of order, gilded stone, and humming conduits. But every citizen knows its true nature lies in its districts, each shaped by the work it performs, the people it shelters, and the ambitions it fuels. Power may flow outward from Aurumalia, but every quarter beats with its own pulse, guided by distinct rhythms of wealth, labor, and influence.

Aurumalia stands at the center, the political and spiritual heart of the city. Its symmetry, silence, and grandeur project the authority of the Draconic Accord. Processional avenues line the palace grounds, guarded by Dragon Knights and flanked by marble statues of Stormlords past. Nearby, the radiant temples of Vro’kahn and Indarra tower over manicured courtyards, while the ministries of governance and faith churn through the bureaucratic engine of the realm.

To the north, the Collegium Quarter crackles with energy and invention. Its streets are a patchwork of ancient towers, student inns, and experimental labs. Steam coils from alchemical chimneys, and leyline monitors flicker beside weathered lecture halls. Here, scribes, siphoners, and scholars walk beneath lamplight enchanted to glow with the color of the day’s mood. Knowledge is currency, and the air smells faintly of ink, ozone, and ambition.

On the east lies the Vaerocasian Bazaar, where commerce never sleeps. Grand colonnades and vibrant arcades host merchants hawking everything from jeweled fabrics to powdered mandrake root. Blacksmiths shout over their anvils as masterwork steel is forged a block away from spice-sellers wrapping parcels in dragonstamped silk. Behind the stalls and storefronts, power brokers trade in information as often as goods.

To the south, the city sharpens. Kelhun’s Vanguard is a district of discipline and steel, where the cadence of marching soldiers echoes from stone walls. Fortified barracks, broad drill yards, and magi-tech armories define the landscape. This is where the kingdom’s elite forces are honed and housed, their lives shaped by command hierarchies and sacred duty.

Atop the emerald ridges overlooking the city, the Highdrake Enclave gleams with privilege. Old noble estates, modern villas, and obsidian observatories share the skyline, their owners sipping imported wines while charting both the stars and political fortunes. Status here is architectural, with the grandeur of a courtyard or the angle of a spire signifying generations of power.

Beneath it all lies the Shadowmere Depths, a dense warren of collapsing walkways, sunless alleys, and tenement spires. Here, forgotten lives press against the borders of legality. Black markets thrive, whispers carry farther than shouts, and the Brotherhood of Protectors walks softly—if at all. It is not lawless, but its laws are unwritten, enforced by guilds, gangs, and the weight of need.

To the west, the Meridex Quarter ensures the entire city moves. This is the domain of public works, supply lines, and arcane logistics. Rail hubs groan with incoming shipments. The Ministry of Conduits regulates the flow of dragocite, water, and waste through its columned halls. Plazas are stark but symmetrical, and the scent of stone and ozone clings to every ledger. Civic archives stretch deep beneath the ground, bound by glyph-locked vaults and bureaucracy older than most dynasties. Though often overlooked, the Quarter’s administrators and engineers hold more leverage than many nobles, their signatures moving armies and gold without lifting a blade.

Lastly, the Windemere Wharfs curl along the riverside, where barges unload grain from Gadorak and crates marked for foreign shores are lifted by dragocite cranes. It is a loud, fragrant place of honest work and fluid allegiance. Sailors brawl beside vendors frying spiced eel, while shipwrights hammer out contracts as deftly as they shape keels. This is where the kingdom meets the world—and where rumors often arrive before royal decrees.

The Gears of the Gilded City

Though Platinus bends to the will of the Stormlord and is shaped by the laws of the Heliox Assembly, the true engine of its motion lies in the hands of its factions. These powerful institutions—public, private, and clandestine—compete and cooperate to direct the city’s fate, turning its politics, industry, and culture with subtle, relentless force.

State power flows through institutions like the Order of the Platinum Sun, which guides the kingdom’s moral compass, and the Lumenarch Collegium, whose scholars fuel innovation and bureaucracy alike. The Alchemedica Institute safeguards the city's health with arcane precision, while the Drakemetal Vanguard stands ever ready to enforce Kendron’s order with steel and spell.

Commerce is ruled by guilds whose wealth rivals their political influence. The Vaerocasian Consortium manages trade through the Bazaar with practiced dominance, while the Anvil Guild and Artificers' League shape the kingdom’s arms and magi-tech in a cold rivalry of tradition versus invention. The Siphoners’ Union, secretive and essential, guards the city’s dragocite lifeblood, and the Dockworkers’ Collective maintains its grip on the supply lines with the quiet threat of strike.

Beyond the sanctioned lies a shadow world. The Umbral Serpents rule the black market from the Depths, masters of illicit trade and political sabotage. The Knights of Man, zealots of human purity, strike from hidden cells, while the Veil of Shadows enacts strange violence in protest of magi-tech's dominion. Amid this turbulence, the Luminary Hands Foundation offers quiet aid to the forgotten—proof that not all power seeks control.

Points of Interest in Platinus: The Landmarks of the Accord

A traveler sees our towers and thinks they understand our strength. A fool. Our strength is not in the stone, but in what the stone represents. Each of these places is a pillar holding up our world. Know them, and you will begin to understand power.

— Commander Selene Hartwood of the Brotherhood of Protectors

To walk through Platinus is to walk through a living museum of power, a city where every grand structure and bustling square serves a distinct purpose in the great machine of the kingdom. These are the landmarks that define the city's character, the sources of its wealth, and the stages upon which its greatest dramas unfold.

Aurumalia (The Sanctum Core)

• The Aurum Palace: The political heart of the mortal government. This breathtaking palace of gilded stone and aetherglass domes is the seat of the Stormlord and the meeting place of the Heliox Assembly. Its halls are a quiet labyrinth of political intrigue, where the fate of the kingdom is decided in hushed tones. While the public courts are open to petitioners, the inner chambers are accessible only to the highest echelons of power.
• The Grand Temple of Vro'kahn: The spiritual soul of Kendron. A colossal structure of white marble and gold, its central dome is designed to capture and amplify the first light of dawn, bathing the city's core in a holy radiance. It is the headquarters of the Order of the Platinum Sun and a place of immense spiritual power, drawing pilgrims from across the continent.

The Collegium Quarter

• The Great Library of Eldoria: The largest repository of sanctioned knowledge in the world. This is not a single building but a sprawling campus of interconnected towers, scriptoriums, and silent reading halls. It is said to contain a copy of every book ever written—or at least, every book the Drakarchate has deemed safe for public consumption. Its deepest vaults, holding forbidden or "redacted" lore, are the most secure locations in the city.
• The Central Conductor: The humming, dangerous heart of the city's power grid. Located in a heavily fortified sub-district, this is a massive, semi-sentient crystalline array tended to by the enigmatic Siphoners. It draws raw energy from the leylines beneath the city and distributes it through the conduit network. The area is a deadly maze of arcing electricity and raw magical energy, and access is strictly forbidden to all but the most senior Siphoners.

The Vaerocasian Bazaar

• The Gilded Trove: The most famous and dangerous marketplace in Platinus. Housed under a massive, vaulted roof that resembles golden dragon scales, the Trove is where fortunes are made and lives are lost. Here, merchants from the powerful Vaerocasian Consortium trade in the rarest of goods: masterwork elemental-firearms, enchanted artifacts, raw dragocite, and political secrets. Every deal is a high-stakes gamble, and the only law is the contract.

Highdrake Enclave

• The Obsidian Spire: A sleek, impossibly tall tower of polished black obsidian that serves as the cultural heart of the city's elite. Its upper levels contain a grand theater, opulent art galleries, and the private salons where nobles like Lady Caelia Drakontos conduct their political maneuvering. Its pinnacle is a state-of-the-art observatory, used by the city's seers to chart the heavens and divine the future.

Kelhun's Vanguard

• The Ironhand War Academy: The legendary military academy where the future defenders of the Accord are forged. A sprawling compound of austere stone buildings and unforgiving training fields, the Academy produces the finest officers for the Drakemetal Vanguard and the legendary Dragon Knights. It is a place of absolute discipline, and its training methods are a closely guarded state secret.

The Windemere Wharfs

• The Thaldraszune Maritime Exchange: The logistical heart of the kingdom. This is a massive, bustling complex of warehouses, guild halls, and towering, dragocite-powered cranes that dominates the city's waterfront. It is here that raw materials from across the kingdom are offloaded from river barges and where Kendron's finished goods are prepared for their journey to the wider world. The Dockworkers' Collective holds immense informal power here, their loyalty essential for the city's economic survival.

The Shadowmere Depths

• The Rag-picker's Market: Known to its inhabitants as "The Sump," this is the infamous, sprawling black market of Platinus. In a maze of sunless alleys and makeshift stalls, one can buy anything forbidden by the light of day: illicit dragocite, stolen goods, dangerous narcotics like Dreamdust, and the services of the Umbral Serpents. It is a place of desperate survival and the most dangerous trading hall in the city.

Tourism in Platinus: The Pilgrimage of Progress

They come to marvel at our perfection. They see the gilded towers, the silent trams, the well-fed citizens, and they call it a wonder. They are correct. But they mistake the result for the reason. They are not admiring a city; they are admiring a flawlessly executed argument.

— Genevieve Silverquill, undefined Bureaucrat

Tourism in Platinus is a carefully managed industry, a reflection of the kingdom's view of itself as the center of the civilized world. Visitors are not seen as simple travelers, but as pilgrims coming to witness the triumph of the Draconic Accord. The city offers a breathtaking spectacle of order and innovation, and it welcomes those who come to admire its achievements. However, it is a city that is always watching, and it has little patience for those who do not respect its rigid sense of propriety.

The Visitors: A Spectrum of Ambition

Platinus attracts a wide array of visitors, each drawn by a different facet of the city's power and prestige.

• The Pious Pilgrim: The most common type of visitor. Devout worshippers of Vro'kahn from across the continent make the journey to Platinus as a sacred duty. They come to pray at the Grand Temple in the Concordance of Dawn, to witness the state-sponsored religious festivals, and to feel the divine presence that permeates the city's orderly streets.
• The Ambitious Scholar: Students, academics, and arcane theorists flock to the Collegium Quarter. They are eager to gain admittance to the famed Lumenarch Collegium, to study within the hallowed halls of the Great Library of Eldoria, or simply to breathe the air of innovation.
• The Wealthy Merchant: Traders and guild masters from nations like Shal Manzir and Tanbhu come to the Vaerocasian Bazaar to forge lucrative trade deals. They are eager to acquire Kendron's unparalleled magi-tech exports and to witness the latest industrial marvels they might one day import.
• The Foreign Dignitary: Ambassadors from allied nations, military attachés, and minor nobles come to Aurumalia on official business with the Stormlord and the Heliox Assembly. Their visits are highly choreographed affairs of state, filled with ceremony and subtle political maneuvering.
• The Curious Commoner: During major festivals, well-to-do citizens from Kendron's rural territories will travel to the capital. They are eager to see the spectacle of the Festival of Innovation, to ride the Magi-Tech Trams, and to gaze in awe at the sheer scale of the Gilded City.

The Grand Tour: The Sanctioned Sights

The city's government and guilds have established a well-trodden path for visitors, a tour designed to showcase the power and perfection of the kingdom.

• The Gilded Step: The grand processional avenue in Aurumalia is the first stop for most visitors. They come to marvel at the colossal statues of past Stormlords and to gaze upon the gleaming exterior of the Aurum Palace.
• The Grand Temple of Vro'kahn: The spiritual heart of the kingdom is open to all who come to worship. Its soaring, sun-drenched halls and magnificent architecture are considered one of the great wonders of the modern world.
• The Gilded Trove: While access to the most exclusive auctions is by invitation only, the main floor of this grand marketplace in the Vaerocasian Bazaar is a breathtaking spectacle of wealth and commerce, a must-see for any visitor.
• The Obsidian Spire: The public galleries of this cultural center in the Highdrake Enclave are open to visitors, offering stunning views of the city and showcasing the finest works of sanctioned Kendroni art.
• The Anvil's Echo: For those interested in the industrial heart of the city, the great forges of the Artisan's Alcove offer viewing galleries where one can watch the master smiths of the Anvil Guild at their work, a spectacle of fire and precision.

Accommodations: A Bed for Every Station

Where a visitor stays in Platinus is a clear indicator of their wealth and social standing.

• The Gilded Suites (Luxury): In the Highdrake Enclave, a number of opulent inns and private villas cater to foreign dignitaries, merchant princes, and high-ranking nobles. Establishments like The Spireview and The Golden Griffin offer unparalleled luxury, privacy, and security, all at a staggering price.
• The Scholar's Rest (Mid-Range): The Collegium Quarter and the Vaerocasian Bazaar are filled with comfortable and respectable inns. These establishments cater to traveling merchants, academics, and the well-to-do common folk. They are clean, orderly, and well-regulated by the city.
• The Dockworker's Flophouse (Budget): For the common traveler, the sailor, or the pilgrim on a tight budget, the Windemere Wharfs offer a host of cheap, noisy, and often dangerous inns and boarding houses. Here, a bed is cheap, but a good night's sleep is never guaranteed.

Architecture in Platinus: Form as Ideology

In Platinus, architecture is more than utility—it is ideology cast in stone. Buildings rise in the style known as Draconic Accordism, a striking blend of divine geometry, arcane technology, and monumental ambition. Towers soar in flawless verticals, plazas align with exacting symmetry, and every street speaks the city's core truth: order is sacred, and progress is divine.

The city’s bones are carved from white-veined marble drawn from the highest peaks, reinforced with drakemetal—a rare, magically conductive alloy that supports gravity-defying spires and elegant bridges. Gold and polished brass crown domes and spires in tribute to Midasaura the Gilded, while massive windows of transparent aetherglass flood interiors with light.

Dragocite veins run openly through Platinus—thin blue lines of energy that illuminate streets and climb walls in glowing elegance, not hidden but celebrated. Ornamentation is never frivolous: rooftops resemble dragon scales, arches curve like wings, and window frames evoke claws—architectural homage to the Dragon Overlord. Geometric carvings—sunbursts, spirals, hexes—decorate temples and ministry halls, reflecting the divine structure of Vro’kahn’s order.

Even the residences echo this ideology. Built from pale stone, their design is uniform, disciplined, and clean. Decoration is minimal—just a stamped plaque of guild allegiance or ward number—because in Platinus, a citizen’s true distinction is found in their purpose.