Abapampa

Abapampa is run by the Merchants' Assembly. The permanent traders of the city manage its laws and legislature mostly via taxes and tariffs. Joining the Assembly is a complex procedure involving fees, asset inventory, and accounting records.

Most merchants or mercantile coalitions hire mercenaries to protect their own wares. Their presence keeps the average citizen in line, though no crime is as egregious as theft in Abapampa.

Abapampa sits on the The Sea of Nations and is more connected to other regions of Oros than any other Riverland city. It is a trading hub, sending goods from the far south of Qen'zoccol to the Free Cities, the Valley of Pharoahs, Khaldasht, and beyond. It's also responsible for importing goods from around the world.

The northern delta of the Great River is narrow with well-defined banks. The small islands are connected via stone-and-bronze bridges, while the channels along the outerbanks are kept clear for both river and seafaring vessels. To save space, early architects of the city took advantage of vertical real estate and built towering structures that connect far above street level to keep the roads and rivulets clear.

The merchants of Abapampa have banded together to form numerous special-interest guilds. Many merchants are members of several guilds and the financial ties between them are as convoluted as any royal family tree. At best, they form a cohesive unit that supports the variety of cultures in the city and represents every available faction. At worst, they keep the city moving via mutually-assured destruction should one guild or individual move against the collective interests.

This port city is one of the youngest in the Riverlands. It began as a shipyard to repair riverboats and transport rafts before the return journey to Tabachacra. Traders and wayfarers travelling the Sea of Nations took advantage of its services, and soon Riverlanders began to trade for tea, spices, and foreign meats.   To keep interactions civil, the burgeoning Assembly banned the trade of weapons in Abapampa. If a crafter wishes to sell their wares within the city proper, they must prove citizenship, obtain several permits, and certify that their arms were constructed within the region. This has, of course, led to the development of "blade barrios" just outside Abapama's walls, where weapons both magical and mundane have been smuggled in from covert ports beyond the delta or, for the particularly brazen, through the city itself.

Most folks who visit Abapampa are just passing through; it's a waypoint between the Riverlands and the rest of the world. For the time they're in the city, however, the main draw are exclusive shops and markets. A handful of crafters and merchants sell exclusively in the bustling city. Those who have been lucky enough to have heard of them travel from everywhere on the globe—and a few places beyond—to acquire goods found literally nowhere else.   Additionally, Abapampa is home to the Devolos School of Engineering and Design. The great minds that built the island bridges and sky-scraping towers founded an educational institute to pass on their knowledge so the city would not crumble under poor management or disrepair. Today, it is the foremost institution for drafting, design, and civil engineering on Oros.   Finally, Abapampan guilds manage several beachside resorts that, while technically outside the city's bounds, funnel profits and commerce to the city proper. One of these is run by the dragon Vanaqess, who has turned her hoard into one of the most sought-after vacation destinations in the world.

The base for most buildings are adobe and mudbrick. Early trades with Khaldasht won the city a deal on copper trade that was much more lucrative than hauling it from Valendro, making copper and copper alloys the second-most-common building material in Abapampa.   Stylistically, structures are built with wide bases to distribute weight more evenly across the marshy ground and narrow upper levels to reduce total weight. Skybridges connecting those upper levels further serve to redistribute weight. The net result is a city with narrow streets, open skies, and clear waterways.

The brackish marshland lies flat, providing a gorgeous view of the tropical grasslands surrounding it. Beaches all along the coast are vacation havens—where they aren't home to sea hags and giant crabs.

Very little grows in the salty northern delta of the Great River, and the rivulets are too well-travelled for much aquatic wildlife to thrive. Abapamans, like all Riverlands, do not take to the open sea except in dire circumstances, but foreign fishers make a comfortable living selling their catches from just offshore.