Ardrune Canals

The city of Ardrune is divided by a network of canals that are used for the transport of goods and people across the urban capital. Though the canals have been continuously maintained and bolstered by the Runic administration, the majority of the current network dates back millennia to the Ardic people who were particularly adept at moulding the landscape to their use. The many rivers that flow from the Arda Mountains into Lake Drake were diverted and routed along ditches that were hollowed out by generations of Ardic people, often used to connect tribal settlements to one another. Ardrune happens to lay on the intersecting of many of these old canal connections and thus has long been suitable as a capital settlement of the region.    The majority of the network of the canals consists of very small and shallow waterways suitable only for thin barges one-man wide to pass along, many of these being destroyed later to make way for roadways and settlements. The larger canals have largely survived, many being in continuous use since their construction long ago. Those that pierce the very centre of Ardrune have been covered up under the vaulted streets, many believing that the underground canals both house a seedy underbelly of the city and serve as a secret escape from the imperial palace.