Industrial center of the world

Blackfall was built at roughly the same time as Rentia but due to a more unhospitable terrain and more vicious flora and fauna, very few settlers ever came there before the gates were opened. It was fashioned as a two layered city, the bigger portion of which lied at the feet of a great waterfall. The lower portion has been primarily built as a residential space, except the area next to the waterfall where (thanks to a complicated system of pulleys, gears and transmission systems) the Great Water Wheel powers a multitude of workshops, mills, factories and many different institutions. The higher part of the city is mostly industrious, with many timber rafting outposts, wood storage sites, furnaces and smaller workshops.

While the city's main source of income is it's lumber industry, it's far from the only one, there are many jewelers, distilleries, enchanters and bards that are regarded as some of the best in the world. The constant meddling of exceptional craftsmanship and fine art have melded over the years to the point where they are now nigh inseparable. The products of this city's populace have both a very high quality and a certain artistic and ethereal aura around them that could not be replicated anywhere else.

Origins

During the expansion of Exodus, after the victorious war against the dragons, the Council of Exodus elected to create new cities for the growing population to live in. Teams of adventurers were sent to look for suitable locations and report back with their findings, one such expedition was lead by Anstar the Old - an exceptionally skilled explorer who thanks to his experience and mixed lineage, lived to an age unheard of for anyone but elves.

Anstar delved into the wild forests and traveled far to the west before he found a location that suited his high standards. It was a vale with a crystal clear river flowing through it that was fueled by a mighty waterfall that fell from a cliff of dark stone, that sealed one end of the valley. The party immediately turned back to notify Exodus officials of their discovery and in the next two weeks, construction begun.

Seemingly, the very land itself protested the defilement of it's natural beauty, the workers camp suffered constant attacks from the wild animals and their tools frequently broke on the trees they attempted to harvest, on top of that, rumors of magical lights that surrounded workers who did not return to the camp before night and were never heard from again, slowed down the progress to a snails pace.

Throughout it all, the only thing that held the project together, was Anstar himself, who despite his advanced age could be seen from first light to the late hours of the night, supervising the project and helping the workers wherever he could. When the work was done, and the walls of the young city became a firm barrier against the wilds, Anstar was named the first Lord of Blackfall for his many discoveries and contributions to the project.

It didn't take long for the city's new inhabitants to apply their own skills to improve it, the workers who built the walls harvested stone from nearby quarries and chopped down large swathes of forest, craftsman and their apprentices from Exodus used the raw materials to make tools that would be use to gather even more resources. The abundance of good quality materials has lured exceptional craftsmen and inventors who further improved the city. The river was regulated with many overflows and the waterfall basin itself has been turned into a beautiful town center with many white marble sculptures and bronze statues.

Creation of the Great Water Wheel

One of the artificers who attempted to gain glory in Blackfall was Oleg Luda. He was already a well known architect who gained his fame while mastering his craft in Exodus, by building the "Gateway" that serves as the meeting place for council members. He started his work in this city as an apprentice to a clock maker, there he gained an appreciation for mechanical devices of all kinds and first started tinkering with machines of his own making.

One day, during a work visit in Rentia, Oleg spotted a man who piled up rocks in the Gold River and used the man made waterfall to wash sand in search of precious metals, this sight sparked an idea in his head and he rushed to refine it into his new great work. Over the course of the next six months, Oleg spent every free moment of his life sketching calculating and building prototypes, when he was finally sure of his idea he tried to turn his plan into reality, but the city planners were opposed to the idea, saying, that the space just under the waterfall is better used as a city park, and that it shall remain as one.

The ambitious inventor of course didn't give up and he appealed their decisions time and time again, but after one rejection too many, he realized, that it would be far easier to gain the City governors forgiveness, rather than permission one night, Oleg carried all the materials he would need under the cover of night using automatons and laid them out amongst the gleaming marble statues and begun his construction. He carved grooves in the wall of the massive cliff to guide rope and chains along the proper path, he assembled the rotor that would power this machine, he laid out supports and prepared his tools to put one final piece of the puzzle it's place.

To finish the construction, he would need a pin, that would survive against the might of the falling water and never bend no matter who or what tried to do it. His choice fell on a massive length of a red-tree, more than 40ft in length and 10 feet across, it would not break or erode for as long as he lived and for many generations after that. He had paid a generous sum to the lumberjacks and even more to those who would ride it down the river, to keep quiet about the whole operation. When the massive log drifted into position, Oleg and the Log Riders turned in to face across the river and tied it down to an intricate pulley system, that in theory would allow one person to lower it down - slowly - and for the others to ensure that the log fit into place. When the last knot has been tied and the log veered over the waterfall's crest, city guards, alarmed by the noise and the unusual sight, rushed to stop them.

The log was already only several feet from it's intended resting spot when the guard captain together with city governors surrounded Oleg and ordered him to pull it back up. Oleg responded, that the pulley system was only made to lower it and that now, the only way that the tree would go, would be down. The guards arrested him and threw him in jail until the morning, when the Lord would decide on the punishment. Before dawn, every engineer and artificer from the city was called in to try and pull the log back up, but it's size and immense weight made it difficult for even the greatest of minds to make any meaningful progress. Oleg awaited his sentencing patiently, knowing that he still had a chance to plead his case before the ruler of the city, one last time. Just before noon he was taken from his cell and placed before the Undying Lord to attend his trial.

He walked into the court chamber in the High Palace and was immediately struck by it's overwhelming, pompous style. Marble columns and frescos depicted scenes of legends and broke up the light blue walls with golden floral patterns, magical white lights shifted under the carved celling and casted eye catching reflections in every dark blue tile, polished to a mirror sheen. His awe-struck reaction was suddenly stopped, when the hearing started. Oleg answered every question truthfully, saying that he did invade the waterfall garden and did try to install his contraption without permission but it was all for the good of the city. The Undying Lord, who took great pride in the Waterfall Garden, was outraged about it's defacement and sentenced Oleg to jail, not considering the supposed benefits. Soon, Oleg was taken from the High Palace and led across town towards the prison. He was taken to his cell and locked in there for the night. While he was looking around his new home, he found out, that he had a great view of the waterfall from his cell and he observed the workers stopping work for the day and going back to their homes.

The next day, when Oleg was let out to walk the yard, he started hatching his escape plan. Every day when the work near the waterfall stopped, he would mark the log's location on the wall, measuring how high the workers pulled it already and the pace that they did it at. Meanwhile, he would slowly gathered trash and scrap from the yard, making sure that no guards could see him, and made his new tools, a hammer made from a rock and a twig bound by rope he made from the straw from his bed allowed him to slowly loosen the iron bars from his window using a chisel he made out of a broken belt buckle he found near the prison's gate and sneak outside to gather materials for more tools. In the next few days, he made himself a hook along with a length of rope made out of clothes he found at the washing room under the cover of night, several lockpicks and a screwdriver, both made out of the guard barracks door handle he stole the night before escaping and with pieces from a grandfather clock that stood in the dining hall, that mysteriously stopped working after one of the regular prison riots, he made himself a small, windup robot he named Mono.

The night of his escape, the log was nearly reaching the top of the waterfall, when the torches were put out and the guards became sluggish with sleep, Oleg snuck out of his cell one last time. He gathered his tools, which he kept in a hemp bag hidden under a stone near a wall of the prison. He took out the hook and rope and threw it outside the walls of the prison, then he took out dormant Mono from his bag and turned a large key on his back several times. The robot came to life and after a brief delay he was ready to take orders, Oleg threw his clockwork helper telling him to guide the hook into place and after testing if it would hold his weight, he scaled the wall, barely pulling the rope behind him, before the light of a guard's torch would reveal his escape. Oleg made his way to the waterfall and after getting close, he assessed the work of other engineers. He was glad that his pulley system remained intact, but in the week he was jailed, they did a mess of things, there was a mass of tangled rope spread all thru ought his lines. He wound up Mono again and handed him the screwdriver, telling him to go up one of the ropes and unscrew the hitch, that Oleg identified as a best point of failure. He then gathered left over materials and started working on an "improvement" to his design, attaching the wings of the water wheel to the log, while still suspended and adding a secondary rope, that would let him place the log in place alone.

The sounds of construction in the middle of the night woke up the nearby residents and alerted the guards, who quickly rushed to the building site. Oleg could see the lights of the torches flickering up the stairs and he knew, that he had to be quick with his work. Before the guards were within a shouting distance, He was already holding two ropes in his hands and carefully lowering the water wheel to it's intended resting spot, while Mono observed the log and gave his creator directions. The time was running out, the guards closed around Oleg and urged him to give up, the artificer refused and calmly continues his work. Mono gradually slowed down his movement, as the wind up mechanism that powered him was losing it's potency, with every gesture that he made, the next one was slower and slower. Oleg estimated, that he still had several meters to go, before the log could be safely dropped into it's place, but now that his robot was losing power, he could only hope that this was enough. The guard captain rushed towards Oleg, trying to apprehend him so he had no chance but to follow Mono's last guidance and let go of the ropes. The massive length of red-wood fell with all it's immense weight onto the supports that Oleg and his robots created. The rocks and mortar shook from the impact and several stones cracked and fell into the waterfall basin, but the water wheel went into place and after a brief delay - started spinning.

The guards apprehended the inventor and before they could take him to his cell again, they were stopped by a quiet but powerful voice, that came from Anstar himself. The sight of the undying lord outside of his chamber was very surprising, but what he did next astonished everyone gathered at the top of the waterfall, he personally pardoned Oleg Luda, saying that he dismissed is ideas rashly and that seeing his determination and the effort he put into creating this marvel of engineering he now understands the great benefits that this water wheel could bring to the city.

Enchanted Forest

Many years after establishing Blackfall as a city, reports and complaints of dancing, multi-colored lights in the depths of the forest started reaching the desks of city governors. During an investigation into the matter, people from areas where the supposed supernatural activity occurred mentioned old legends from the time, when the city has just started being built. If their beliefs are to be believed, their grandfathers have briefly encountered similar phenomena and feared, that the magical lights were fae creatures that were patrolling their kingdom and kidnaped anyone who stayed in the forest after dark.

The investigators at first didn't believe