Royal City of Knotside

The racial majority is human, followed by other closely related half and quarter races such as half-elves and half-orcs, and then elves, dwarves, halflings, gnomes, aasimar, and any other race that could reasonably pass as human. Minorities are clear to see, as the further one looks from human the fewer there are, tieflings, shifters, kalasthar, and underdark subraces such as drow, svirfneblin, and duergar are more common than more monstrous races. A good sized clan of Tabaxi live in the Devils Knot district, but others such as Minotaurs, centaurs, orcs, goblins, lizardfolk, and kobolds are rare, though not altogether absent from the local population.

The government is broken down into three branches, each one striving to keep the other two in check through a careful and dangerous balancing act. They are broken down into the Crown, the General, and the The Magisterium. The Crown consists of the Heartvale family, who have ruled as the kings and queens of Knotside for centuries, even before they became their own independent city. The General is assigned to keeping control of the military and city guards, as well as the justice system of Knotside. The Magisterium are a system of 17 Magisters, each elected by the district they live in, to assist in governing the whole of Knotside. Magisters work together to create laws, set taxes, approve of expenditures and otherwise keep the city running.

Knotsides defense system is state of the art, a true act of inspiration caused by both military pragmatism and magical creativity. The outer walls are all double thick, with space for forces to easily move around the perimeter both on top of, and within the walls. Each guard tower, evenly spaced along the top, has the capability to crank up a platform with ballistae on it, with the ability to be powered by mundane wooden bolts, or magic. Gems and magical focuses buried under the walls at the time of their construction allow Spellcasters to raise a magical barrier, a shield to protect the city from attacks both magical and mundane from the air.   Barracks are dotted along the city, and many of the cities government buildings have shelters built into their basements in case of emergency so that citizens may hide in case of invasion. Within the Castle there are three gates, as well as a drawbridge to deter attack, and enough space within and below the Castle to house a large chunk of the cities population. Knotside is a city built from a revolt and rebellion, and their fear that their oppressors might one day try to reclaim them is clear in the cities abundance of failsafes to keep its citizens safe.

By being placed on the Fairknot, right where the river forks off into the rest of Waylia allows them to be an incredibly important hub of trade, commerce, and travel. Merchant ships sail up and down the river delivering goods, traveling caravans stop through the city heading either north to the mountains or south towards the other countries and kingdoms. Stopping in Knotside is practically tradition for all ships and wagon caravans, as the city marks on of the last major ports and waypoints before the ocean to the east. As such the city holds first due over nearly any and all imports and exports coming in and out of Waylia. Their own exports are easy to offload, and locally made wares are easily bought up by travelers and adventurers passing through the city.

Infrastructure in Knotside is, as a whole, far beyond what most of the other cities and settlements have been able to produce. Being the hub of trade means skilled hands pass through the city every day. The city has a functioning sewer system, cobblestone roads wind through the city, and those that can afford it have, for the most part, fully functioning plumbing. Nobles can fill tubs and basins with fresh water, as well as other large businesses. Public bathhouses cleanse the rest of the city, and aqueducts and water mills bring cool fresh water in from the river to be filtered and dispersed. Shipyards and gondola systems run along the river, and carriage and wagon systems provide easy public transportation along the whole of the city, if you can afford it. Where infrastructure is not available, Magic fills the gaps. Rich homes are able to harness and afford spell casters to bottle and charge magic items that light their homes and neat streets with mini orbs of light during the evening, and to heat their water for baths. Items are enchanted with low level spells and cantrips, each having charges as simple as cleaning clothing, blowing away leaves and dust, and dispensing medicine to the sick. As the city continues to embrace its magical aid and further modern sciences the ease of living for the rich could someday be affordable and available to all.

The Royal City of Knotside is rife with treasures and assets that help its claim to be one of the most advanced and wonderful cities to live in. A number of vaults exist, such as the Royal Heartvale Vault in the palace said to contain riches and family heirlooms, art objects and antiquities beyond human imagination, and artifacts once said lost to the ages. Other large vaults exist in the various banks throughout Knotside, filled with gold, platinum, and other art objects held as monetary value as well as any noble mans home vault he could afford to build. In the Castle Hill and Noble Road once can easily find art galleries, opera houses, theaters, and other expertly crafted commissions to help beautify the city. Also spread throughout the city are hidden food stores in the case of a drought, famine, or particularly harsh winter so that the people may be fed. These stores are said to be enchanted with spells and auras to keep the food, grain, and water all purified and as fresh as the day it was placed there, enough rations to keep the population fed for at least four or five years.

Within the walls of Knotside there are many Guilds, both for the more mundane such as engineering, carpentry, smithing, plumbing, and the sorts that allow for skilled workers to join a guild and earn coin and the less mundane. The Guild of Magists and Protectors recruits local spell casters both for helping take care of magical problems big and small, and being employed in their network for the casting of spells, rituals, and enchanting items for commission. The Dundragon Adventuring Guild was created by a local, and retired Magistrate, Frederick Dundragon. What was once a small guild in Knotside has spread to most major cities, and it doubles as both a place for adventurers to gain jobs, a tavern and inn, and a store for all the adventuring gear one might need. Now retired the owner works on keeping his chain of stores and guild houses running and is always trying to innovate and attract more powerful adventurers to gain fame by using his Guild.

Knotside is also home to two prestigious academies, The Royal Academy and The Blackhall Bards College both provide unique learning experiences for those in Knotside. The Royal Academy is the local university where one may obtain an education in nearly any topic one can think of ranging from the mundane to the magical. Here is where one would go to pursue a Knighthood, obtaining training in the Arcane arts, or gain a skill set pertaining to specific career paths such as banking, crafting, engineering, or gaining an apprenticeship with a local Guild or the Dundragon Adventuring Guild. The Blackhall Bards College is designed specifically for those wishing to pursue a career in the performing arts or become a Bard. They handle both those applying themselves in the arcane arts of being a Bard or simply those who have artistic talents and skills in music, art, dance, storytelling, orating, acrobatics, or any other performance. Some of the most well renown Bards and artists have graduated from these hallowed halls, and many are drawn in from across the Kingdoms to attend here.

Simple Beginnings

The city of Knotside was founded centuries ago, as a small hamlet and fishing village on the river. As time went by the kingdoms easily noticed its strong strategic value and as it flourished it quickly became built into a grand city. Its earliest rulers were the Heartvales, a human family that existed since the cities founding. Time passed on, and the Heartvales continued to rule Knotside with a policy of kindness and equality, even as their land changed hands of the large kingdoms through war and attrition. Kingdoms allowed the Heartvales to remain as the ruling monarchs so long as they kept their people in line and didn’t try to fight the militaries that would rule as guards. This tenuous existence strained the people, as many feared the day a kingdom would simply raze the city and start anew so as to deter other kingdoms from conquering the land.   For many generations this was the way of life, to serve a kingdom and look the other way to its violence as its people suffered from the poorest peasant to the king in his castle. Curfews, martial law, and rationing made the city poor, weak, and tired of not being in charge of their own destiny. When Knotside finally rose up and defied the kingdoms by freeing itself from their iron grasps they were surprised to find that instead of being pushed back and crushed, they were respected. This newfound freedom allowed a huge boom in growth, and over the past century Knotside has prospered greatly, growing and supporting its people.    

Growth of a City

Barnabus Heartvale was known as the Hero of Knotside for freeing the people and city from the grasp of others and allowing themselves to be the writers of their own destiny. Barnabus ruled the city fairly, expanded the walls and made sure that the City was in a good state before passing the throne onto his son, Ulric Heartvale If Barnabus was a hero to the people, then Ulric was a champion of their rights. Ulrics rule was based on his desire to see the city work together as one, and to limit the distance between the monarchy and the homeless. Through his rule as many buildings as he could think of were created to help those not born into nobility. Public bath houses, theaters, hospitals, shelters, and food distributors were created for the sole purpose of allowing the poor and hungry access to amenities to help get themselves on their feet. The Sanatorium allowed the common man to seek out a healer if they could not afford a home visit, A Shelter allowed those who could not afford a home or to stay at an inn a way to work for their room and board, lines formed outside of the Mess Hall that fed the homeless and gave them opportunities to try and find employment in the city. The Bath House made it so that all walks of life could enjoy the hot water, to bath in the largest public pools was free, though the water was not heated, and for a price ranging from coppers to platinums one could pay for extra services to help fund the free baths. Ulric Heartvale was insistent that the poor be taken care of, and that across the board all races were welcome within Knotside.

Unfortunately, no matter how clean, kind, and beautiful the city of Knotside was, it could not prevent human nature from taking over. Stereotypes about various races took hold, and more monstrous races associated with bandits and evil deeds such as goblins, orcs, kobolds, and such were often treated harshly in the city. The further a person looked from human, the worse they were treated despite the Heartvale families best efforts. People were attacked on the roads by Goblin and Kobold tribes, heard stories of how Tieflings worshipped devils, how Dragonborn spewed the elements from their maws, and how Minotaurs would pillage and burn villages and the humans feared them. A tenuous sort of acceptance lingered, though King Ulric knew that without certain intervention that anything could tip the scale against non humans. Even with the prejudices that one faced, it was often no more than any other city and non humans still flocked to Knotside to try and prosper as so many did. As Kingdoms warred amongst themselves and natural disasters struck other parts of Waylia and the surrounding countries people were displaced from their homes. Refugees fled, and many of them passed through Knotside, and many more decided to stay. A huge caravan of Tabaxi arrived at the city gates from a country far to the south, cloaked in hot jungles and dry deserts. A famine and drought swept through the land and their jungles burned, forcing them to flee north and to Knotside. Their clan moved into the Devils Knot district renovating many of the abandoned temples and large buildings into homes, shops, and markets for their people. Their hard working attitude and kind demeanor began to turn the tide, people could not help but be taken in their fastidious kindness, never asking for trust or friendship in return. They treated everyone as one of their own, and were known for taking in orphaned children of any race as they knew what it meant to be alone and without a home. The shaky acceptance began to turn for the better with the Tabaxi tribes kindness and extended hands.    

The Plague

As relations finally began to grow firmer and less uncertain the city of Knotside was struck with tragedy, a plague. During a particularly harsh and early winter humans began to fall ill, at first it was assumed work of the unusually cold weather. Fevers, chills, cough and sneezing, the usual symptoms of illness took hold, except it was no common cold or influenza. After a few days the symptoms progressed, hives and rashes took hold, labored breathing with wheezing and rattling flowed through their lungs. By the end of the first week the body began to weaken, dizzy spells and the inability to stand, vomiting and blood shot eyes as the ill gasped for breath. If one made it to the second week they began to experience muscle spasms and seizures, rashes would swell, the skin twisting and discoloring as it broke into pox, leaving horrible scars as it healed and moved onto other swathes of untouched skin at best, leaving one disfigured at worst. By then the healthiest of adults would fall into comas until their gruesome passing, and all the rest would succumb in quick succession after the seizures started. It was dubbed the Winter Plague and many believed that once the odd winter passed, all would be well. Winter was harsh, the Fairknot froze over as blizzards ripped through the streets, and the winter continued easily into what should have been the first month or two of spring. More and more fell ill, and as the weeks turned to months all of the infected, or those suspected to be infected, were sent to districts cleared out as quarantine zones.

The Sanitoriums halls overflowed with the sick, and clerics, paladins, druids, members of the faith and skilled doctors were hired in swathes to go out and treat the infected. The most powerful mages tried their best to dispel the illness, but the plague was easily caught, and the sick began to outnumber the amount that the clerics could heal. When the plague became advanced, not even the clerics could reverse its affects, only try and provide comfort to the dying. For the entire long winter the plague swept through the city, infecting and killing thousands. Within the first few weeks many found it odd that only humans were being infected, but figured it was because humans were less naturally fortified against disease than other races. A few non humans would get sick, elves, dwarves, gnomes, halflings, and half and quarter humans were affected rarely, but they were not immune to the plague. But the further one went from humanity, the less they were infected. The Tabaxi suffered a few dozen illnesses, a handful of Dragonborn and lizardfolk fell ill, but Minotaurs, Firbolg, Kenku, and the such were barely given so much as a sniffle. As the plague destroyed the population the humanoids began to see conspiracies and blamed the non humans for bringing plague into the city, to point the blame was easier than to accept the possibility of it being totally random, the lives lost as simple accidents of nature and biology.   The plague continued this way for the entirety of the winter, killing humans indiscriminately, including the previous general Tarquin Kestle as well as the palace physician Mercy and ultimately, King Ulric Heartvale . The physicians assistant, Tobias Fletcher managed to help Mercy create a vaccine before she succumbed to the plague and distributed it amongst the people of Knotside. By the first thaw of Spring everybody had been inoculated and the plague had disappeared. Thousands had died by the plague, with the hundreds that were able to be cured either disfigured or completely disabled by the disease that had wracked their body. The old quarantine districts lay abandoned, and the Royal City of Knotside was left to pick up the pieces.  

Looking to the Future

Now, the people strive to put the Winter Plague behind them. The princesses of the city, Ophelia and Aleksandra work together to rebuild and learn to rule without the aid of their parents. The new General, Demetrius Kestle struggles to fill his fathers shoes and rebuild the cities guards and army to what it once was before the plague and to keep the fights that breakout between humans and non humans to a minimum. Knotside, despite all the glimmering jewel it appears from the outside, is not what it once was, and without something giving all the people who came before them built will have been for naught.

The architecture of Knotside can be, at times, quite eclectic. For reference of the player, many homes were built in either a Tudor, Victorian, Georgian, or Edwardian architectural style. Gothic, Romanesque, and Greek Revival tendencies can be seen by sharp angles, dramatic glass windows and framing, semi-circular arches, buttresses, columns, and overhanging galleries and 2nd story rooms are quite common. Those not in the noble districts stick to more Tudor styles, half timbered for many for structural integrity and a lessened need for building materials. Outside the city walls many farmers and smaller communities still within the rule of Knotside are built in a stone or timber cottage style. Row homes in the poorer districts resemble Victorian townhomes, pressed in tight with skinny homes of multiple stories all pressed in tight, sharing walls and often sharing what little garden space might be in the back. As you approach the manors in the Noble Road, Merchant quarters, and Castle Hill vast Romanesque, Edwardian, and Georgian style manors appear, with a few Victorian tendencies. These massive homes are decorated with vast amounts of greenery, statues, fountains, and artistic flairs so as to show off the amount of gold spent. For those who can afford it tall stone walls that end with wrought iron spiked tops surround manors so as to keep gawkers and thieves out, with impressive gates so that one may still be impressed by the homes fronts as they pass by, often dotted with smaller servants gates around the back.

The river Fairknot winds through the city, forking on the western side before shooting off its separate directions outside the city. Pastures and fields surround the city on all sides, and once you escape the farmlands surrounding it you reach rolling hills and valleys to the north as you head towards the icy mountains, and lush forests to the south and west as you head more inland. To the east lies wide open plains, broken up by hills, craggy outcroppings, and sparse brush as you head closer and closer to the ocean.

The vast forests to the west and south make for excellent logging camps, with the craggy hillsides and caves to the east often leading to successful mining ventures. To the north hills and plains make for easy farmland and pastures. Further north, far past the next kingdoms capital lies the frozen north and the large mountains there, where many cities govern themselves due to the distance from other settlements. Lizardfolk tribes and supposedly magic ice live in harmony with a rough and tumble people, and some of the warmest furs and best cuts of meat come from the people up there who hunt.