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Yossarin
 
PostPosted: Thu, Jul 02 2015, 18:50 PM 



Player

Joined: 23 Jan 2006

The Amian Herald's Guide to
The City of Kohlingen



Table of Contents
    I. Introduction and Overview
    -----The Jewel of the Trackless Sea
    II. History & Timeline
    -----The Great War of Time
    -----The Wyrmshadow Prophecy
    III. The City
    -----The Tritemple District
    -----Significant Places in the Tritemple District
    -----The Greengarden District
    -----Significant Places in the Greengarden District
    -----Significant Personalities
    -----Wastewater Management
    IV. Culture & People
    -----The Arcane Community
    -----The Commonfolk
    -----The Mercantile Community
    -----The Nobility
    -----The Theocratic Community
    -----Culinary Traditions
    -----Death
    -----Fashion
    -----Festivals
    -----Military & Justice
    V. Religion
    -----The Triadic Faith
    -----Bahamut, the Faith of the North Wind
    -----Mystranism & Azuthan Worship
    -----The Red Knight
    -----Milil's Revelers
    -----Siamorphe's Church of the Divine Right
    -----The Sunite Faith
    VI. Trade
    -----Taxation
    -----Trade: Barak Runedar
    -----Trade: Bendir Dale
    -----Trade: Cordor and Guldorand
    -----Trade: Forrstakkr and the Frozenfar
    -----Trade: The Lord's Alliance
    -----Trade: Ruathym
    -----Trade: Tarkuul
    -----Trade: Wharftown
    -----Trade: Winya Ravena


    Please note that this information was compiled at a specific time in the city's history, and parts may have changed . The information is intended to give you insight to the ways of life within Kohlingen and enrich your experience and the creativity of your own character's stories. It is a living and breathing city that continues to evolve and change through stories told by both the Dungeon Masters and the Players, and not to be used as an absolute or contrainst for creative process. Very special thanks go to Pony for the lion's share of this edition, as he drafted the majority of the content and format. I edited the original body, added content, reorganized and slightly reformatted the material. Gratitude also to DMs Rigela and Alanna for providing essential feedback and information.

    ~Yossarin


 
      
Yossarin
 
PostPosted: Thu, Jul 02 2015, 18:50 PM 



Player

Joined: 23 Jan 2006

I. Introduction and Overview
    Kohlingen is a City-State on the northeastern coast of Amia and is the newest member of the Lord's Alliance. It is ruled by an elective theocratic monarchy and governed by the Justicar, her appointed court and the high clergy of Torm, Ilmater and Tyr. During the last three years, the fortress sanctuary of the triadic faith has grown to become the premiere trading port of Amia, seizing the title that had once belonged to its southern neighbor, Cordor.

    Kohlingen now faces many new challenges. Its days of being a simple sanctuary for the triadic faiths are in the past and now Kohlingen is following in the footsteps of city-states such as Waterdeep, Baldur's Gate and Neverwinter. Its culture has diversified in recent years as people are attracted to the potential for wealth, influence and security. Workers, artisans, merchants, adventurers, and even the less reputable sellswords, criminals, and spies and agents of rivaling states are all coming for a slice of a growing and prosperous Holy City.

    Kohlingen is not without its struggles, however. Though the future holds great promise, 150 years of solid faith, tradition and principles are now at risk of being compromised to promote continued growth and affluence. A strong and powerful core of devout citizens, clergy and nobility question the city's new direction and caution that the same corruption that claimed the once great trade capital of Cordor could arise from any compromise of virtue for business.



Image



Kohlingen
Government:
Theocratic Monarchy
State Religion: The Triad (Ilmater, Torm and Tyr)
Emblem: Silver Dragon on a Regal Blue Field
Minor Faiths: Bahamut, Helm, Milil, Mystra, Red Knight, Siamorphe
Population: 20,966
    Humans (Kohlinger, Cordorian, Mulhorandi): 79 %
    Elves: 7 %
    Dwarves: 9 %
    Halfings: 3 %
    Gnomes: 2 %



The Jewel of the Trackless Sea
    Within the last decade, the island was subject to a long period of uncertainty and faced its greatest threat yet. Kohlingen's southernmost neighbor Cordor, for generations called the Gem of the Trackless Sea, experienced a decline in economic strength, influence and power throughout the years following its revolution. Cordor's corrupt government brought turmoil and destruction to both the region and the mainland, crippling the city's status as a trade superpower.

    Whereas Cordor declined and suffered great destruction, Kohlingen's power, influence and economic strength rose. Not only did Kohlingen gain the exiled cordorian nobility who were driven from their homes by a revolutionary populace, but many of the trade contacts and buisnesses those exiled nobles brought with them. Foreign traders lost trust in Cordor and turned their business to Kohlingen, who responded by expanding it's deepwater harbor and navy.

    By assisting foreign states their military endeavors, Kohlingen secured a close miltiary and trade alliance with the dwarven citadel of Barak Runedar and became a member of the Lord's Alliance. Now great vessels from Neverwinter, Baldur's Gate, and Waterdeep seek the harbor primarily in Kohlingen, now dubbed the Jewel of the Trackless Sea.

    Kohlingen has also seen a continued rise in arcane culture since the mages of the Mystran Monolith relocated to Kohlingen in the wake of losing their monolith in Ruathym. Dedicated and highly contributing members of Kohlingen's society, the Mystrans have established a competent mage guard and shielded the city from the terrible threat of the Arcanum.

    Terrible events in Khem convinced Kohlingen to take in refugees from the distant Mulhorandi realm. These people have brought with them an exotic culture that has influenced much of the Greengarden District.

    Kohlingen now faces new challenges, in particular its development into a trade city. More and more lawless adventurers flock to the city; suspicious sellswords seek to offer their services in exchange of coin; taverns are opened that cater to the baser urges such as prostitution. With so many people coming to Kohlingen in search of refuge or opportunity, poverty, crime, vice, and the shadows of old Benwick darken the city.


 
      
Yossarin
 
PostPosted: Thu, Jul 02 2015, 18:51 PM 



Player

Joined: 23 Jan 2006

II. History & Timeline
    Kohlingen was founded by Lord Darius Tristram in 1122 Dale Reckoning (DR). Lord Darius Tristram was a friend to King Galahad of Benwick and a member of his royal court. Those who came to the Amian isle with him founded Kohlingen as a bedrock of faith and tradition; historians suggest Kohlingen's foundation was also in protest against the corrupt influence of Galahad's royal court and an attempt to establish a stronghold not only against enemies, but against vice itself. The exact nature of the disagreement, if any, between Lord Tristram and King Galahad has gone unrecorded. The absence of even an unofficial anecdote has led to healthy speculation amongst historians.

    For many decades Kohlingen was exclusivly a fortress sanctuary. Unlike the island's heartland and the southern environs around Cordor, the northern region was home to far more dangerous beasts than kobolds, goblin, orcs and trolls. In the woodlands, beastmen have preyed upon travellers and merchant for years and even dared to attempt outright attacks upon the city. The Quagmire is filled with a tribe of aggressive lizardmen as well as the yuan-ti that lurk in the ruins of an old and monstrous empire that once dominated Amia many centuries ago. Beset by the dangers Amia presented, the fortress of Kohlingen was forced to rely exclusively on itself for defense.

    Kohlingen not only perservered but flourished under the rule of a line of much beloved and wise sovereigns and the continued guidance of the Triadic faith. A population of farmers, artisans, merchants and nobles formed around this core of piety, all seeking the protection and guidance of the Triadic faith and a just and benevolent ruler. The Kingdom of Benwick, by contrast, descended deeper into ignominy during the "exodus of virtue", a name given to the mass relocation of the population from Benwick to Kohlingen.

    Over the last two decades, Kohlingen has enjoyed a steady rise in prominence. During the last three years this rise has peaked as the city has seized not only Cordor's place as the premiere trade port of the Trackless Sea but also as the island's center of power. As the youngest member of the Lord's Alliance and the center of the Treaty of Light, the Holy City of Kohlingen now bravely faces challenges it never has before.


    1122 DR, Year of the Rose Pearls
    Founding of the Holy City of Kohlingen by Lord Darius Tristram
    Lord Darius Tristram is named as Justicar of Kohlingen by the Temple of the Triad's Light.

    1188 DR, Year of Soft Fogs
    Theodorious Constance is named as Justicar of Kohlingen by the Temple of the Triad's Light.

    1249 DR, Year of the Bold Knight
    Jermiah the Pure is named as Justicar of Kohlingen by the Temple of the Triad's Light.

    1316 DR, Year of the Gulagoar
    Saul Marinsbane is named as Justicar of Kohlingen by the Temple of the Triad's Light.

    1362 DR, Year of the Helm
    The Horde War begins. Large bands of monsters attack settlements all around Amia. Cordor and Kohlingen take a leading role in defending human civilization.

    1367 DR, Year of the Shield
    Drak'law, Layla, and the rest of the Emberblaze family take over Stonehold and rename it as Wyrmhold. The Dark Flight destroys the town of Benwick, which results in the scattering of the local metallic dragons and Imperator retreating to Kohlingen. Over the following years, the chromatics of the Dark Flight make occasional appearances and cause some disturbances, unchallenged by their goodly kin.

    1373 DR, Year of Rogue Dragons
    The events of the Wyrmshadow Prophecy unfold on Amia. The Dark Flight attack Kohlingen, and are finally destroyed in Wyrmhold. What was once Stonehold, a home to many kinds of villainy during the years, becomes an abandoned ruin.

    1377 DR, Year of the Haunting
    The lands of Winya Ravana are invaded by ogres, lizardmen and beastmen during what would later become known as the War of Trampled Leaves. While the war is relatively brief, it's incredibly bloody. Hundreds upon hundreds of monsters are slain in the war by the besieged elves and their allies of Kohlingen. The war ends after a series of precise military strikes which eliminate the enemy leaders and splinter the horde of monsters.

    1378 DR, Year of the Cauldron
    The Great Vampire Count, Lord Morteguarde, is released from his island prison by unwitting adventures. He begins a reign of terror as he swoops about the island, freeing several members of his coven. Kohlingen and the Mystran Monolith in Ruathym come under attack.

    1379 DR, Year of the Lost Keep
    Remounting strength after a quiet buildup, the Banite Church on the Amian Islands commences a quiet, silent takeover of Guldorand, and constructs a castle keep on the mountainside of the island. A deadly expansion of this power soon follows, taking over the entirety of the Skull Crags. A combined force backed by Kohlingen's navy and the Triadic Knights attack the banite coastal stronghold in the Skull Crags, liberating the settlement of Guldorand.

    1380 DR, Year of the Blazing Hand
    An impressive coalition led by the Mystran Monolith, including Kohlingen's Triadic Knights, breaks into the island prison of Count Morteguarde, now converted into a colossal fortress to the Vampire Lord. Morteguarde drapes the region under an eternal eclipse. Four of the Coven including Morteguarde are laid to rest permanently.
    A beautiful aurora appears over Cordor, and stretches over the length of the island, extending to the northeast. It goes across the sea, where it meets with the lone Mystran monolith in the ocean. When it comes into contact with the Monolith, the Aurora abruptly disappears, as does the Monolith of Mystra. The few remaining members of the Monolith Guild take refuge in Kohlingen.

    1381 DR, Year of the Crimson Skies
    Justicar Saul Marinsbane passes. In the wake of his death, the spirit of the silver dragon Imperator departs the City of Kohlingen.
    Cystana L'saeniarais is named Justicar of Kohlingen by the Temple of the Triad's Light. She is the first woman to be chosen and confirmed for the position, the first non-paladin and the first to hold a patron not of the Lords of the Triad.
    The Treaty of Light is formed between Kohlingen, Barak Runedar, Winya Ravena, the Shrine of Eilistraee and Copper Industries.
    Kohlingen sends military aid to their dwarven allies of Barak Runedar, in what would be known as the Winter War.


The Great War of Time
    In Kohlingen, the Great War of Time has the framework of a cautionary tale about the ethical use of magic, and the magicians of the former Mystran Monolith do not let anyone forget. The war's prime instigator was an alumnus of the Monolith named Collin Reyes, a mathematical genius who designed the popular portal rod has his graduate thesis but attempted to restrict its use to magicians only. He had fallen under the sway of a global cabal called the Arcanum, a magical group dedicated to the archaic principles of Netherese magocracy, and his views were pointedly discriminatory. The Monolith rejected his proposal and the portal wands proliferated on the island of Amia, and the accolade was enough to convince Duke Montgomery d'Cordor to name Collin Reyes a minor court magician. In the wake of what people now claim was a deliberately orchestrated coup against the Duke, Collin Reyes very quickly seized power as Cordor's Minister of Magic and immediately began a plot that was a long time in motion.

    His plot hit an unexpected snag when, on a return voyage from gathering several Arcanum luminaries to populate the Ministry of Magic's ranks, he was slain by a contract assassin named Johnathan Livingston who had for unknown reasons been balefully polymorphed into a seagull. Livingston is now imprisoned in a bird cage for his crime, his execution stayed by the previous Secretary of Law, Jay Edgar Mover. The general public accused the faceless Harper organization, long believed to be allies of the nobility, of orchestrating the Minister's assassination. Shortly thereafter, a new Minister of Magic was named, a heavily tattooed ascetic wizard named Tytalus. It was later revealed that Tytalus was none other than Johann Kurtzweil, a Netherese magician who had been banished to a place outside of time by a ritual of Azuthan design called the Tempus Claustrum. Collin Reyes had long ago found a way to observe the fabled "liminal time" by bending leylines, representative of infinite space, in upon themselves to manufacture a theoretical breach in time; when he peered into liminal time, he was immediately coaxed by Johann Kurtzweil into forming a blood bond. The bond ensured that upon Reyes' death at the hands of the assassin, something Kurtzweil could foresee from his prison in liminal time, Reyes would be consumed by the Zeitgeist, an alien entity on a fruitless mission to correct temporal anomalies. At this point, Reyes would take Kurtzweil's place in liminal time, leaving the Netherese magician to pursue his own goals in modern times and hasten the return of Reyes, who could now travel to points in time and reality unbound by the strictures of the Tempus Claustrum.

    Upon realizing the incredible folly of Reyes' actions, the depraved ingenuity of the Arcanum, and the nearsightedness of a bamboozled Cordorian Commonwealth, Lord Ulrik Valis was the first to speak out against these excesses and warn of the impending doom. This earned both him and the whole of the local Mystran faith the ire of the Cordorian people, and Valis' close association with Kohlingen only further cemented the Commonwealth's mutual mistrust of the Holy City. Cordor's refusal to act allowed the Arcanum to perpetrate a number of offenses: ensorcellment and magical coercion of the people of Cordor; the murder of Mystran Monolith staff and the overt theft and destruction of the entire Monolith itself as property; the attempted assassination of vocal opponents; the slaughter and destruction of Helmsport and several tribes in the Far Payit; the subjugation and enslavement of several indigenous peoples and monstrous races in the Spine of the World; and a mass of war crimes against the city-states and nations of Cordor, Kohlingen, Waterdeep, Amn, Cormyr, Halruua, Silverymoon, Tethyr, and Corymyr.

    Under the direction of Justicar Saul Marinsbane, the Holy City remained vigilant but wary; when Justicar Cystana succeeded Marinsbane, the voices of the exiled Cordorian nobility, the ousted Mystrans and several other agencies similarly wronged by the Arcanum reached so great a fever pitch that Kohlingen had to take action. Lord Ulrik Valis and a hand-picked team of professionals rescued Duke Montgomery d'Cordor from liminal time where he had been imprisoned in liminal time. Again, Valis and several individuals from Kohlingen, Winya Ravana, Cordor and the Branded Phoenix risked their lives to gain control of the Keystone, a feature Reyes intended to manipulate to make Cordor a flying Netherese City, defeated the Blood Contingency Kurtzweil had placed in charge to supply it with heinous arcane power, and slew a powerful magician named Amon. The Holy City brought the case of the deposed Duke of Cordor and appealed to the Lords of Waterdeep to intervene, which ultimately paved the way for Kohlingen's inclusion in the Lord's Alliance and furthermore led to their involvement in the Northern Conflict where the forces of Kohlingen, Winya Ravana, Barak Runedar, the War Knights of Tempus and mercenary companies employed by Waterdeep fought a large Arcanum force in the Spine of the World and dismantled their mining of ley-anchoring geodes.

    Through the machinations of a powerful Arcanum wizard named Sigismund, the nation of Amn fell to heavily conservative magocratic principles and sent a fleet to blockade Cordor's port, all but declaring war on the whole of the island. The Holy City wasted no time and prepared for war, and when Amn sent a small fleet of ships carrying scores of enslaved and bloodraged Maztican fighters, the Kohlingen navy engaged them until the seas ran red with blood. Sigismund's fleet of slaves was destroyed and Kohlingen's navy more than decimated, and so when Reyes finally returned and the Amnish fleets shoaled near Cordor, Kohlingen ground forces immediately took to the city and aided Cordor, Tarkuul, and several other interests in defending the territory. Everyone understood that if Cordor were to fall, the rest of the island would fall with Kohlingen unsuited to defend anything beyond their own walls.

    Collin Reyes was eventually defeated in a climactic battle over the city of Cordor, a battle that led to several thousand casualties and mass destruction of the city, a living reminder to accompany the cautionary tale of the Great War of Time told by Kohlingen's arcane community.


The Wyrmshadow Prohpecy
    An account of the events of the Wyrmshadow Prophecy leading up to Wyrmfall, as penned by the late and beloved Zellani Cys'dina.


 
      
Yossarin
 
PostPosted: Thu, Jul 02 2015, 18:52 PM 



Player

Joined: 23 Jan 2006

III. The City
    The City of Kohlingen is divided into two residential districts, the rural Greengarden District and the urban Tritemple District. Each is protected by high walls and guarded by a castle. One of the city's more recent challenges in development is available space; after the Great War of Time saw many refugees seek shelter in Kohlingen and the revolution in Cordor moved nobility and businessmen to the city, the city's population is expanding but its outer and interior walls are not.


Tritemple District
    The Temple of the Triad's Light is the most prominent site in this district and as such provides its namesake. The Tritemple District is home to the clergy, nobility, arcanists, merchants, artists and artisans; many of the clergy are quartered within the temple or live privately amongst the affluent, the nobility in their grand estates, the arcanists in enclaves or expensive private homes, the merchants in attic or basements apartments attached to their storefront and artists and artisans in whatever property they can afford to stay close to the city's center. Real estate is in high demand and rent significantly more expensive than in the Greendgarden District.

    Three wide streets run through the district. By law may, these central streets may not be changed by any permanent structures so that troop movement in the event of a breaching attack is not obstructed. One of these has become the grounds of the Goldenfield Market, the city's primary place of commerce. The establishment was exasperated for some time when the merchantry circumvented this law by setting up temporary stalls on the street, but acquiesced due to the overwhelming demand for accessible trade and complaints about the exorbitant cost of renting shop space. Every evening the merchants can be seen taking their stalls down, only to set them up again in the morning.

    The rest of the district offers high conjoined slate-roofed buildings made from stone and featuring window boxes with stout shutters in vibrant hues. Narrow alleyways draped in shadow run between the cramped buildings. The small yet beautiful noble estates are flanked by these neighboring structures on all sides, prompting complaints from some families, particularly Cordorian transplants, about the lackluster view or the smell. As soon as one leaves the three main roads, life in the Tritemple District is noisy and busy. "Living and working one atop the other" has become a common expression in Kohlingen.

    Other cities along the Sword Coast separate the districts by institution, but Kohlingen's combined living space brings its own challenges and opportunities. Residents of the Tritemple District are confronted every day with the realties of social caste. Poverty and the resultant rise in crime is not secluded in a slum but rather in plain view of anyone in the Tritemple District. The affluent then have a strong interest in supporting the less fortunate in order to improve the safety and pleasantness of their district.


Significant Places in the Tritemple District:

Dragonstone Keep
    Erected in 1125 DR and expanded in 1375 DR, Dragonstone Keep is an expansive citadel and the seat of Kohlingen's noble court and military. The outermost wall surrounds the outer courtyard, used for everything ranging from festivals to the training grounds of the army, as well as a set of private docks for the city's warships and a small prison complex. A inner wall surrounds the Keep itself and is heavily fortified by the Keep's garrison at all times.

City Hall
    Since Dragonstone Keep does not have open access for the citizens of Kohlingen to have grievances addressed or to purchase licenses or pursue matters of justice due to its intense security measures, Kohlingen's City Hall has been established for use by the Commonfolk of the city. The nobility may air their problems to the court assembly or send servants to handle matters in City Hall, but for the untitled, one must bear waiting in long lines to meet with various civil authorities. Fortunately, City Hall was constructed immediately adjacent to the Church of the Triad with an open arrangement that the clergy are available as notaries for several documents such as marriage licenses and annulments, business licenses, travel visas, affadavits, deeds, titles, and residency permits.

Temple of the Triad's Light
    Rivaling the expansive Dragonstone Keep as one of the tallest structures in Kohlingen, the Temple of the the Triad's Light is a massive cathedral dedicated to the grandeur of the Lords of the Triad: Ilmater, Torm, and Tyr. The original foundation of the temple dates back to the turn of the 12th century, some 300 years after the Fiend Wars. The temple was originally a small building on the outskirts of the Kingdom of Benwick. Commonfolks alone occupied its meager wooden pews. When the Holy City of Kohlingen rose to prominence, the temple was rapidly adopted and became a focal point of both religious and civil doctrine for the fortress community. In the generations that followed, the rise of patron saints, the acting of miracles, and the rate of conversion all led to its bindering as the Temple of the Triad's Light. Several of the more recent holy relics of the faith are stored within the temple, necessitating protection by the Triadic Knights.


The Greengarden District

    The Greengarden District of Kohlingen bears its name because it refers to the rural farmland outside the walled Tritemple District. The population is far more spread out here than in the Tritemple District and consists of farmers, tradesmen, some artisans as well as many servants and their extended families living under one roof. The wealthier homes are sturdier built, often a stone foundation supporting a wooden frame, and may have more than one story. The majority of homes are single story wooden homes with a log foundation and sometimes a stone hearth and chimney. Stripped animal hides, farming equipment, cattle, lye and dye buckets, small cabin attachments with carpenting tools or metalworking tools and a variety of other signs of small undustry are a trend in the Greengarden District, as most homes are family-sustained homesteads.

    None of the roadways in the Greengarden District are cobbled. Instead they are cart-worn paths that wind through the countryside and around hills. Anyone building property on a hillside is expected to make their own path up the crest of a hill if one is necessary for access. The rest of the roadways are annually maintained by volunteers from the community who cut back weeds and overgrowth on the first snowless days into spring.

    Some of the nobility who were granted expansive tracts of land in the Greengarden District maintain vast estates in the rural area. Many of them employ seasoned rangers to manage hunting grounds that are used for sport and entertainment and a small house guard to secure the manor and surrounding grounds. A nobleman's servants and family may often be quartered either in the manor or in a family home on the grounds.


Significant Places in the Greengarden District:


Castle d'Cordor
    Castle d’Cordor is a small but well-fortified estate overlooking the Feylake and Greengarden Districts of Kohlingen. Duke Montgomery d'Cordor resides here with the Duchess Eileen d'Cordor and their daughter, Lady Lanie d'Cordor. Now years exiled from the city that still bears their name, the d'Cordor family enjoys the peace and quiet Castle d'Cordor affords after the decades of hardships both the family and the estate have suffered. The manor once belonged to a former friend of Duke d'Cordor's named Manfried who cursed his own blood with vampirism in a rite taken from an evil book. After years of quietly terrorizing the people around his estate, Manfried was defeated and soon thereafter Lord Augir Goldberg purchased the manor and used it to house a small army in preparation for a possible conflict with Cordor. Lord Goldberg still resides here as Castle d'Cordor's steward. A popular bar story has it that during quiet nights, one can hear Augir bitterly recounting the wrongs committed against the nobles of Cordor.

    While it is said that that Castle d’Cordor hosts an incredible library of rare tomes, owing in no small part to Duke Montgomery d'Cordor's station as a wizard of considerable renown, I was not permitted entry to the Castle to verify. Lord Goldberg sent the following denial of my otherwise politely worded request for admittance and interviews:

    "Dear Mister Herald,

    Any supposed journalists who dare to set foot on the grounds of Castle d’Cordor will be chased back to the gates of the nine hells by my hounds. We have had our fill of the likes of Bill Hurst, Andrew Fryar and their colleagues who believe sensationalism and lies are preferable to the truth. We wish for some well-deserved peace and quiet. Do us all a kindness and bugger off.

    Respectfully,
    Lord Augir Goldberg"


The Feylake
    The Feylake is a natural body of water touched by the fey realm and home to the Naiad of Kohlingen, a being as mysterious as she is powerful. When Kohlingen began to expand into this mysterious woodland surrounding a lake of great beauty, superstitions began to circulate in light of the strange happenings near the lake. Out of respect for her power, and because there are few who wish to live so close to the fey, Kohlingen ceased their expansion while many families who had settled on the lakes shores abandoned their homes. Slowly, the Feylake is being claimed fully by nature again, making for a pleasant walk to the Shrine of Mystery located in one of its groves.


The Celestial Grove
    During the Great War of Time, Raziel and Domiel, two lords from the Celestial Hebdomad, a group of powerful archons who were once mortals and now serve as generals and advisers to the gods of Celestia, manifested in a grove near the Feylake to offer their aid in the fight against Collin Reyes. They left behind a patch of beautiful flowers that stay in bloom no matter the season and the sense of an otherworldly yet virtuous presence within the grove.


Surrounding Land
    The countryside around Kohlingen is dominated by mountainous woodland hills to the north and high cliff bluffs that fall into the Sea of Swords to the east and the south. A vast swampland known as the Quagmire lies to the southwest. Kohlingen territory borders the Salandran Temple and the elven city of Winya Ravena and stretches across the quagmires and the northern shore into largely untamed wilderness.


Significant Personalities:

Justicar Cystana L'saenirais
    Lady Justicar Cystana L'saenirais is the fifth Justicar of Kohlingen and a Red Falconer of the Red Knight. She is the first woman to be chosen and confirmed for the position, the first non-paladin and the first to hold a patron not of the Lords of the Triad. Well respected by both the Church of the Triad and her people, she was a former Everguard and the protégé of the late Justicar Saul Marinsbane.


Haulfast of Torm
    Father Haulfast was born to a fisherman in Cordor's southern slums. With a life of very little opportunity, Haulfast adventured as a cleric of the Loyal Fury for many years before retiring to lead the faithful Tormites of Cordor. Almost a decade ago, Haulfest left the trade city to unite with the Temple of the Triad of Kohlingen. Some say the city's nobility chose to adopt the Church of Waukeen as the state religion and this prompted Haulfest's move and some of his cooler demeanor towards Cordor and its nobility. While that may in part be true, it was Haulfest's dislike of the unofficial "tolerance policy" Duke Montgomery d'Cordor championed that saw him leave what was then touted as the City of Tolerance. The frustration became clear one day when Father Haulfast swore aloud that he had had enough of malign elements walking freely in his holy place and struck down two baatorian merchants within the temple and chased a third into the streets of Cordor. Hence the Amian idiom, “you look like Haulfast was after you".


The Naiad
    Also known as the Lady of the Lake, the naiad who resides in the feylake is a fae creature who made her presence known when Kohlingen expanded into her ancient territory, a natural lake in the middle of a forested area and several scattered groves. As beautiful as she is mysterious, the naiad is the subject of speculation and fear in the Holy City. A centuries-old legend tells of a fae known as the Lady of the Lake who once claimed a hidden pool beneath the Lightkeep in the Kingdom of Benwick. A paladin of Siamorphe was granted the Chalice of the Lady Siamorphe by just such a creature near the feylake area of Kohlingen only just a few years ago, though she referred to herself as the Lady of the Sea. Whether these existed, are one and the same, or different fae altogether no one can agree upon. What is known is that the Naiad is a being of great power who offered Kohlingen her protection during the Great War of Time. She has displayed the power to curse those who anger her, and some say her worst curse was reserved for a mortal bard to whom she gave her favor, only for him to break her heart.


Sir Charles Navare:
    Sir Charles Navare was recently knighted and named the First Knight of Kohlingen. Born of humble roots, he rose swiftly in the ranks of the guard and is considered a symbol of commonfolk potential. A man of the people, Navare has demonstrated Kohlingen is a place where one can rise to prominence in church and in state for their dedication, their faith and their ability. His vigilance during the Great War of Time ensured that few citizens were brought to serious harm amidst the chaos.


Wastewater Management
    Kohlingen is blessed with coldwater springs that flow from the mountains and deposit into Feylake. Many residents of the Greengarden District use this clean flowing water for bathing, washing, and drinking purposes, although many avoid taking any water directly from Feylake itself. Rumors abound of bathers emerging from the cold waters covered in toadstools and thirsty horses turning all colors of the rainbow after a drink.

    In the Tritemple District, a system to collect rainwater serves the majority of the buildings. Clean water runs from hundreds of roofs into downspouts that lead to a system of aqueducts coursing beneath the streets to four seperate, underground reservoirs. The two largest reservoirs serve the Temple of the Triad's Light and the fountain in the main square. Several of the wealthy estates have their own cisterns fed from the slate roofs. A crew biannualy cleans sediment from the reservoirs, and the more recently the Dal-Son-I water purifier has improved the quality of the district's water supply, removing even more of the runoff from water used for drinking and bathing, in particular.

    The majority of the sewers and aqueducts below the city are tiny-sized tunnels. Only a handful are big enough for a human to crawl through. With the protection of steel bars, there is little worry about people sneaking into the district through the sewers.


 
      
Yossarin
 
PostPosted: Thu, Jul 02 2015, 18:53 PM 



Player

Joined: 23 Jan 2006

IV. Culture

The Arcane Community
    Prior to the arrival of the mages from the Mystran Monolith, the arcane community of Kohlingen was restricted almost exclusively to the noble class, much in the way it had been in Cordor prior to the intervention of the populist-minded Arcanum. Pupils who expressed an interest or better yet an aptitude for magic were assessed by a local magister and then either apprenticed to that elder arcanist or sent to learn magic in the Tower of Mystra in the Amian Forest.

    Kohlingen's suspicion towards any agency outside of their own walls led to many young arcanists being apprenticed rather than being schooled. The noble families could keep their progeny closer to home and more easily vet the magister. Regardless of whether they were apprenticed or schooled outside of the Holy City, all arcanists were expected to swear an Oath of Loyalty over the scriptures of Torm in an annual ceremony scheduled to take place after the first graduating year of every schooled magician. The oath was purely ceremonial in nature, intended to instill a sense of responsibility and a fear of reproach in the young magician. In this way the Temple of the Triad was able to unofficial register all of the city's arcanists and monitor them as their arcane education continued.

    When the Mystran Monolith's staff relocated to Kohlingen, they established the Seven Stars academy in the spaces above a longstanding magic shop; the second floor of the Academy is now the city's primary library. Unlike the Monolith's system of intense schooling, the Mystrans in Kohlingen have returned to a traditional magister/apprentice relationship, but the resources of the library and the Academy are open to them.

    In recent months, an academy was built in the Delta area of Amia. The academy was established in response to a scathing article in a local peer-reviewed journal that blamed the Mystrans specifically for many of the island's magical failings. The article rankled the arcane community of Kohlingen in particular, leading some outside of the community to cry for a return to the now mostly abandoned Oath of Loyalty and church oversight.


The Commonfolk
    The commoners of Kohlingen are a generous, pious people. In a city of somber tradition and respectable behavior, they breathe joy into daily life. While they have never experienced great wealth, poverty, or the crime that usually accompanies it, they are no stranger to hardships. Compassion is a local value. When a family falls upon hard times due to sickness or a bad harvest, neighbors and friends take turns caring and providing for them.

    They tend towards the simpler life and have a strong sense of family, community, and service. As many as four generations of a family may occupy a single living space. The eldest makes the decisions for the family, excepting cases where the eldest is addled or infirm, and it is common for sons and daughters to take up their parents' professions. The notable exception is if the children choose to enter the clergy or the military, which garners great respect from the community.

    Children attend schoolhouses to learn to read and write and are educated about matters of faith by the Ilmateri clergy at the Temple of the Triad's Light four hours each day before returning home to help in the fields or learning the familiy trade.

    Every tenday's end, the community attends mass at the Temple of the Triad's Light. While other faiths may play a role in their life depending on their profession, the worship of Ilmater, Torm and Tyr is predominant.

    The Harvest Festival is a celebration organized by the farmers of the Greengarden District. On this holiday, excessive consumption and freedom from inhibition are encouraged. The clergy and nobility will dress as commonfolk to join the celebration, and even some commonfolk parade about as clergy or nobility in a mocking manner. For years the tradition has been a playful one, but there have been some instances in more recent Harvest Festivals that have taken the role reversal too far.


The Mercantile Community
    The merchants of Kohlingen are an independent group of traders and shopkeeps who are grateful that they have never had to unionize or form a guild. Until very recently, the Kohlingen marketplace needed very little in the way of regulation from Dragonstone Keep. Locals cite a few reasons for the city's self-regulated economy.

    Kohlingen's insular nature has created a marketplace where very few tradesmen or craftsmen have a need to compete with one another. There is one grocer for the Tritemple District and one general store with local produce in the Greengarden District. Similarly, each district has a cobbler, one of whom makes house calls, the Tritemple District has a metalworker but many of the families in Greengarden make their own or seek a neighbor's help. It has been the trend for generations that people do not generally go into the same business as someone else who already dominates the industry, a fact which encourages many young men to opt for military service rather than a craft or a trade.

    Additionally, in the years after Kohlingen's founding, local merchants were heavily but evenly taxed to afford the necessary work on the fledgling fortress at the same time as their families were encouraged to tithe to the church heavily. A great deal of propaganda exists to this day encouraging the wealthier of the commoner folk to live comfortably but within their means and to consider the greater needs of the community. In the wake of Cordor's recent Commonwealth government which applied a more aggressive form of the same propaganda towards the nobility, Kohlingen's brief history of communal economics has been quietly lain aside to further distance the Holy City from the concept altogether, which could hamper its current success.

    Some suspect the untold history of Aloyisius Goldenfield figures in to the city's treatment of its merchant community. Aloyisius Goldenfield was a minor nobleman in the Kingdom of Benwick who was reported to be a friend and confidant of Darius Tristram. Shortly before the exodus of Tristram from the Court of Benwick, Goldenfield went missing without explanation. One year to the day after the founding of Kohlingen, in the year 1123, Tristram accredited much of Kohlingen's founding on him, saying before the public that "without my dear friend Goldenfield, none of this would have been possible." To this day, no Justicar has ever elaborated upon the role the missing Goldenfield had in the founding of Kohlingen, but the fact that one of the three major thoroughfares in the city was named after the man speaks to his importance. Early propaganda cited "Goldenfield's shining example of responsible lending" and claimed him an "enemy of usury". The marketplace on Goldenfield now shares the nobleman's name, though that is more due to being located on Goldenfield's Way than a direct recognition of the man.

    Traditions aside, Kohlingen's now very active merchant community is seeing influence from former Cordorian traders and nobles who were heavily invested in the marketplace. With so much new money changing hands and so many new competing businesses and traders cropping up, there is, for the first time in Kohlingen, a cry for trade regulations in the local marketplace. Local Kohlingen merchants, especially the simplest of tradesmen, are finding it hard to compete with the more seasoned merchants who cut their teeth in the Cordorian Merchant's Guild or the Amian Crafter's and Trader's Federation. The new, more aggressive style of merchants respond by decrying any call for regulation as nothing more than a desire to retain a favorable status quo for the establishment without any thought to the changes the city is undergoing.


The Nobility
    Until Justicar Cys'tana was named as the monarch of Kohlingen in 1380 DR, Kohlingen did not observe hereditary ennoblements. Thirteen families followed Lord Darius Tristram from Benwick to Kohlingen. Four of them have died, leaving nine major noble families and several transplanted Cordorian nobilities.

    These Kohlinger families never shared the same wealth and power as their counterparts had in Cordor. Their estates are old and beautiful works of architecture, albeit modest and often hidden away on the back streets. Tradition and comfort matter more to them than opulence, a stark contrast to the growing merchant class mentality and the excesses of the exiled cordorian nobility. Kholingen nobility enjoy great respect from the people, having provided the city with much beloved knights, priests, and statesmen throughout its history.

    The nine families are dedicated and loyal supporters of the theocracy of Kohlingen. It was only within the last five years that the aristrocracy of Kohlingen experienced a change. A single noble house and several knightly houses were added to their number, several of whom have contributed a more progressive mindset to the nobility.

    Yet the greatest change occured during the exodus of the seventeen Cordorian noble families. These seventeen houses have been commited to restoring the wealth and status lost during the revolution. While Cordor for years commited to a populist form of government, the former trading partners of Cordor did not. Through arranged marriages, many trade partnerships and political liasons with foreign states came to Kohlingen, avoiding the failed Commonwealth policies that rendered post-revolution Cordor an unstable trade partner.

    Many of the Cordorian nobility, backed by members of their lines residing in other states, have managed to restore a great deal of their power. They have been recognized in station by the theocratic monarchy of Kohlingen, and have now been integrated into Kohlingen's power structure and begun to set a new tone for fashion and entertainment. For many, the thought of returning to Cordor has long been discarded.


The Theocratic Community
    The Church of the Triad is the most powerful and influential institution in Kohlingen. The High Priests of Ilmater, Torm and Tyr represent divine authority, even though the Justicar and her court oversee most of the Holy City's affairs from Dragonstone Keep. While the Temple of the Triad's Light has long distanced itself from political matters, it remains very involved in the daily life of the people.

    The clergy of Ilmater visit homes when illness or loss burdens a member of the congregation, educate the children and care for the orphans and the poor. The priests and acolytes of Tyr settle disputes and provide council of law. The church of Torm remains ever viligant for corruption and foreign threats. It is these services that have helped to ensure that crime, poverty and social injustice were are limited within the city.


Culinary Tradition
    Kohlingen's kitchens serve traditional meals of roasted game, fowl, root vegetables and baked goods. Apples, berries, squash and a variety of river and sea fish figure into "lighter" meals. Kohlingen also produces a finely brewed light and dark ale known as Mayfield's Summer and Mayfield's Winter.


Death
    Space is a valuable commodity within Kohlingen's walls. Traditional graveyards within the city, therefore, are a luxury few can afford. The Temple of the Triad's Light entombs its leaders and saints in the catacombs below the temple. The large noble estates in the Tritemple District have burial niches where the cremated remains of their members are enshrined. The finite amount of rich farmland around the city means that many of the commonfolk are buried outside the city in Benwick Hollow.


Fashion
    Nobles and wealthy aspirants follow the newest fashions eagerly, often looking to trendy Cordor for the latest styles, and foreign merchants are only to happy to provide the expensive fabrics and dyes needed to keep pace and keep the city's designers in business. The recent colorful influx of Cordorian fashion has inspired a countermovement of sorts, a revival of the archaic fashions of old Benwick which features outfits in the style of military parade armor with metal-plated engraved leather boots to resemble greaves, durable fabrics and richly dyed half-cloaks for men and low cut lace gowns with a prominent crinoline at the waist. The military frowns upon the ostentatious parade armor displays and the clergy chastises the impropriety inherent in the dresses.


Festivals
    The city celebrates the Faerunian holidays of Midwinter, Greengrass, Midsummer, Highharvesttide, and the Feast of the Moon with revelries, contests, communal feasts and morality plays. Kohlingen observes three festivals unique to the city and the island – the Wyrmshadow Festival, where the victories and losses of Wyrmfall are remembered through a recitation of the prophecy and trade fairs; the Remeberance of Time, where the city celebrates the defeat of the Arcanum by resetting clocks and holding wizardry fairs; and Tristram's Founding, where Kohlingen's founders are honored and the members of the original noble families open their manor grounds and larders to the common folk.


Military and Justice
    Kohlingen was founded with a military in mind to defend the citizens against Amian monstrosities and potential conflict with the Kingdom of Benwick. Due to the vigilance of the Silver Dragons and the Mage Guard, Kohlingen's ground forces remain formidable and Kohlingen one of the safest cities in the region.

    In addition to a majority of infantry, rangers and marines, Kohlingen's military also has four special forces: the Mage Guard, an arcane branch under the command of the city's Magister; the Shields, the intelligence branch of the city; the clergy, under the command of the High Priests of the Temple of the Triad; and finally, the Everguard, the Justicar's personal guard and the very best individuals the city has to offer. Until recently, the Silver Dragon Knights, a small detachment of highly trained knights under the command of the city's First Knight, were considered a major player in Kohlingen's military. In a final statement that we have reprinted here for posterity, Lady Nadya Simmons set a precedent that the Silver Dragon Knights are a force necessary only during wartime, and to be released from duty when peace is attained:


      My Lords and Ladies, Lady Justicar, People of Kohlingen and my Brothers- and Sisters-in-Arms

      I believe this is long overdue, so I am now making an official statement about it. I, Nadya Simmons of House Simmons, am henceforth resigning from the position of First Knight. When I was offered the great honor of serving this city as Her First Knight, I was the Second-in-Command of the Silver Dragon Knights, as the previous First Knight Izariel Skyfall stepped down. Our fair city and our island were at war and I was humbled by the honor to acquire this position and do my best to help end the war and protect our city. Now, however, the war is over and time has come to focus on rebuilding, on maintaining the hard-fought peace and rising from the hardships endured. As a soldier at heart I no longer concider myself neither qualified nor necessary for such a position, instead I feel it is time someone with more experience, a longer history of serving this city and wisdom decades beyond my own takes the position of First Knight. My successor has been discussed and decided in the eyes of, and with the unanimous approval of, Lady Justicar and the Clergy of Triad. His lifetime of exceptional loyalty, leadership and wisdom have been an inspiration to myself and should continue to be so for all who serve Kohlingen. I would like to be the first to congratulate sir Charles Navare as the new First Knight of Kohlingen.

      As my last act as the First Knight of Kohlingen, I shall be announcing the disbanding of the Silver Dragon Knights as a part of the military force of Kohlingen in times of peace, until once again called to arms by the First Knight, the City or the Justicar. It is time for us to move forward and I believe the Silver Dragon Knights as a branch of Kohlingen military are both unnecessary during times of peace and restricted in their honorbound and divine duties towards all suffering people and evil-doers around Amia by political standing and potential ramifications. I believe it is time for a new way for the Knights, Lords, Ladies and Honorable Men and Women of Kohlingen to form and make a stand. To those who have served with me or under my command, stand strong and stand vigilant for the city, the people and the good of all people who thrive to be good, honorable, hard-working men and women.

      It has been my honor and a priviledge to serve Kohlingen as the First Knight during these trying times and a learning experience at that. My sword and shield will always stand vigilant where they belong, in Kohlingen, to protect Her virtue, Her faith and most importantly Her people. Silver Dragons, Men-at-Arms, People and Allies of Kohlingen, Those Who Gave Their Lives, it humbles me to have served with such fine people.

      May the North Wind shelter us all under His wing.

      Sincerely,
      Lady Nadya Simmons, Knight of Kohlingen and Bahamut


    During wartimes, the Holy City supports a garrison of 400 Silver Dragon Guards at Dragonstone Keep at all times, as well as 100 Silver Dragon Rangers and 30 Mage Guard. The rest of the city is under martial guard, as Kohlingen has no civil law enforcement. Kohlingen can muster over 4000 foot soldiers by enlisting reservists to supplement the well-trained and outfitted milita. Kohlingen uses a vanguard of heavy infantry and ranger detachments supported by a reserve of clergy and arcanists. The units are experienced in ground defense and siege tactics. The Silver Dragons and Mage Guard constantly drill in the courtyard of Dragonstone Keep, honing their bodies for war and their minds for battlefield tactics. During peacetime, these numbers are dramatically reduced and the Silver Dragon Knights are disbanded, but the nobility regularly put their house guard in service to the Holy City.

    Kohlingen is heavily fortified. The terrain around the city forces invading ground forces to approach from one narrow direction while the navy faces down any fleet approach from the sea. During the Great War of Time, the walls were reinforced with dwarven engineering and arcane and divine warding. These fortifications remain intact along with an impressive array of dwarven artillery from Barak Runedar.

    The city's navy was always small in size, relying for generations on Cordor's naval perimeter around the whole of the island, but since the Great War of Time it has suffered great losses.


 
      
Yossarin
 
PostPosted: Thu, Jul 02 2015, 18:55 PM 



Player

Joined: 23 Jan 2006

V. Religion
    Religion in Kohlingen is divided into two groups: the Triadic Faith and then everything else. The Church of the Triad enjoys an authority no other established religion has in the city and exercises enough influence to convince scholars to classify the city as a theocracy. Without the expressed permission of the Temple of the Triad's Light, no other religious institution may construct a house of worship. Non-sanctioned faiths may congregate for worship or fellowship, but a legal precedent has been established that classifies gathered congregations of a certain size as a house of worship even in the absence of a physical structure, giving law enforcement justification to disband the congregants. Ostensibly, this offers the city protection from malign or subversive cults operating under the guise of benevolent faiths. In practice, other faiths are limited in scope and the Triadic faith has little competition for its position as the state religion.


The Triadic Faith

    The Church of the Triad was founded in 729 DR during the Fiend Wars of Impiltur. The leaders of the Ilmateri, Tormite and Tyrran faiths came to the conclusion that the wars were all but lost without a crusade that united the strengths of each faith. 600 years later, the church has proliferated across the face of Faerun with many major cities who recognize the Faerunian pantheon having some form of Triadic worship, from simple chapels to majestic cathedrals such as the Temple of the Triad's Light in Kohlingen. The cathedral in Kohlingen draws pilgrims from all across the island and even from several neighboring islands in the Trackless Sea and the Sea of Swords.

    The faiths of Ilmater, Torm, and Tyr are still practiced as individual faiths, but the dogma of the Triadic Church promotes a strong fellowship and cooperation amongst people with like-minded and goodly aims. The Triadic Knights, an prominent order in the Triadic Church, expresses this union with one of their more famous invocations: "Tyr is the sword of justice whose wrath punishes the wicked, Torm is the shield of faith who protects the weak, and Ilmater is the beating heart who tempers each with mercy and compassion." In this respect, the Church preaches what some theologians refer to as a "balance of virtues": justice must be tempered by mercy, suffering must be alleviated through courage, and obedience must give way to righteousness.

    The Triadic Faith is the dominant religion in Kohlingen. Some form of worship, even mere lip service, is a cultural expectation in the community. Clergy and parishioners renowned for their devotion are especially respected. The very same piety that earns respect within Kohlingen, however, sometimes engenders mistrust or skepticism from people outside of the Holy City. The Triadic Church's emphasis upon vigilant righteousness leads some to feel they are being judged, especially by Triadic Knights. Whereas some other communities in Faerun may exercise public outreach programs in order to prevent this image from arising, Kohlingen is a significant holy site. The Temple of the Triad's Light has secreted away many relics crucial to the faith and so the "judgment" of visitors happens without any obfuscation - paladins at the gates constantly peer into the hearts of visitors to the city in an effort to prevent evil from gaining any foothold in the city.


Bahamut, the Faith of the North Wind

    Imperator, the beloved Silver Dragon, gave up his life defending Kohlingen from the Dark Flight during the events of the Wyrmshadow Prophecy. Imperator was a devoted servant of Bahamut, and his sacrifice has elevated the dragons who flew alongside him in Bahamut's Flight to sainthood and raised the status of metallic dragons, dragonkin, dragon disciples of Bahamut and even kobold servants in the eyes of the people. Chromatic aligned kin and disciples are, in turn, mistrusted almost as deeply as those with a fiendish heritage. The Silver Dragon sigil upon the banners of Kohlingen and the Silver Dragon Guard and Knights are an homage to Imperator and, by extension, Bahamut.


Mystranism & Azuthan Worship

    Mystranism is an ancient faith that can be traced at least as far back as the Netherese Empire. The faith at that time was very different from the faith one sees today; steeped in almost as many mysteries as the ancient death cults of Jergal, early Mystranism revered the Art for the Art's sake without moral consideration. Magic was magic and the exercise of it alone, no matter to what end, was a religious observation. It was not until the recent Time of Troubles that the faith experienced a paradigm shift that introduced a deliberate morality to the faith that distinguished between good and evil uses of magic. The new dogma not only suggested that the use of magic for evil displeased Mystra, but for a time evil spellcasters found that the goddess had denied them access to the Weave. Even devout Mystrans say the restriction backfired and drove "far too many" magicians into the influence of Shar and her dark blessings. The paradigm shift has since been adjusted. The dogma now speaks highly about the responsible use of magic and the preservation of the Weave, a compromise that the Mystrans in Kohlingen interpret as Mystra wishing magic to be used for good and not for ill.

    This interpretation of Mystranism is satisfactory to the Kohlingen establishment; anything resembling the more archaic form of Mystranism would be circumspect. The faith did not become significant in the Holy City until the arrival of the magicians from the Monolith, and since then the faith has become the penultimate religion of the Tritemple District, second only to the Triadic faith. In the Greendgarden district, the Chauntean faith is more abundant than Mystranism. The Greengarden District is home to a dedicated holy site of the faith, however; the Shrine of the Lady of Mysteries. A series of simple candles whose flames will not extinguish mirrors the Lady's celestial constellation.


The Red Knight
    Worship of the Red Knight goes hand in hand with Kohlingen's long and storied military history. Where the guiding dictum of the Triadic faith guides the heart in battle, the head can lead too many an overzealous field commander into ruin. Many strategists who rose to prominence from Dragonstone Keep evolved from war tent collaborators who paid lip service to the Grandmaster of the Lanceboard into accomplished generals or scholars of war devout enough to bear her livery. To date, the only established shrine to the Red Knight is within the Library of Dragonstone Keep, but it has been the opinion of the divine strategists that the goddess' place in the Holy City is enshrined in its victories. Many suspect this has the potential to change soon under the direction of Justicar Cystana L'saeniarais, the first Red Knight to ever hold the position.


Milil's Revelers

    Milil sees casual worship from artists in Kohlingen who pay the god appreciation for his divine inspiration. Theater performances, concerts, music and poetry recitals and gallery openings are popular in the city and often accompanied by a token gesture of gratitude or prayer to Milil. A music hall dedicated to Milil can be found in the Greengarden District.


Siamorphe's Church of the Divine Right

    The Church of the Divine Right did not hold prominence within Kohlingen prior to the Cordorian Revolution. Ironically, the same class warfare that drove the nobility from Cordor also drove them into the arms of the Siamorphan faith. The majority had previously been faithful Waukeenar until Lady Tristana of Waukeen chose not to intervene on behalf of the nobility when two prominent nobles were dragged from their homes by an angry mob and hanged for their greed and others were arrested and imprisoned without a trial and their estates ransacked and stripped of valuable heirlooms and possessions. The Church of the Divine Right's dogma about the noble right to rule offered succor to those nobles who felt most wronged by their plight and they have adopted the Church as their personal champion. Those faithful to Lady Siamorphe have put into place an unwritten social contract: no family shall instigate an act of aggression against another family and to do so is to be considered an act of aggression against all families in the pact. The contract's stipulations are stringent, however, as any family that does not adhere to the Siamorphan code of conduct is unceremoniously excommunicated from the faith and the pact.


The Sunite Faith

    Worship of Lady Firehair has never been taken seriously in Kohlingen, regularly trivialized as being shallow and hedonistic. Members of the Triadic Church often oversee Sunite ceremonies in and out of their house of worship. The Sunites host ballroom dances and masked festivals to curry favor with the wealthier members of the merchant class and nobility. The faith expects its prominence will rise in tandem with the city's growing trade population. A salon dedicated to the worship of Sune's beauty can be found off Goldenfield Row in the Tritemple District.


 
      
Yossarin
 
PostPosted: Thu, Jul 02 2015, 18:55 PM 



Player

Joined: 23 Jan 2006

VI. Trade
    The recent boom in overseas trade has necessitated greater attention to Kohlingen's deepwater harbor to the point that it is now one of the favored ports of Lord's Alliance vessels through the Trackless Sea. During the most active months of trade it is not uncommon for the docks to be overburdened with vessels to the point that some traders anchor offshore and bring their wares in by skiff.

    The trade traffic in Kohlingen is not exclusivly naval. Kohlingen has three very important trade partners within the region: Barak Runedar, Bendir Dale and the Salandran Temple.

    Kohlingen's farms once produced enough to support the city, but with the rapidly rising population and the want of Amian foodstuffs in foreign ports, the demand for food has increased dramatically. Bendir Dale, the island's bread basket, provides the Holy City with supplementary produce, the majority of which is brought to Barak Runedar or bought by the trade vessels for their long journies.

    The Salandran Temple provides the City of Kohlingen much of its required medicinal supplies.

    A portal to Barak Runedar allows traders to transport the fine metals and gemworks into the city.


Taxation
    Non-citizens of the Holy City are charged an entry tax when passing through a checkpoint at the gates into any city district. There is a small charge for foot traffic and a moderate charge for travelers hauling carts or wagons. Merchants who pass through a checkpoint pay a commerce tax for goods they bring to the market. Each individual tax is low, but the combination of entry and commerce taxes funds a decent portion of the city's needs. Traditionally, entry taxes are waived on holidays and very special occasions that brings scores of pilgrims to the Temple of the Triad. This also results in holidays being major marketplace days, as well.

    Sailors do not pay an entry tax at the docks, but vessels will pay a docking and harboring fee that is fixed depending on the vessel's size and national origin. For example, vessels hailing from nations in the Lord Alliance or the Treaty of Light enjoy reduced fees from the port authority.

    Residents, buisness owners and private institutions pay a biannual tithe to the state. The Temple of the Triad's Light, considered a public institution, pays no state tithe. Any individual who defaults on two successive tithes is arrested, charged with evasion, and sentenced to a debtor's prison where the inmates labor upkeeping the city's walls in order to pay off the debt to the city. Military families who lose loved ones in the line of duty receive a generous deduction in state tithes for seven years.

    Additionally, the city government mandates an annual tithe to the Temple of the Triad's Light. The revenue from this tithe funds the Temple's public services. Unlike the state tithe, which targets individuals, it is local custom that the original noble families pay the tithe on behalf of the city. Once, thirteen families shared the noblesse oblige; now that only nine remain, the burden is greater, and so is the expectation of consideration from the Temple. These families sometimes enjoy benedictions from church leaders, easier marriage annulments and church intercession on their behalf in civil or legal affairs.


Trade: Barak Runedar
    Barak Runedar trades minerals, gems, precious metals and high quality armaments in exchange for vast quantities of grain, hops, beef, ale and other foodstuffs that are hard to come by in Brogendenstein. They also provide the Holy City with warmachines and other fortifications. Kohlingen regularly exports medicinal, alchemical and magical supplies to Barak Runedar. Due to the portal that connects the citadels and their political alliance with one another, Barak Runedar and Kohlingen rely heavily upon one another's trade. Were the trade agreement to end between these partners, each party would have to spend mountains in gold over years in order to recuperate their losses.


Trade: Bendir Dale
    Kohlingen, Cordor, and Wharftown all have their own local agriculture that is based primarily in the farmstead system: a series of crops that serve either a single homestead or several small rural homestead, with any surplus being sold in the marketplace. For urban dwellers, such as those in Cordor's inner districts and Kohlingen's Tritemple District, the demand for produce is very high and the surrounding agriculture cannot support the entire population. A lot of this owes to the Kohlingen's soil being too rocky in many places and Cordor's soil being too much like wetlands for heavy crops. The most fertile soil on the island lies in Bendir Dale, and as such the hin of the Dale are the literal breadbasket of Amia, with daily supply carts of grains, oats, and fresh fruits and vegetables traveling to Kohlingen. In exchange, Bendir Dale enjoys a great deal of monetary support through trade from the Holy City, more than enough for the community to live in quiet comfort.


Trade: Cordor and Guldorand
    Trade relations between Cordor and Kohlingen are complicated by many factors. When the noble families were run out of Cordor by its citizens under threat of death, they took refuge in Kohlingen and quickly exercised any power and influence remaining in order to halt trade between Kohlingen and Cordor. The establishment in Kohlingen initially viewed this as a petty desire for revenge gone unchecked, but when Lord Augir Goldberg of Cordor revealed evidence that the revolution had been deliberately orchestrated by Speaker Joseph Maximillian, Kohlingen feared that the Commonwealth government under Maximillian's rule would declare war upon the city. Or worse, that they would seek to do deliberate harm to the royal d'Cordor family or annex Wharftown, an ally of Kohlingen, thus necessitating a declaration of war. The potential for conflict had a chilling effect on any trade ventures established between the cities, which only got chillier as Kohlingen began to publically chastise Cordor and Cordor responded with anti-noble and anti-adventurer propaganda.

    Additionally, Guldorand's decision to become an outpost of the Commonwealth prompted Cordor to close lumber supply lines to the Holy City in the cold war brewing between the states. Kohlingen began deforesting its own hills rapidly to compensate, but with Feylake's groves off limits due to the Naiad, White Stag Shore's forested coastline a protected refuge for the white deer, an animal sacred to Kohlingen, and the other woodlands around the city scourged by beastmen, Kohlingen suffered exorbitant prices for imported lumber.

    Foreign investors primarily look to Kohlingen for their mercantile needs, but in the wake of Cordor's suffering in the Great War of Time, the fledgling Commonwealth is struggling to regain its capital position as the Gem of the Trackless Sea. While the establishment in Kohlingen may be content to see Cordor flourish again under certain provisions to prevent past transgressions, the entrenched Cordorian nobility in Kohlingen may take umbrage with their former city finding prosperity without them.


Trade: Forrstakkrr and the Frozenfar
    There is no meaningful trade with either Forstakkrr or the Frozenfar. Port Firespear in the Frozenfar is too distant to be appealing, and with Barak Runedar covering the majority of Kohlingen's demands for raw materials and many finished products, Howness in Forrstakkr is unable to compete.


Trade: The Lord's Alliance

    In order to secure Waterdeep's aid in the Great War of Time, emissaries from Kohlingen entered into the Lord's Alliance, securing the Holy City's position amongst an elite grouping of city-states who direct political and economic activities in the Sea of Swords and Trackless Sea region. Kohlingen purchases a wide variety of bulk goods from the mainland and stores it north of the city near the drydocks, selling the goods to local merchants and craftsmen. Most of the trade, however, is just "passing through", as ships belonging to Lord's Alliance nations bring goods from exotic ports like Kara-Tur and Maztica, deposit them in a warehouse in Kohlingen while the city collects storage fees and then they get picked up by a vessel on its way back to the mainland.


Trade: Ruathym
    Hostilities against any member of the Lord's Alliance or the Treaty of Light means hostility against Kohlingen, and the Holy City has become a significant rival in the area. If Kohlingen continues its pious adherence to principle, it may intervene on the behalf of exploited parties subjected to cruelties perpetrated by the jarldoms of Ruathym. For this reason, the jarldoms of Ruathym have preferred to trade almost exclusively with Cordor over Kohlingen.

    Ruathym has little power or influence to gain from Kohlingen. The Holy City has kept the jarldoms of Ruathym at arm's length throughout its history, perhaps likening it to the dystopian failings of Old Benwick. Any prospect of securing alliances or preferable trade agreements are slim.


Trade: Tarkuul
    Officially, trade with Tarkuul is non-existant. Rumors suggest that some individuals in the Holy City might be purchasing valuable works and artifacts from Tarkuul, but the threat of discovery is a strong deterrent. Such a trade could lead to criminal prosecution and a permanently tarnished reputation. Tarkuul is Kohlingen's main competitor for arcane and academic exports.


Trade: Wharftown
    Kohlingen outsources the construction of commercial and naval vessels to Wharftown's new shipyard. The arrangement is crucial for Kohlingen to keep up with the demand for overseas trade and restore its weakened naval forces, but is also a boon for Wharftown, a seaside community eager for the prosperity the patronage brings.

    Through the Lord's Alliance, Wharftown already enjoys the protection of Kohlingen's military. If it stays the course as a reliable ally, it is poised to become a vital part of Amian seatrade and receive major investments from other communities to build some of the finest vessels in the Trackless Sea. All of this a far cry from Wharftown's reputation as the small and quiet fishing village.


Trade: Winya Ravena
    Elven woodcarvings fetch handsome prices in the most expensive stores in Waterdeep, Baldur's Gate and Neverwinter. With the increase of Lord's Alliance vessels docking in Kohlingen, Winya Ravena has found a steady stream of buyers for their handcarved crafts in the Holy City. Elven clothing has become especially popular amongst the local nobility, and many elven-made bows and arrows are a standard for Kohlingen's ranged units. In return, precious metals and gems are transported to Winya Ravena down Tristram's path via Minmir Bridge.


 
      
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