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Port Kaelen

cityDraft

Port city at the mouth of the Golden River, at the northern end of Verdalia Bay.

Description

Port Kaelen spreads over both banks of the Golden River, where it empties into the northern end of Verdalia Bay. It is nearly as large as Vesper, but it does not look like it. No one laid out its streets: they grew inland from the docks, twisting between warehouses, fish markets and houses of three and four stories. It has no walls. On the landward side the last houses blend into the orchards, and nothing marks where the city ends.

Along the waterfront, wooden docks reach out into the bay. The barges that come down from Lake Mireal tie up there beside the ships that arrive from open water.

Economy

The city lives off the movement of goods, and almost all the trade of Felgrum passes through its harbor. The Golden River is navigable as far as the lake, so the barges travel up and down between the bay and Mireal. Down the river come the grain, wine and fruit of the Verdalia Gardens and of the market-garden villages around them, such as Reed Ford, Lenis and Pomel. Through the bay those goods leave for the sea, and goods from abroad come in.

That wealth draws merchants, money changers, shipowners and craftsmen from everywhere. Painters, musicians and copyists followed them, and the city is now the chief center of culture and art in Felgrum.

History

The city was called Aurost until the Aurost Rebellion. When King Gooley ruled the kingdom with an iron hand, Aurost was the first city to rise against him, and the only one to succeed. The revolt was led by Kaelen Drake, a hunter of sea monsters who died in the fighting. The rebels drove out the king’s troops, and the city took his name.

Relations with Vesper have been difficult ever since. They have eased over the years, but the city does not always obey the laws that leave the capital, and many at court regard it as a threat.

Today its influence grows, and so does its disobedience. Its people are proud to be free, and the court fears it: it believes that pride will end in an uprising. On Cirda, towns such as Kesh hope to follow its example.

People and culture

It is a loud city, where the tongues of every port that trades with it mingle. Its people consider themselves free and proclaim it: the city’s name reminds them every day. Among them are also a few Drocani who left the customs of their people, drawn by the pleasures of a free port.

Sailors tell that Kaelen Drake went on leading his people in battle after his death, until the last of the king’s soldiers had left the city.

Location

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