XerAllCreation/Thorns
Thorns
Thorns. A massive metropolis, the city is situated on the edge of a roughly triangular peninsula, jutting northwards into the Inland Sea, carving out Metal Bay to the east.
Like, perhaps, a thorn in the Blessed Waters. To the West, bordering the sea, Thorns lays atop a shear cliff face, topped only by a wall, its presence merely to prevent a cold, wet, rocky death a hundred feet below. Legend tells that the Anathema made it so, and in this, their wisdom can be at least grudgingly admitted, for during times of storm the great waves crash along the wall, sometimes striking a bit over it, sending water rushing down through the street channels to the East, to the docks and into Metal Bay.
A giant plate of some pure steel alloy makes for the base of the bay, covering a hundred square miles of its floor. While most of it has long since been covered by eroded sands and vegetation, the occasional expedition by arrogant dragon-blooded attempts to sink to the bottom, to try to cut through the plate. All have returned. All have failed.
At the south of the bay lies the vassal city of, unsurprisingly, Metal Bay. It can be seen quite clearly from Thorn's walls, and is no small port itself, however, the docks in Thorns are easier to navigate into, thus its prominence.
Thorns has two sets of docks, north and south. Historically, the north was used strictly for military purposes while the south was primarily mercantile. Since the humiliating defeat its army suffered, however, principles have changed. They are still both quite massive, and as the cool spring winds greet the city, nearly three hundred ships of varying majesty host on the docks or near them.
To the South, of course, are the city walls proper, spanning from Sea to Bay. Two sets of walls mark the boundaries of the city. The inner wall is a remnant of some massive First Age fortification, torn from its foundation to leave a jagged wall of jade and granite. Centuries of care have partially rebuilt the wall and taken advantage of its oddities, but few look at it without realizing it was once a part of something greater.
The Inner City, or Upper City, as some call it, is quite small - no more than three score buildings mar its interior, all of Second Age construction. Built above the docks, on the East, the Upper City rapidly slopes downwards as the cliff drops away. Most notable of the buildings is Mela's Spire. A jutting protrusion of ivory and white marble marking the northernmost extent of Thorns, its foundation is already three hundred feet above the sea, and the tower itself reaches twice that again over its foundations. At night, parts of it shine with a pale blue glow, particularly the ring of windows at the top, shining like a lighthouse over the lands below.
Other buildings held by the Autocrat and his Dragon-Blooded 'guests' dot the precipice. Several are quite impressive structures - clearly manses in addition to the Spire. The Guild also hosts an office here, though one can only guess at the price they pay for the privilege.
Nearly three miles to the South of the Inner Wall lies the Outer Wall, entirely a construction of the Modern Age. Even still, it is quite impressive, hewn stone thirty feet high and nearly as thick, covered in ill-maintained parapets, ready for a siege that never came.
Between these walls lies the sprawl of Thorns. Despite the instabilities within the city, one would be hard-pressed to find an area one could call a 'slum'. If one does not count the two slave markets, most people in this city are fairly well off considering their hardships, at least by the standards of mortals. The upper class tends to live along the city's Eastern edge, in fair-sized towers overlooking the cliff. The middle and lower classes are more spread out, and aside from five towers, which mark the corners of the Bazaar, little juts its way into the skyline.
There are three main gates through the Outer Wall into Thorns, all of them opening to wide roads, all leading towards the Bazaar. The West and South gates have been closed for centuries, never opened, as few dare travel through the Bayou of Endless Regret, far to the South. Nearly all visitors to the city either come through the lands of the Marukani, or, more likely, from the docks.
Merchants from the Marukani, Varsi, Nexus, Lookshy and the Guild still arrive from through the Eastern Gate to trade with the people of Thorns. While there is some tension, most understand the choice the individual people had in the recent conflict, and most of the aggression, albeit unspoken, is directed to the Dragon-Blooded and their puppet Autocrat.
Well over half a million citizens call this city their home. Still more trade with them, and more still are purchases from one of Thorns’ two flesh markets. These markets are hosted at opposite ends of the Bazaar, and compete with each other vigorously – at least in public. The Cynis family holds the Eastern Market, while the southwestern is held by the Guild. Rife though the competition appears, they actually prefer the fine art of price fixing to driving each other out of business.
Despite the city’s prosperity, the overall mood of the city is that of a broken one. Thorns drafted far, far too many of its young men for the war effort, and this is plainly visible by wandering its streets. Guards are few, and women do many tasks typically assigned to men. Still more women wear the dark garbs of mourning for the dead. The official count of the dead is over ten thousand, but this bold-faced lie only served to enrage the people more – many believe that more than ten times that number fell.
Even with its diminishment, it is still a major power in the region, and the River Confederation did not press an assault after their victory, instead letting an uneasy peace settle across the region. Perhaps there is hope that enough unrest will boil within the city that it will turn against the Realm and join the Confederation. That seems unlikely, however, with the sizeable contingent of Dragon-Blooded present, keeping the city and its territories firmly under the thumb of the Realm.
The people themselves do not treat outsiders with much suspicion - with the fleet stationed just outside its harbor, and assault on Thorns seems like suicide. Emotions are mixed in general, from unvoiced apologies to hostility. With the rumors of the Empress' disappearance growing in number and backing, many are at least secretly hopeful for a rebellion.
As is typical of most of Creation, lower levels of society tend to be patriarchal, becoming more egalitarian as power consolidates in those who truly have the blood for it - which seems to favor the female if it discriminates at all. Even still, being so close to the Realm - under the unofficial thumb of the Scarlet Empress, mitigates gender issues to a small degree.
Thorns has a sizeable population of something over half a million, not including slaves and the rather large merchant base - the city trades in volumes that would satisfy the greediest merchants in Nexus. The city's biggest market is its slave trade, both the Guild and House Cynis having made the city famous for its flesh market. Drugs do not pass through Thorns much - the Realm has come down hard on the Guild's attempts to seed its opium and heroinne trade for some reason, and the merchants have backed off for the time being.
There are a few dozen known Dragon-Blooded within the city, and most certainly others, along with a few hundred god-blooded. More than a few dragon-touched are the result of Dragon-Blooded 'condolances' to lonely wives, and this has done little to help the resentment within the city.
Vassal Cities
Thorns controls a number of minor cities (more properly, towns) in the surrounding region. See theXerAllCreation/Map for details.
