Korovia - The Free License Fantasy World

Oraknev
Population: 31,000 (Metropolis, mostly Humans)
Terrain: Coastal Cliffs
Economy: Very Strong, Trade Center.
Military: City-Guard 900 & Militia 1500. The Northern Army Fort is just north of Oraknev (5000 men).
Leadership: Town Council

Oraknev has an outer city and an inner city. The inner city is over 5000 years old and is heavily fortified with defensive towers. These towers are no longer used by the military however. They have been converted into homes. They can still be used in the event of a war however. The outer city dates back over 1400 years and was built by the elvish king Zaelean and has a strange mix of architectures. Oraknev is a city of unusual towers.

There is a saying that when King Zaelean sat down to design the outer-city, he hired a gully dwarf to decide where all the streets will go. Oraknev’s streets make very little sense and over the years people have added more streets in an effort to make a map of the city that actually makes sense. The inner city in comparison is an ancient design based on circles and ovals. Both designs have their advantages. The outer city’s design was actually based on how the streets would follow the downhill path of the sewers, thus making the city cleaner (see the description of Oraknev’s sewers below).

The inner city now houses a lot of government buildings, houses of nobility and temples. There is only a small marketplace with over-priced goods in the inner city.

The guards at the gates of the outer city no longer check for weapons or tax merchants entering the city. However, the inner city now checks for weapons and nothing larger than a dagger is allowed in. The city guards at the inner gates routinely check suspicious people with detect magic to see if they are deliberately hiding magical items. This procedure while being annoying has proved successful and there are now far less incidents of violence within the inner city. The sewers of the outer city do not connect underground to the sewers of the inner city. Only one sewer grate leads into the inner city and it is a permanent magical force-grate with a magical alarm placed on it.

The wizard’s tower (and guild) is a built-up island in the harbour. It serves as both a protective tower against intruders to the city and also as a school and guild-house to many of the city’s wizards.

Oraknev is one of Korovia’s oldest cities with many of its older buildings dating back to long before the last Demon War. Almost forgotten kings designed the circular shaped city. For millennia it has been the stronghold of warlords, both good and evil. Beneath the city are catacombs that have been built over many centuries, which intersect. Many of these catacombs have been sealed to prevent lizard-folk and worse from reaching the surface.

Oraknev’s sewer system intersects with the catacombs and is a marvel of engineering for Oraknev is one of the cleanest cities in all of Korovia. The populace dumps their sewage into the system and instead of flowing towards the lake, the sewage is washed by regular rainwater into the catacombs. The lizard-folk that live in the catacombs are probably not happy about this. If there is no rain, the stench from the sewers becomes noticeable. There is a river dam east of the city that powers water mills, during times of drought water is sometimes released from the dam and into the sewers to help wash the sewage into the catacombs.

The river dam is sometimes considered a weapon against the lizard-folk, or whenever the rat population becomes a nuisance.

Within the walls of Oraknev reside the majority of its residents, but it is outside the city walls to the south that the marketplace has blossomed. The city used to charge taxes for people to carry goods into the city, and so the marketplace became a no-tax zone. The marketplace has brought enormous wealth to the city however and city council has removed the tax on goods and instead places the tax on rooms in inns. The inns are not complaining very much because they are still making record profits and can now buy beer/etc from merchants for cheaper.

Within the marketplaces there is a vast variety of shops, including magical items and otherwise. For a small metropolis Oraknev still has its limits as to what can be bought, but what is there is still impressive.

Oraknev’s city guards are well trained and have good pay. New recruits are given city-wall duty and stay there until they reach Private 1st Class (3rd level). Beyond the rank of private are Lieutenants, Captains (6th level), and Chiefs. The Lord Captain of the Guard is 10th level.

Oraknev’s town council is composed of Lords and Ladies of Oraknev. Many are high level Aristocrats, but some are fighters, wizards and clerics that have earned their rank and been asked to sit on the council. Members of the council are appointed by Queen Kasiya, which shows where the real power belongs. The council governs over spending the city budget and generally does a good job of it. If they are not doing a good job, Queen Kasiya steps in with her divining powers and some people have been known to lose their positions when her divining magic predicts that they are no longer suited for the position.

As the semi-secret Mayor of Oraknev, Queen Kasiya does a good job of picking which people would be well suited for the job. The job of city councilor is payless, but the power wielded is meant to be benevolent.

There used to be a tunnel (still is technically) that ran underground from Kost to Oraknev. The tunnel was made 12 years ago using magic, but sections of the tunnel are now unstable and have collapsed, and there is also lizard-folk who have taken up residence in the tunnel. Both ends of the tunnel have been collapsed to keep the lizard-folk from raiding the cities.