Continent: Old World
Region: Adrila
Adrila City is a sturdy and impressive display of the Old World's finest masonry. The city lies on a hill, west of the hills separating Adrila from Valdarn, saving it from the swamp's often rotten stench. In those hills, many small brooks begin, and join up on their way down. By the time they reach Adrila City, they've become a wide river, sometimes seeming placid and calm, other times washing over cliffs and downhill. However, close to Adrila, it changes its flow. Flowing up the hill, it enters the city outskirts, and there spreads out into canals and aqueducts that run among the higher levels of the city. Adrila itself is made up of three levels, so to speak: One is the highest, where wealthy craftsmen, merchants and important persons in the city live. The second is the middle-class, where your average man lives and works his craft. The bottom level contains those with no other place to be, but also those who feel at home nowhere else. It is home to many adventurers and mercenaries. The river flows upwards, until it reaches the very center of the city, where the castle itself is. There, the aqueducts end, and the water falls to the second level, landing in large pools, where the canal system for the second level begins. There, it flows through the second level, still quite clean, but as it goes through the second level, it gains a lot of dirt. By the time it reaches the third level, it is barely drinkable, and generally takes the dirt from the city with it out on the way back to the plains.
The architecture of Adrila Castle, and city, consists of stone, mostly. The walls are sturdy, made to withstand assaults, and made out of grey rock. On sunny days, the water in the canals and aqueducts reflects the sunlight, creating patterns on the walls, and many consider this one of the most beautiful things about Adrila City. Another common thing during sunny days is the rainbow created around the castle, caused by the waterfalls. One might argue that Adrila City is a masterpiece in architectural beauty, but often having some practical problems. For instance, the areas close to the castle are never truly dry, due to the mists from the waterfalls.
Among the people of Adrila, a commonplace sight is soldiers, in their common blue and white uniforms. Arrendal has made sure to keep the two upper levels patrolled. The lower level is often neglected by his soldiers, due to a mercenary band keeping its own edition of the law down there. Mugging and pressing people for money is something the mercenaries frown upon, and often go directly against. There are many hidden areas in the lower levels, however, and the mercenaries can't keep everywhere safe at once.
The city is split into several districts, of which very few are actually very distinctive. The most distinctive ones are the military quarter, where all recruits are trained before being sent to the front, and the wizards' tower, whose bright flashes can keep those nearby awake during night. Naturally, this part of the city is scarcely populated.
Adrila Castle itself is in the very center of the city. The canals and aqueducts all end in a ring around the castle, with only a few access bridges available from the upper two levels. This makes it easy to defend the castle if the city around is taken, and the bridges can be raised as well, making it even harder to get to the king himself. This new castle was recently finished, having started construction after Queen Milena was slain and Arrendal realized that while he was nearly invincible, the rest of his family was not.