The Republic of Zelrah (noir again) (Patreon)

Someone pointed out on discord that I put all that worldbuilding into a place on the far side of the world while not actually going into the history or culture of Capital itself.  Sooo... here we go.  Still working on Gallus and Homelands too, when work permits.  My online activity is monitored so I can't work on anything saucy at school for obvious reasons.

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Zelrah is a disporportionately wealthy city state on the western coast of the Athziel continent where two mountain ranges meet in a angle, pinching off a small patch of terrain that was overlooked or ignored by the more powerful kingdoms to the east.  It's origins, however, are rooted in one king not wishing to pay docking tariffs levied on his lands by his rivals.  Landlocked, King Zaul looked to the west and concluded that if he couldn't access ports cheaply, he'd send an expedition across the mountains and make a port of his own!  Ships could then sail all the way around Athziel, haul goods over a mountain pass, and into his kingdom!  And since none of his advisors wanted to lose their heads, everyone agreed it was brilliant and the expedition was sent out, under the command of the King's nephew, Ser Zelrah.

To the shock of many, Zelrah undertook the fool's errand with full seriousness, getting a group of adventurers to chart a navigable pass across the mountain and into the triangle of land between the north and eastern mountains and the ocean to the south west.  However, the territory was discovered to be largely pacified (and claimed) by the elves to the north.  The elves, however, expected the humans to abandon the attempt and turned their attention to more threatening encroachments elsewhere.  For three years they mapped and charted every inch of the territory.  When Zelrah returned, many assumed they'd died.  Zaul forwarded more funds and organized a troop of serfs, slaves, and criminals to make the crossing and build a port.

Again, to the surprise of many, who fully expected the endevor to fail, Zelrah used his funds and people with great care.  Wagons were disassembled and ported across the mountains rather than being abandoned.  Workers were given care and time to recover when struck ill.  Rather than immediately making piers, Zelrah establish a network of farms to feed everyone and clear land along the smaller river to the south.  It took three more years for the first wooden pier to be driven out into the sea and for a reliable road to be cut over the mountain.

To the frustration of Zaul, few ships wanted to sail around three quarters of a continent to use his port, and it was cheaper to simply pay the tarriffs.  Zaul died in combat and his son had little interest in the economic plan.  He made his cousin a duke, and sent him off to administer the region.  Zelrah prioritized the development of his lands over agrandizement of his own family, abolished slavery, and allowed serfs to come and go.  This encouraged a vital trickle of immigrants; escaped slaves, serfs, and petty criminals to travel to the remote land.  When Zelrah died thirty years later, he was unusually beloved by the people, who named the land itself after him.

For a century, little happened beyond steady growth.  While the elves were apprehensive about the settlement, they acknowledge a stable and trustworthy human settlement was better than wiping them out every generation.  The duchy followed a plan of making the land as unprofitable as possible on paper, so to not be subject to too much direct rule.  This meant that whatever wealth came through the port was recycled back too the port.  The Duchy of Zel was derided as 'pig farmers, fishmongers, and turnip eaters'.  Merchants knew better.  The road across the mountain was improved and fortified, with waystops made to shelter caravans making the crossing.  Soon going west to Zel was seen as cheaper and safer than crossing hostile borders.  Zelrah may have been a laughingstock to aristocrats and royalty, but those who knew knew the streets had cobblestones rather than muddy tracks.

After a hundred years, Zelrah had grown to be the second largest city in the Kingdom, and could no longer hide the status.  The King made ever increasing demands of tribute and men.  Fortunately, Zellic Solis met the demands with aplomb.   Taxes from docking fees were given in public ceremonies that advertised the duchy's capabilities.  Instead of levies, Zellic hired professional soldiers to train a small standing army for lease to prevent constant disruptions for a draft.  This unit was known as the Strikers, and brought in mercenary funds during peacetime as well.  During this time, the town spread along the bottom of the cliff till it met the northern river.  While often derided as a backwater, most acknowledged it was a surprisingly wealthy one!

Zellic's children and grand children would struggle to maintain the relationship with the crown, which saw the Duchy as both highly profitable, but also remote and difficulty to manage.  Worse, the size of the town resulted in multiple plagues and the attention of nefarious mages and cults.  There was growing concern that the elves would tire of the experiment and reclaim it.  A second road following the larger northern river through the mountains doubled the amount of trade.  Salt, spices, and cloth flowed one way, while gold, copper, and iron flowed the other.  Meanwhile, the crown sought any excuse to claim more and more control over the duchy.

The tension snapped a hundred and fifty years after the city's founding.  Slighted that a foreign dignitary had visited Duke Zorion before him, King Azaber accused the duke of treason and conspiring against the crown.  Zorion had the Blades escort him to the capital where he was immediately arrested.  The Blades assaulted the prison and liberated him, and fought all the way back to the passes.  Azaber declared war on the rogue duke and rallied an army ten times the size of the Blades to take the duchy.  for a decade, Zorion and the Blades prevented Azaber's forces from crossing the mountains, in spite of a pirate embargo, a plague, and an irritable dragon.  Zorion used the taxes to fund a series of public works and expansions to the south side of the river.  The steep land near the cliff was unsuitable, but the lands above it would become a cleaner and less smelly place to live than the town proper.  A series of sewers were installed, with water routed through them to flush the filth out to sea... bringing it back with every tide.

The war for the duchy ended in a stalemate, ushering in cycles of trade, paranoia, collapse, and conflict.  Finally, king Azaber died in a war camp of dysentery.  His eldest child was princess Zurliana, while his heir was a six year old grandson with his elder sister as regent.  Zurliana proposed to marry Zorion's son, Bezemus, and tie the royal family to the duke's.  Zorion agreed, and the young crown prince was happy to allow it because it meant he could ride on a ship.  A decade later, King Avezer resigned his crown to his cousin and set about creating a maritime trade company.

King Azmos wasn't a happy king, living in the capital while Zelrah developed and became the center for culture for much of Athziel.  Rather than engage in wars with his neighbors, he spent time making the city as accessible as possible.  Dwarves made the roads less steep and easier to traverse.  He allowed a university of magic to be established provided they installed a means to teleport between the capitol and Zelrah.  The Sunset trading company in the meantime allowed massive expansions of the deepwater port.  Much of the old port was simply filled in with newer stone piers set up.

Money brought corruption, and corruption brought cults.  Various devil and demonic cults took root in the city.  The church of Illumus was invited to attempt to tamp down on the behavior, and the church of Vallias was established from a blood cult, eventually merging with the church of Valur.  Zelrah had a reputation for both freedom and liberty, but also excess, corruption, and debauchery.  While some of the reputation was slander, the city had to cater to cultural tastes, and sailors, from all over the world.  One scholar proclaimed a tenth of the population served as prostitutes of some form or another, and that the brothels rivalled palaces.  Oddly, his condemnation made Zelrah even more attractive a location.

The city spread up the mountains to the south and east, forming the heights.  The wide northern river precluded anything built on the northern banks besides farming settlements and a few ferries.  The royal family established a 'summer palace' in the south east heights of the city, and it was Azmos' dying decree the capital be moved to Zelrah formally.  While the aristocracy of the kingdom did not like the travel to a 'remote' region to be ruled, many established palaces anyway and this lessened many political schemes across the kingdom.

The rule of King Ozbos would usher in the next political crises.  Ozbos was a troubled ruler, paranoid of assassination and with an unhealthy habit of pederasty.  While recognized for being brilliant, faith in the crown was shaken by his personal habits.  He ushered in the use of golems for moving wagons over the mountains, and worked with dwarves to set up iron and copper foundries along the northern bank.  He was terrified of public appearances, openly accused his wife of plotting to murder him, and using children dressed as nobles to 'speak' for him.  Many accused his heir, Ozerus, to be illegitmate.  Ozbos eventually had a complete mental breakdown and had to be removed from the throne, placed in a nursery for the remainder of his life.  Many wanted the kingship to return to the line of Avezer.  Ozerus spent more than a decade building back the authority that his father undermined.

It was during this time that Zelrah established contact with the far side of the Sunset Ocean.  The lands there were strange, resource rich, and most importantly not subject to the many tariffs and piracy that lay to the south.  The colonies were outposts to facilitate trade.  Some were established in wildernesses, but most were in established lands, carving out enclaves and establishing ports.  These colonies required security, and multiple private mercenary companies were founded.  These companies would 'rent' their skills to local rulers in conflicts, resulting in even more wealth flowing into Zelrah.  The amount of money caused wild inflation in Zelrah, resulting in the establishment of more public works.  The largest was a golem train linking both sides of the Royal River and an extension of the sewer to far down the coast.  No longer would the tide bring in last night's foulness.

Zelrah's royalty culminated in Vezus the Builder.  Vezus embodied much of his grandfather's rule, being a brilliant architect, and better at hiding his personal flaws in public.  Vezus worked with the arcane university and dwarves to build a bridge crossing the King's River to the north.  The river itself was tamed with a dam that routed hydraulic power to mills at the bottom of the cliff face, and then spanned with the first steel frame bridge.  He also negotiated the 'sale' of the territory from the elves to the kingdom proper, invited the church of Lexica to the city, and was so wealthy he gave every citizen gold simply because he could.  The popularity helped hide his dark secret: his intimate relationship with his own sons and daughters.  Vezus's heir was both his son and grandson, and Vezus employed both wealth and power to keep his secrets.

When Vezus died, his son Venon was in no state to rule.  He had none of his father's boldness or intelligence, and though sympathetic, he was weak and traumatized, spending the majority of his time with his siblings in isolation.  The country was governed by a council in his absence, and instability and corruption was rampant.  Venon was incapable of marriage, and two arranged unions collapsed.  When the heir was born, no one could confirm the mother.  Officially it was a noble of realm.  In reality, it was Venon's own sister Ahveina.  Calls to reinstate Lord Fernos, Avener's descendant, to the throne were renewed, but rebuffed by Fernos himself.  A member of the council, he pressed for the monarchy to be made quietly ceremonial.

Venon died of suicide before he was thirty, and his heir Voeton was only slightly better.  While capable of public appearances, he persisted his family's incestuous trend.  Worse, Voeton possessed enough charisma to give the impression of confidence, but in reality rewarded flattery and agreed with whatever decision made him look best.  He clashed continuously with the council, and compromised it by adding loyalists to its members.  In his later years, he didn't bother to hide his depravity, and his weakness lead to a number of wars that cost the kingdom dearly in terms of territory.  Many started to speculate Zelrah's time to fall had come.

All this coincided with an incursion from the abyss.  The invasion breached a number of lands and locations, with demons spilling forth, aided by fiends.  Devils exploited the situation.  However, unlike previous incursions, the devils offered an agreement to provide critical access to end the threat of incursions once and for all.  The Gods of Virtue agreed, and Illuminex drew power from his billions of followers to incinerate the abyss and the Gods of Wickedness within.  'Victorious', the world then turned back to recovery.  Zelrah had escaped almost unscathed, and thus its fall was prevented.  However, Voeton allowed devils to establish a 'business' in the city.

Voeton's death and the hands of his grand daughter signaled the end of the monarchy.  King Voeis was plagued by a childhood of abuse, paranoia of the council, and an inability to accept the realities of inevitable change.  He often would take the children or wives of nobles into his bed, and they left with horror stories of the depravity of the royal household.  The council finally held a vote to strip the monarch of all political power.  Voeis challenged the council to a duel, and Eligia Holyblade herself rose and disarmed the king.  Humiliated, the King took his family and had them flung from the falls to the stones below, before finally jumping himself.  Only two children remained of the royal line.  It was later discovered that King Vesus had built a shrine to the arch devil Karnalix in the dungeons of the palace to ensure 'the purity' of his bloodline.

The death of the royal family invited a debate: should the throne pass back to Lord Fernos' line, or to which foreign king had greatest claim.  Fernos pointed out that any king could go the way of Voeis.  He pointed out the council did a good job, once purged of Voeton's cronies.  He suggested a parliament be established to elect members to the council, and remove them if necessary, and to pass laws for the people rather than aristocrats.  The idea of a common law for all, regardless of race or title, spread like wildfire.  It was finally agreed.  At the ceremony, however, no one was sure who should sign first.  Then eight year old crown princess Velissa emerged from seclusion, stepped forward and signed the book in tiny script, binding the royal line to the Law.

The palace was turned into a museum, a new parliament building was built, and the royals quietly relocated for rehabilitation.  Devil corruption is insidious, but the city was ready to move on.  The northern bank of the city became the newest and most wide spread, with further expansions to the far north west and south west.  Nobles parleyed their contacts with trade companies to maintain their influence.  Election was tied to signing the Law.  Any signatories could vote.  However, other debates bubbled up as well over time.  The monarchy was largely ceremonial, trotted out for gossip or anniversaries, given a stipend to live on.  Access to signing the law went through cycles of permission and restriction.  A question undead being signatories was unresolved, as most contract ended with death, so did an undead have to resign?  What about refugees?  What about prisoners of war?  When twelve year old Selenia Holyblade signed to become a paladin of Illuminex, the question of age came up.  After all, an eighteen year old human wasn't the same as an eighteen year old elf, dwarf, or goblin.  Did the law apply to immortal beings like fae?  Did the gods have to sign?

Today, Zelrah is often simply called 'The Capital,' as one of the largest and most influential cities on the continent.  While the Central district faces the most decay and corruption, it is also a heart of import, export, meat packing, and other trades.  In the south, the Royal district is a cultural center, with Littletown appendixed to it.  The university district is a hub of learning, with students coming from across the world to study, and going to work in the many trade companies.  Seaside is the newest expansion, stretching south along the coast to add new population.  Parliament lies to the southeast, with the royal palace empty and the old trade road crossing the mountains to farms and agricultural producers on the far side.  The heights hug the mountains, giving aristocrats security.  To the east, atop a shelf of stone, is the Temple district of Valur, Illuminex, and Lexica.  Where the King's river pours over the falls lies Infernico, the nine sided golden tower of exiled devils.  A series of locks allow barges to be lifted to the river above and transported upriver.  Northside is home to Irontown, the dwarven enclave, and middle class sprawl terminating at the elven enclave to the north.  Finally, to the north west, are the Styes, where the sewers discharge and poor people scrape out the best living they can.

Questions?