City Features
So what did Khadim have before the Night of Fire and what is left now?
Khadim is/was part of the Empire. Could I get a brief description of the Empire? Was it a kind of allied city-states (sort of like ancient Greece) or a true empire (Roman Empire).
Most of the questions I as going to ask are already answered in Captain Mal's journal. The city was ruled by the magi (currently missing) and the Guild Council (down to 3 members). There were libraries, an amphitheatre, and sewers. There is a Riverside district and an Artisan's quarter. What other districts are there? There is a graveyard. How big is it and does it continue underground?
We know the city has some guilds and nice churches. I'd like to expand on that a bit. What were the prominent religions in Khadim pre-NoF? There was the cathedral of the Argent Path. Does it still stand? What other faiths were represented in the city?
There is a city wall which is still mostly intact. Were the seven towers part of that wall or were they inside? Did the city have any fortifications besides the wall, such as a castle to fall back to if the wall was breached? Did the city expand past the wall?
Was slavery legal? How about gladiatorial combat? Healing magic makes it a lot less risky, so it is more of a social question (at least in my mind).
I'd like to propose that there is/was a 'Thief's Guild' in the city. A loosely organized group of the most powerful gang bosses who kept crime mostly under control. They set a few guidelines (think Pirate's Code) and resolve any disputes that get too far out of hand. They make sure crime remains profitable for them, yet doesn't bring the guard smashing down on them. They would have a few well protected sites, hard to get to and warded against magic. Secretive by nature, only really important gang members would know a lot about them. Red-Nosed Ned and maybe Silent Tom would know of them, but Jamie might only have suspicions about their existence. This is more of a background and potential plot hook than anything else. What might the Night of Fire done to the enchantments hiding their meeting places?
Comments
Thieve's guild, check. City extending outside the walls, check.
I'll work this thread into the Khadim city guide page... And if I can wrap my head around Campaign Cartographer I might even do a map assuming that time and Active Directory implementation allow.
Khadim's walls enclose about 70% of the city proper, the rest being shaty-town type constructions extending along the Southern and Eastern shores of the lake for the fisherfolk. Lots of "houses" were built up against the base of the walls all around the city, one or two of them extending through into the wall structure. Whilst the walls were originally built for defense, the necessity for this has waned over the years.
The more affluent areas of the city tended to be around the bases of the wizard's towers (now mostly gone) and on the Eastern shore of the lake, across the river. 3 bridges spanned the river, 1 remains, but the riverside district was pushed down into The Pit. The remaining bridge is a high, arched affair with a wide central span to allow for large cargo barges to pass up and down stream.
The ground the city is built on is pretty solid but if you dig down too far and you'll start to get flooding. Few buildings have cellars and the graveyard is very much a surface affair. The graveyard district used to cover a quarter of a square mile. It's one of the few districts of the city that is currently growing, out towards the North. Three major tombs stand in the graveyard that, rumour has it, connect down into the sewers.
The cathedral of the Argent Path survived the Night pretty much unscathed. Seven other main churches existed, dotted around the city (religions and specific deities TBA), their degree of survival is not so great. Some have used this as an indicator that the Argent Path somehow engineered the Night of Fire with the aim of removing the competition.
The Waterfront district is now a few hundred yards back from the actual water's edge and had about a dozen small piers and one marina for mooring the fishing vessels that plied the lake and the trading vessels that used the lake and the river to move goods around.
I'll expand on this later but anyone on the NextGen site is welcome to contribute to the City, both Before and After the Night of Fire.