The stubbornly rural and decentralized nature of Kragland prior to the Dragon War meant that there were no proper cities. Tying the vast bulk of people to the land stopped migration to any real population center. Any noble who wrested the crown from his competitors was loath to leave his power base, and so the kingdom never really had a proper capital. This changed when Chance founded the capital city of Dragonstail, where the seats of the Electors would be located, and which must be the home of, and under nominal control of, the High Prince.
Officially, the city was named for its location in the Dragonstail mountains. Those who knew Chance, however, said that he meant it as an intentional taunt to the great wyrms: that he had "tweaked the dragons by their tails." Creating this lordcity from scratch allowed an opportunity to plan and to organize it like nothing the world had ever seen before, and the results are unique.
Dragonstail sits at the base of a tall, sheer cliff. The natural rock face has been carefully cut and polished to be absolutely vertical and as smooth as glass. At its base is the High Prince's Palace. Chance worked with the most brilliant builders from around the world to design it. The palace is shaped like a series of drums topped with rounded domes, meant to be reminiscent of the simple huts occupied by so much of the population. The central dome is enormous; more than 140 feet across. Under it is the audience chamber, where the High Prince sits in state. This great dome is supported by steel ribs, but these cannot be seen. Above and below, it is covered with bronze sheets.
The great dome seen from above is shining gold. Legend says that it is solid gold, made from treasures stolen from the dragons. This legend has led to the dome, and the whole of the palace, being called the Dragon's Egg. In fact, the bronze sheets atop the dome have been covered in an impossibly thin layer of gold through some mysterious process. The bronze sheets beneath have been painted with a mural depicting the Dragon War, breathtaking in its scope and detail.
The great dome is surrounded by six lesser domes, each of which is in turn surrounded by six small domes. The entire structure is built of a plain red-brown stone, but nowhere is this visible. The lower portions are painted a pure white, and each dome is painted in a different pattern of bright colors. Many of the most wealthy merchant houses, and all of the Nominators, have painted a dome in their family's crest. The High Prince paints the six lesser domes as suits his fancy, and all have been spirally striped for many years now.
The palace itself is filled with many wonders, such as music that nobody plays, moving statues, and doors that open themselves. More extraordinary is that all of this is accomplished without magic, instead using forces such as heated air, water pressure, and counterweights.
In front of the palace is the Prince's Square, a large, open space. In the center is a fountain, shaped like several dragons in flight. These figures slowly twist and turn around the center, moved by the pressure of water flowing from a spring in the mountains above. The city extends out from the cliffside, neatly organized in a square grid. Ten grand avenues run the length of the city, each named for draconic metal. The palace is precisely in the center, between gold and iron avenues. Numbered streets cross the avenues at right angles, numbered sequentially starting from the palace gate. These enormous, rectangular blocks are where the grid system gives way to more typical streets and alleyways as needed.
Dragonstail is carefully divided into districts and zones, which are rigidly enforced. The government, residential, commercial, public, and industrial districts are separated, for the good of everyone. However, since the area allocated for the city all the way to 120th street is much larger than its current population requires, large areas remain empty and undeveloped. This has allowed slums and shantytowns to spring up in unoccupied areas.
The Government District runs from the palace all the way to 20th St., where the House of Electors is located. This building is circular and six stories tall, with each consecutive floor slightly smaller than the one below it. This unusual appearance is earned at the nickname The Rings. The interior is the opposite, with a small floor for speakers surrounded by level after level of ever-widening balconies.
Under the city, a warren of tunnels, drains, and sewers runs. These both drain the streets and allow maintenance crews to move easily about unseen. It also provides quick travel for the city's large and active thieves guild. The high prince tolerates and even protects the thieves, in return for acertain standard of behavior within the city walls. The King of Rats is the head of the thieves guild, and responsible to the high prince for its members conduct. The king of rats holds court in the Warrens; a particularly twisting collection of tunnels deep below the city the connective points with natural caverns in the rock.
As long as residents follow the city's plan, districts, and standards, they may build where and how they like. The city has buildings of all shapes and sizes, made for a wide variety of materials. Still, thanks to the grid system, the metropolis remains easy to navigate even for visitors.
On the corner of Bronze Avenue and 20th St. sits the Grand Temple of Cog. This bizarre structure takes the form of cubes and boxes of various sizes, stacked and piled, joined and intersecting. Each is faced in sheets of hammered bronze. A closer look shows that these sheets are engraved with scenes of artisans and engineers at work, and artists are constantly adding to the scenes.
The temple occupies one entire, enormous block, stacked high into the sky and extending deep underground as well. It contains the usual facilities for worship and for the housing of religious orders. In addition, it hosts countless classrooms, laboratories, workshops, forges, foundries, stock rooms, lecture halls, and other resources for the development of industry. Clerics of Cog are available for consultation to anyone, from the High Prince to a common blacksmith, in exchange for a nominal donation. They offer testing of potential apprentices, as well as a basic education and training in many trades.
At Gold Avenue and 50th St. are located the Rails. Where most capital cities have extensive docks for travel and commerce, Dragonstail is landlocked. To ameliorate this problem, two huge rails of steel and bronze, supported by stone foundations, were run to the port city of Westgate, miles away. Upon each rail sits a series of bronze carriages, linked to each other. Some are open to carry cargo, while others hold passengers. These linked carriages have large, hollow, brass wings on each side, which contain a trapped air elemental. By changing the orientation of the wings, as well as opening or closing a series of valves, the engineer can change the direction and speed of travel. The Rails run between the cities multiple times each day, with one set of carriages traveling in each direction. Merchants and passengers pay to use the service, with fees used to maintain the system. Any surplus goes to the treasury of the High Prince.
The current High Prince is Charles the Quiet. Charles gained the throne largely through being nobody's first choice, giving no Nominators quite what they wanted. He is actually distant relative of King Darius of Wallen, but shows no particular fondness for his cousin. Elected as a young man, Charles has begun to chafe more and more under the expectation that he would be a placeholder prince that would do very little and cause no trouble. He recently shocked everyone by granting a city charter to the former town of Favor Haven, in clear defiance of both Nominators and Electors.
The main offices of High Prince University are located on Silver Avenue and 5th Street, but there isn't much of a campus. Instead, students are rotated through a series of apprenticeships with various master mages in the city, where they labor in exchange for knowledge, room, and board. A strong focus is placed on the School of Artifice, for while Kraglanders have no problem with magic, it must support industry and progress. Conjuration and Transmutation are also popular. The school token is a spiral.
Type: Capital
Parent: Kragland