Seagate
Seagate is the ancestral home of the south elves, the bastion of trade and the outpost of Dawnfire's military, the Crusade. No city in the world that still stands today has seen as much pain and suffering as Seagate. However, no matter the turmoil, a single fact holds true: in its 1,000 years of existence—kings, lords, empires, pirates, devils, and dragons—the one thing that has never fallen is Seagate itself.
Seagate is a proud city with resolute people, and it stands ready to test its keeps and walls against anything the world can challenge it with.
Battlemaps set in this location
The Grand Torch
The Grand Torch, master of the Brazen Crusade and the sword-wielding hand of the goddess Joremy, embodies the expectations of power, confidence, and, above all, unshakeable resolve.
The Torch's decisions supersede both the Five Crowns and the Malignantist Court and can only be vetoed by the direct dictate of the goddess Joremy herself, meaning her mortal voice: the Exalt and the other half of the Torch, the Grand Light.
The standing Grand Torch, Bastion Forelorn, is the hammer by which the iron of the Crusade's purpose was struck. It is believed by many that he may personally be responsible for the untethering of over 100,000 tieflings from their demonic ancestors' control.
Crownwatch Keep
Crownwatch Keep is a famous and well-defended fortress located on the high cliff reaches of Seagate. It serves as the operating home of the Bailiff and, by extension, all of the Crusade. Constructed at the mouth of the only inland river for hundreds of miles and upon the wall of the gate for which the city takes its name, the Keep holds immense strategic value for the military of Dawnfire. Its protection is considered second only to that of the Crown, Torch, and Flame, Dawnfire's political, military, and religious leaders, respectively.
The Brazen Crusade
The Crusade of Dawnfire is a religiously motivated military consisting predominantly of clerics and paladins, fighting in small but effective teams. Their entire motivation is fairly simple: to liberate Crudilex of all demons whose intention is to manipulate the tieflings they have sired with their influence. Such evil creatures are hunted with impunity and consecrated in divine fire.
This is not the limit of what they do, of course. The Crusade defends Dawnfire, expands its territories, and maintains order in its city-states.
The Crusade has three major units it deploys across its various theaters of battle: the Magical Consecrationists, focused on evocation and conjuration magic to create holy fire and purify the unholy; the Nimble Lancers, whose ability to quickly move, scout, and secure information makes them an asset in all situations; and the most common and prolific of the units, the Bailiff. Full plate armor-wearing soldiers, each trained to the height of their possibility to perform ten times that of an average guard or footman of another nation. Bailiffs are considered the very best soldiers in Crudilex, with only the leaders among them, the Judges, being better.
A Judge in battle is a sight to behold—a perfect blend of tactician and front-line soldier. To lose a Judge in battle is an absolute tragedy; they are so specialized and trained that it’s like watching a masterwork burn to ash.
The Bailiff
Heroes of Dawnfire, the Bailiff are chosen from among guards and footmen by their highest-ranking members. They are sent to the city of Seagate and trained for five years, every single day. This hard, back-breaking training is designed to bring them to the absolute best they can possibly attain.
The expectations placed upon a Bailiff are extreme, but the price Dawnfire will pay to ensure their best performance is equally staggering. Each fully trained Bailiff is paired with two Consecrationists, often clerics, whose only job is to ensure their
Bailiff remains in the fight, sacrificing everything to make them as unstoppable as possible. Because of this, enemy soldiers will sometimes simply lay down their arms rather than face one bearing the wings and crown sigil of the Bailiff.
Sifwind Citadel
High above the sea, opposite the impressive Crownwatch Keep, stands Sifwind Citadel, a monument to the Sifwind family, founders of Seagate and uniters of the Five Crowns to stand against the disastrous waking of the Tarrasque in the Fifth God’s Birth over 1,000 years ago.
The Citadel first served as a place of worship to the god Obadiah, lord of the hunt and patron of the elves. However, during the fall of the elves, that history tarnished and faded along with them. Today, it has become the operational keep of the Brazen Lancers and Seagate's main position to communicate with its people in the Grand Highport Plaza outside its gate.
The Brazen Lancers
The Brazen Lancers are made up of individuals who do not fit the mold of Dawnfire elegance and taboo. Outsiders, outcasts, and criminals who still choose to serve the nation of Dawnfire, the Lancer's brotherhood is unlike any bond in the country, united by a single drive: to ensure that none suffer as they have suffered. Unlike their fellow Crusaders, the Bailiffs and the Consecrationists, the Lancers do not march in file against any and all overwhelming odds. No, as in all things, Lancers think around the problem, see it from different angles, and find unexpected, creative solutions. Earning a Lancer's trust will not be easy, but once it is won, you could ask for no better ally at your side.
Lancers are the most varied of all the Crusade units. They all share two qualities, however. The first is their ability to circumnavigate their surroundings. Be it parkour, flight, sneaking, climbing, or simply deception, the Lancer sees the world as a series of pathways and believes that the one who has the most power can navigate the highest number of them.
The second quality is reach. Lancers are the least supported faction and thus sparsely have a shield to share between an entire team. As such, they have learned to fight lightly, using little to no armor and spears, which keep enemies at bay and can double as a pole vault when needed.
Lancers in Dawnfire are seldom selected for praise or adulation of any kind, but many prefer it that way. The brotherhood of Lancers is all they need, and they will protect it with life and limb.
Highport
Docking in Seagate is easier said than done. Ignoring the many draconian restrictions on what can and cannot come to Dawnfire from the Lastsea, there is at least two days' worth of signing documentation and vessel inspections that must be performed. Because of this, Highport came to be. Sailors unwilling to deal with brazen bureaucrats have simply taken to docking along the cliffside near the city instead of in it.
Merchants there are always willing to buy goods, but usually, the crew will take a hefty pay cut. Additionally, the practice isn’t considered completely legal; as such, Highport has earned a reputation for skullduggery and piracy. Seeing as these merchants don’t much care where the goods came from, with the discount they’re getting, pirates from Keelhaul Falls will at times be willing to slip past the Crusade's ships to offload in Highport.
The port itself rightfully earned its name. It is built at sea level against a sheer 1,200-foot cliff face. The top of the cliff features a skydock and only two cargo winches, which crews can rent to get their goods into the city themselves, but the price is often impossibly high. Even with its unsavory reputation, Highport is actually quite a pleasant place. The people there are often more interested in selling and offloading goods than in a knife in the back, and pirates who risk a visit tend to do so with few options and prices on their heads.
Privateers of the Crusade
The Five Crowns of Dawnfire are not blind. While they have undeniable control over the southern portion of the Lastsea, everything north of the last brazen ship is pirate-controlled. The lands of Triton are untamable and lawless. To turn chaos into profit, the Crusade employs and even trains privateers—seafaring adventurers who seek out treasure, battle pirates, sink enemy nations' trade boats, and gather coin for crown and country.
The life of a privateer of Dawnfire is one of absolute freedom.
Fis-Raza Memorial Shrine
The Fis-raza memorial is a shrine upon which young brazen tieflings of seagate come and begin there untethering. A ritual by which a demon blooded child refutes there evil ancestor and journeys across dawnfire alone to reach Shangri-La. where the ninoten spirits of dawnfire help them learn to control the voice in there mind left behind by there blood.
The Gaja Tidepools
The yearly spawning of the gaja occurs along the westernmost coast of Dawnfire. It is during this time, and this time only, that hatchlings can be taken, and the process of raising a gaja can be attempted. This event has become heralded by a yearly festival in Seagate, which is among its most popular events, celebrating the city, its gaja, and, of course, Joremy.
Little Ravenfall
Like a city within a city, complete with its own wholly surrounding wall, Little Ravenfall is a dwarven neighborhood within Seagate. The dwarves here are very different from those in the place it takes its name from; while the residents of Ravenfall might be unwelcoming to outsiders, the people of Little Ravenfall are very hospitable. The craftsmanship here may not be on par with a ten-generation master of Eastface Castle, but it is more experimental, creative, and incorporates ideas from all over the world that pass through the coastal city of Seagate.
The craftsmen in Little Ravenfall are always pushing the envelope, trying new things, and, more often than not, failing in their experiments in spectacular fashion. However, there is a saying in the neighborhood: “Each momentary failure is a step toward a lifetime of success.”
The Conclave Guildhall
The Conclave is a guild of treasure seekers who do not desire monetary value or artifacts of gold and platinum, but instead seek what they consider the most valuable thing: historical merit.
The Conclave works to collaborate the legends of Crudilex's history and sort fact from fantasy, to better understand the past and build upon that for a more peaceful future.
The guild's main goals are to locate historical artifacts, but it also actively participates in the prevention of their destruction through piracy, dungeon ruination, and regional gentrification. This is why the guild has located itself here in Seagate, near to the hotspot where all three of those issues are most prevalent: Triton, the Lastsea.
The enemies of the guild face harsh justice for their erasure of Crudilex's history, and the Conclave is more than willing to deliver such justice if no alternative can be reached. Their protection of truth is absolute.
The Beastmaster's Market
The Beastmaster's Market is a series of six nested ringed roads right up against the busiest area of Seagate, the Inner Bay. Its rings and links from above resemble chains, and the buying and trading of creatures here is how the market earned its evocative name.
Run by Miss Mora, the master beast-wrangler, the market is the best place in the world to sell off creatures both rare and mundane or to acquire something to fight alongside you in battle. Every day brings something new, so the Beastmaster's Market is never short on marvels to discover.
Around the City
Banderbunkin's Laboratory
Set almost in the middle of an otherwise empty plaza is a large, strange building, featuring a waterwheel, a giant lamppost, and ten different lifting wenches. Banderbunkin is a golemancer, a mage who specializes in the creation of nearly sentient creatures made from magically infused elements. A bit eccentric even for a gnome, his ability is undeniable, and his services are sought the world over.
Miss Mora's Stables, Mounts, and Domestics
Miss Mora is Dawnfire's leading beastmaster and a regional social figure in Seagate who wields vast political power. One wouldn't suspect it upon meeting her; she’s an ill-mannered, short-tempered halfling amputee. However, her stables occupy a massive swath of the southern portion of the city and have been in her family for 80 generations. She has a complete monopoly on travel, mounts, gaja hatchlings, and paluna within 500 miles.
The Towers of Bormel University
Three large towers connected by bridges, built in a brazen recreation of the Jilder style, Bormel University is one of only two schools in all of Crudilex that specializes in non-magical studies such as math, geography, and history. It offers simple magical programs, but the scholars there are more interested in understanding magic and the secrets of the universe than performing them.
The Urner Estate
Home to the Baker family before the founding of Aberdeen in the Fifth Godsbirth, the new manor was built upon the ruins of the humble childhood home of his mother by the brazen Grand Light, Exalt of Joremy, Chase Urner. It now houses the extended Urner family and the Exalt himself when his duties require him to visit Seagate. The home is at the back of a large walled garden and is adorned with a tall tower in which six portals are said to reside.
Sebella Park
Sebella Park is a small park of ever-autumn trees created by Ferdinand Sifwind for Sebella, the Exalt of Joremy, shortly after she was dis-exalted by the current Exalt, Chase Urner. The park is quiet and seldom visited, as it is quite far from anything important in the city.
Aldermeen Tenements
Built by an ex-bailiff turned privateer, Aldermeen, the tenements serve as tall apartment-like buildings where Seagate's homeless and crusader veterans can live for free in exchange for lending any aid they can provide to the tenement's upkeep. Aldermeen himself was once on track to become a judge before his battalion was destroyed by the Thinny, a sea monster, due to bad information provided by his unscrupulous conscriptionists, Gella and Makan, whom he hates with unwavering fury.
The Pire
The graveyard of Seagate, where bodies and prayers are burned in ritual funerals so that they might be sent to Joremy's afterlife. The ashes are divided, partially given to the family and partially placed in a ritual urn stored in the church, where they can be prayed over by brazen priests.
Lok'Breath Ruins
Black hills and mountains of cooled lava spilled by the most powerful dragon to exist, Lok'Razareem, when he unleashed his fury on the Exalt Chase Urner for his part in the disaster following the Day of Dawn. The dragon's wings darkened the sky, and from its mouth, an endless deluge of hot lava spilled, burying the elven Midwinter Palace and with it the then queen of Dawnfire. The devastation was among the greatest in all of Crudilex's history, and many Seagaters live in fear of the second awakening of the primordial dragon of holocaust.
Hev Clan Tent City
The kobolds of Hev Clan once lived secretly below the city; however, the day the great primordial dragon Lok'Razareem rained lava over the elven palace, they emerged to worship him. They have since refused to return to their lairs and instead have taken the ruins of the old palace, buried under a small mountain of dried magma, as their new home. They have begun tunneling it out, and their activities were deemed by the Malignantists as unharmful. They now occupy the ruins completely and keep everyone out, which is just fine with the city, as the area was deemed too dangerous to enter anyway. They have lived there without incident since.
Midwinter Plaza Fea Museum
The Museum of the Fea was constructed halfway up the mountain to Crownwatch Keep on the orders of the Bride of Light to remember the tragedy and history that has befallen the elven people of Crudilex, to find and document all they can from the ruined Midwinter Palace, and to preserve all elven culture they can. The museum is run by the Conclave Guild and trades with the kobold Hev Clan, who now lives in the palace ruins, exchanging elven artifacts they excavate for food and limited, chaperoned passage around the city.
Feahollow Crypt
On the Day of Dawn, the elven people lost their arcane tie to the Feywild that kept them eternally youthful. All at once, countless of their kin aged and died in moments; less than 20% survived. The city of Seagate fell instantly, its population at the time almost completely elven. The survivors placed the remains left behind here, Feahollow Crypt, a vast network of tunnels and tombs that now inters over one million bodies.
Brazenreach: The Great Southern Skydock
With the advent of airships, the elves of old established a safe landing place in their city long ago. Once used only for Greatfinches, it quickly grew, as in the early years of air travel, locations that could provide safe landings were scarce. As such, Brazenreach is one of the oldest and most established airship docks in the world.
Seagate Parliament
Home to the Malignantist Court when their services are needed in Seagate, the Parliament buildings otherwise handle the day-to-day bureaucracy of running one of the world’s most powerful trade centers. Staffed by fastidious fallen elves, Conclave scholars, and especially bureaucratically minded pith, the Parliament has a reputation for truly drowning one who requires their services in red tape.
The Well
Black, deep, and presumed endless, this hole in the world is miles across and unknowable abyssal. Constructed by an enigmatic stranger for Marcio Sifwind to imprison the terrask safely, its mysterious depths are largely ignored by the people of Seagate as anything but a grim reminder of the founding of Dawnfire.
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