Relias: Uprising (75 page)

     Olsgrad would be forgotten and wasn't rediscovered until the discovery of the Supernal Tablets by a group of Durant Archaeologists. Following their discovery, it was decided to be in the best interest of the site to keep the existence of this temple from being widely known as it was all too apparent that a discovery such as this might spark aggression, particularly on part of the Arctanican Empire. As such, the existence of Olsgrad was kept quiet with only family and close friends of the archaeologists being told of it.

     Durants would eventually return to Olsgrad, using it as the last stop before migration to Brysdal following the invention of Furo Radar and the merciless onslaught of the Durant Relocation Act. Being designed as a fortress, Olsgrad would stand up well even to the advanced weaponry of the First Legionnaire. After being forced to make a final stand, some of the last living Durants would die here along with the Darks that had tried to defend them. Olsgrad would become a tomb, a symbol of the eradication of the Durant race.

Valhalla

Valhalla was the first city to be built on Solara and was the landing point for Benedict Solago and his crew in 1307 M.E. It would serve the role of a shipping yard for several decades and was an epicenter of industry on the Solarian Continent.

     By 240 M.I, Valhalla became a premier tourist destination, establishing itself as the archetypal paradisiacal  vacationing spot while its popularity would reach its peak in 245 M.I. Its development would explode following government subsidies provided by the Commune in 252 M.I. This move is largely considered to have taken place as an attempt by the Commune to divert attention away from  the Durant Relocation Act and the Durant Revolution and perpetuate the idea of a utopian society.

New Eckis

In 1510 M.E, a small colony known as Fort Eckis was constructed as a halfway point between Pyre and Praemon. Its primary purpose was to provide supplies to travelers and traders while also playing the role of a  national guard. The culture of Fort Eckis was rugged, as its leadership would be extremely selective in the men who were allowed to work and, consequently, live there. These men were required to work in some of the most dangerous and extreme conditions. If traders or settlers required assistance then these men, referred to as 'Ecksins' would deploy immediately and be on the scene in a matter of days. Because of the unforgiving nature of the Bremmonni Badlands and the surrounding terrain, there was a 35% fatality rate among the Ecksins. Their role, though, and the dangers that their job entailed became a source of pride for the Ecksins. Many historians will argue that, were it not for the Ecksins, travel along the North Santarian Trade Route would have been plagued by natural dangers and lawlessness resulting in the collapse of the Pyrian civilization and the consequential non-existence of the modern world as it was known.

     Fort Eckis would eventually be torn down and rebuilt in an attempt to modernize. With its humble beginnings as a small, one street town, this New Eckis would expand into the second largest city in the Pretoratan, second only behind Pyre in its population.  Like all other cities in the Pretoratan, the necessity of a protective outer wall was undeniable, and much like Leramato, several districts exist beyond the borders of walls built before the city's expansion.

     The culture of New Eckis is that of self-sufficiency and efficiency. With the characteristics and actions of the Ecksins resonating through its development, New Eckis and its population are resilient and hard-headed and it stands as a city that demonstrates a blatant disapproval of the Commune and the First Legionnaire. While they are blatantly anti-government, their existence works to the benefit of the Commune who uses New Eckis as a foil while its geographical adjacency to Pyre create a stark and effective contrast between the old world and the new.

Leramato

Starting out as a small encampment in 1520 M.E and based along the North Santarian Trade Route, Leramato was a haven for thieves and smugglers who were refused access to Fort Eckis. It became a getaway of sorts with an economy based around dishonest and theft that, surprisingly, was very successful. Over the years Leramato would expand into a small town that was generally avoided by traders and settlers who would often fall victim to the men who used Leramato as a base of operations.

     Kept in check for the most part by the Ecksins, Leramato acquired the resources it needed to expand and gained popularity amongst even some settlers on their way to Pyre and later Kyrsec. Around the end of the Modern Medieval Epoch and the advent of the Modern Industrial Epoch, Leramato would become a parody of itself, gladly relishing in its less than reputable history. It would evolve into a gambling destination as advancements in personal travel and infrastructure made tourism possible.

     At the foundation of the Union, Leramato was known for its carefree, liberally viewed culture. It became a destination synonymous with fame and celebrity with its glitzy lights, contemporarily styled architecture and booming nightlife.

Styne

Following the establishment of a thriving national community based in the Pretoratan Region, Styne, then a very small, tightly confined community, became home to werewolves, vampires, and humans shunned and cast out by the establishment for their demonic beliefs. First built in 1705 M.E, Styne became what was considered to be a blight on the region. As time passed and its dark beliefs became more of an afterthought, Styne became  home to commercial industry, doing business with both cities based along the North Santarian Trade Route and limited trade with the Argintic Front.

     Styne, due to its adjacency with Pyre, would eventually become the capitol city of the Dakuya crime syndicate, having already been established in Elvytica, Arctanica, and southern Solara. During the Relias Wars, Vladmir Frenz would travel to Styne where he would gain support for the Dakuya and recruit members. His efforts were met with great enthusiasm not only due to Frenz's irrefutable appeal but the fact that he was generally viewed by devil worshippers to be a human incarnation of the devil himself. As such, the Dakuya members of Styne became his most loyal and effective supporters. The Dakuya would later take advantage of its adjacency with several important trade routes to perpetuate its weapons, drug, and human trafficking.

     Styne eventually became the third largest city in the Pretoratan, behind New Eckis and Pyre. Following the establishment of the Union, Styne became home to the International Army and the First Legionnaire. As such, Styne's industry and economy is more oriented towards the military as it is towards commercial trade. Better serving its purpose as a trailblazer in military development, Styne is home to the largest shipyard in the world. It would eventually come to be known as the sister city of Pyre.

     As the years went by, Styne's demonically oriented roots became an afterthought as it would eventually become a populous and diverse society. Its importance as the epicenter of military development would not be completely realized until the Durant Revolution where it, along with Kyrsec, would be used as launching points for attacks on Durant bases in Marsecta, most notably Olsgrad, thus crippling the Darks resistance and effectively ending the Durant Revolution.

Antegra

As of 265 M.I, Antegra is a city with a small population. One fourth of the city is inhabitable while the remaining three fourths of the city remains under construction. Built upon one of the largest Furian Plasma shelves in the world, Antegra  lies at the bottom of the Carpathic ocean approximately nine hundred miles off of the coast of Brún. According to plan, upon the completion of New Atlantis, the Transnational Highway 75 will extend out from Valhalla and pass through Antegra, thus annexing the freeway to Brún and making TH-75 extend three fourths of the way around Havok, stretching from Kyrsec and ending in Diamide.

Brún

Established in 492 by a fledging group of humans, Brún grew into a large, coastal city that eventually became one of the most hotly contested settlements along Arctanica's eastern seaboard. Primarily a human civilization, they began seeing a light influx of Vampires and Werewolves  at the end of the 8th Century seeking a home more plentiful and less hostile than northern Elvytica where they had come from. With them, of course, came the war that had been sparked by the racial conflicts provoked by Syn Vyna.  (Vyna herself would not relocate to Brún until 1st Century M.I.)

     Another one of the primary reasons for the vampire and Vampire immigration to Brún was the stranglehold on society held by the Arctanican Empire. Any city, town or humble civilization that resided within the boundaries of the Arctanican Conquest would suffer greatly at the tyrannical hands of the Arctanicans. As such, any non-Arctanican with the means and the chance to flee the massive country did so. With Brún being established prior to their migration, it seemed like a logical destination.

     Following the departure of Benedict Solago in 1304 M.E, the human population began to dwindle as they began their migration to the newly discovered continent of Solara. At this point, the culture of Brún became polarized between the dark, passive aggressive sensibilities of the Vampires and the harder, harsher preferences of the Werewolves.

     With the War of the Covenant largely shaping Brún's social and political structures, Brún would be a city with a split personality, torn between the cultures of both the Werewolves and the Vampires. Under the rule of the Vyna Coven and the Granlow Organization, Brún became corrupt in its socioeconomic structuring, the consequent warped views giving birth to a thriving casino industry that surpassed even that of Leramato. Following the deaths of Syn Vyna and Carnway Granlow, the violent turbulence that had plagued Brún for nearly a thousand years reached its end as a result of the truce agreed upon by Vyvyr Syvyr and Pontious Granlow.

     After the foundation of the Union, Brún became its political capitol and the designated capitol of Havok.

Andor

The existence of Andor, referred to in the Rune as the Holy City of Andor, remains in fierce dispute between historians and archaeologists alike. Said to be the capital of the Autocthonid empire, no evidence of its existence other than two separate Rune passages has ever been found. More recently, before the fall the Republican Union of Relias, archaeologists unearthed stone tablets in the northern Pretoratan written in old Deche. In them, a 'warm, crystalline' city is described. And though briefly, the tablets reference this unnamed city as being the gateway to Heaven, an assertion congruent with those made in the Rune. Due to its lack of evidence, Andor is considered most likely a fictional city invented by first and second century Durant philosophers as a verbal pictorial of man's passage to the beyond.

Chydea

Built in the treetops of the Popus Trees growing from the three-hundred foot depths of the Tarmis Straight, Chydea has a natural aesthetic appealing to environmentalists and naturalists alike. Being a large town, Chydea has very few man-made structures. Rather, the majority of its structures are carved into the massive trees themselves. After a new structure is carved, the tree is put through the process of Metallic Fossilization, at which point it is furnished and put into immediate use. Because of this relatively quick and easy process, homes and buildings can be elaborately carved and decorated, with many of the buildings in Chydea standing as habitable works of art.

     Its infrastructure is complex and exists on three primary levels. (Building codes specify that entrances to buildings be built at certain levels as to be compatible with this universal roadway.) The road then winds through the trees which also serve as its suspension.

     The culture of Chydea is based solely around environmentalism. It is the epitome of self-sufficiency as all the food required by its citizenry can be taken from the forest that surrounds them or the animal life that swims beneath them. It maintains a blissful separation from the society while rejecting absolutely anything that goes against nature.

Pravlok

Located in a dark, secluded valley deep within the Sestik Mountains, Pravlok is a town largely ignored by the Commune. As they see it, the price of keeping such a town under their control would prove more expensive than its ultimately worth. As such, Pravlok is one of the few towns on Havok that remains free of the Commune's influence.

     Established towards 18th Century M.E, Pravlok was established as an attempt to open up a new trade route and, subsequently, a new market. However, the incredible danger inherent with the navigation of the Sestik Valleys proved to be the endeavor's ultimate demise. The four families who attempted to establish the new market, instead of returning to Praemon where they had originated, remained in the Sestiks and started a new town. Over the course of three hundred years, Pravlok expanded into a moderately sized though tightly knit community. Living off the earth, the citizens of Pravlok became well suited to their surroundings. As a result, the culture became one based around modernized hunting and gathering, the hunters becoming lethal with carnivorous Quos and Sestik Razorbacks being their prey while gatherers were forced to be adept in their agility and stealth.