Legacy: The City Within The Walls

http://legacy-nwn.com

About The Realm!

The back drop for the adventure you're about to pursue takes place in the gritty, forgotten medieval city of Blacksteel. Once a mining settlement to the great Empire of Bravarious, it now lays cut off from it's mother land. Desolate, dark and alone, the city which became the jewel in the crown of traded produce now a damp, dark shell of it's former glory. Isolated from the outer realms that surround, as the Elves call it, the Isle of Caradüil, Blacksteel stands alone now. A crumbling beacon in the dead of night, a lone decaying monument amongst the mist and battering blackness of the cold harsh waves which pound at the cliffs.

The former nobles of affluent families cling to what little power and wealth they have left in such a stagnant breeding ground for crime and hatred. The acquisition of wealth which was once rife from trading their most precious produce, the blacksteel ore of the caverns, now struggling in more recent generations through the closed economy.

To the left of the city rests the Old Town. The original structures that first sprang from the ground, built on the grit, spit and death of generations of labours. This area was what evolved the Blacksteel mining encampment into a village, and then a town.  The former glory of tinkling bells and local shops had throughout the generations come to shrivel away, falling into the state of disrepair which it now sits. The offspring of miners, lumberjacks and other manual labourers finding their self with little work to do, and what they could find brought them a very modest income. It's through this that many of the common folk in this district much prefer crime as an easy way to pick up a few silver lions. If only the founding fathers of this settlement could see it now.

The docks district, if you could call it such, rests to the south western part of the city. This steady addition arose when it became apparent that transporting goods such as food, fish and other cargo across the mere was far safer than by horse or cart which frequently ran into various bandit groups. Brassmere became a staple source of fish, but also gifted Blacksteelians a far swifter mode of travel to the far corners of the isle to rendezvous with hunters and bring back the hides and slabs of meat they'd took from the numerous boars and deer that roam the vegetation.

Within the northern central point of the city rests the polished gem of Blacksteel, the Gilded Drake District which was home to some of the finest merchants in all the land. The many local businesses here offer premium services, although they come at a hefty price as one might imagine. The most notable feature of this district is the immense sculpted fountain presided over by an imposing dragon that greets those returning through the western gate.

To the southern central part of the city sits the Royal Quarter, which houses the great halls of justice, a famed bath house and also a place of ill repute. After all, what else would the politically minded spend their ill gotten gains on if not women and mind altering substances. The Royal Quarter was named such as many of the influential families whom sought power within the region owned homes there as well as the much sought after area of Kingsrow, after every grand tournament which brought them victory, they would shift their noble families easily into Castle Blacksteel with relative ease until their term was ended through the symphony of arena dust, blood, guts and glory.

The Royal Quarter is the tail of the serpent, the great beast that would be it's head is none other than the Great Castle of Blacksteel. Created as little as two hundred years earlier, when Lord's Helm, the original Fort that sits upon Ethane's Descent became redundant. Castle Blacksteel is far more glorious in it's construction, built with the backing of many a gold coin and commoner death. It is a landmark for obvious reasons, although it was also something of a monument to the success of Blacksteel and it's mining industry. A final gesture of farewell from the old Lord's Helm and mining camp come shanty village which rested beneath it's watchful gaze.

To the far east of the city rests something that has many a local talking, it is the latest edition in construction as the remaining Lords of Blacksteel shed their dwindling golden crowns and flitter them down on the Blacksteelian labourers only to rake them back in taxes and other means. Kingsrow, an area of oppulence with homes that could pass for the off spring of Castle Blacksteel.

As for the countryside, well, that's a whole other story!

Come and join us if you're partial to gritty, medieval, low magic (although present) roleplay with consequence galore. Run the Rookery streets as an Elven gang, or rise from a commoner up through the social heirarchy and have your family compete in the Grand Tournament to be crowned High Lord, or Lady, of Blacksteel City.