Aurastis, The Golden Crown of Regnum Aurelia

Aurastis is the capital of Regnum Aurelia, and the largest city on the northern coasts of Aetria. It is built upon the bones of a forgotten civilization, its skyline a mix of marble domes, towering temples and ancient ruins repurposed into palaces and plazas. At its heart stands the Domus Divina, the Emperor’s Temple-Palace. Canals run alongside marble avenues, while beneath the surface sprawls the Undercity, a labyrinth of crumbling empires past. Adding to the golden beauty of the Golden Crown, the city itself is surrounded by a slight fog that shimmers opalescent.

Emperor Arenesius rules from the Domus Divina in the Palatium, and is regarded both as sovereign and high priest. The Emperor holds absolute power, though he rules alongside the Senate of Aurastis, a body of nobles, merchants and scholars. His protection is entrusted to the Praetorian Guard, led by Cassian Varro. The Emperor currently has no heir - his one daughter was exiled for stealing and tampering with artifacts, and his son and wife were killed by demons when rifts appeared all over the world at the end of the Dusk War.

Districts

The Palatium

• The heart of the city, housing Emperor Arenesius’ Temple-palace. It is the political centerpiece, where the Emperor holds his audiences. Shrines and relics of the old empires are woven into its design.

Locations Within

• Domus Divina
  • The massive Temple-palace which overlooks Aurastis. It is where Emperor Arenesius holds his audiences, where he and his family live, where the Emperor’s Praetorians are stationed, and where the Sanctum Aurelium is found
• The Sanctum Aurelium
  • The Domus Divina’s private shrine complex, only accessible to the Emperor and his family, as well as a few chosen nobles, containing relics and statues brought from ruins across Regnum Aurelia
• The Hanging Gardens
  • Terraced gardens fed by aqueducts from the Ophirion mountains, filled with exotic plants and fountains, with alcoves containing ancient statues.

The Curia

• The Curia sits directly outside the Palatium, forming a ring around it. While the Emperor rules from the Palatium, the Curia is where Aurastis’ real politics play. The senate and most noble families of the city are found in this ring.
• Various Councils are found here, such as the Council of Archaeology and Magitech Research, and the Council of Spellplague Research
• The guild also has their headquarters within the Curia.

Locations Within

• The Curia Vetustorum
  • The Senate house, and the political core of Aurastis, a massive domed hall with tiered marble seating where nobles and prominent families argue, bargain and pass decrees.
• The Guildhall
  • The Headquarters of the Adventuring Guild in Aurastis. It is a fortress-like structure, built of white stone and steel, making it distinct from the otherwise commonly found curving marble of the Curia.
• The Hall of Councils
  • The Hall of Councils is an annex to the Curia Vetustorum. From the outside, it looks less imposing than the Senate’s domed hall, as a series of long columned wings rather than one central dome. Inside, it houses the specialized councils that advise the Senate, such as the Council of Archaeology and Magitech Research, the Council of Grain and Waterways, the Council of Roads and Walls, the Council of Festivals and Civic Life, and the more recently founded Council of Spellplague Research

The Scriptorium

• The Scriptorium is where you will find most of the city’s academies, archives, libraries, lecture halls and research center. Both the Aerarium, the empire’s central artifact repository and research center, and the Secta Scienta, the local college of arcane and general studies, are found here.

Locations Within

• The Aerarium
  • The Aerarium is a company of researchers and censors, working closely with the Adventuring Guild. It is split into three separate divisions, each with its own purpose.
    • The first is the archeology department, the archeologists are the ones who are delving into the ruins of the past and discovering artifacts. The adventuring guild sends the archeologist out with a group each time they go on an expedition.
    • The second group is the research department, which includes the researchers and the censors; they are the ones who investigate and document the artifacts brought back by the archeologists. The censors are the ones who report to the government any information, and/or any artifacts that they believe are of interest to them.
    • The third department is the archive itself, which is the storage place of all of the other artifacts from the past. It is run by archivists and librarians, this is the group with the least amount of oversight and recognition.
  • The Secta Scienta
    • The foremost center of learning in Aurastis, where mages, historians, and philosophers study.
  • The Bibliotheca Aurastia
    • The public library of Aurastis. Any individual is welcome to borrow from the library, though access to the most esoteric and delicate materials requires the approval of a headmaster. Notes of various expeditions and excavations are also kept here.

The Fornax

• The Industrial quarter of the city, its skyline dominated by furnaces, smokestacks and scaffolding. This is where most items are forged - weapons for the army, bricks for new districts, glass and pottery for trade, as well as experimental magitech devices.

Locations Within

• The Great Forgeworks
  • This is the main complex where arms, armor and tools for the Legio Aurelia are forged. It is a colossal foundry filled with air thick with smoke and the sound of hammering anvils.
• The Kiln Rows
  • As the name suggests, this is a narrow street filled with rows and rows of kilns producing pottery, tiles, bricks and other oddities.
• The Crucible of Sparks
  • The Crucible of Sparks is a sprawling workshop complex, run by artificers, engineers and scholars from the Council of Archaeology and Magitech Research. It is here that the researchers attempt their various experiments with magitech.

The Insula Magna

• One of two main residential districts inside Aurastis, and the most populous of the two. It is home to most of the city’s population - artisans, dockworkers, soldiers, street vendors, and most of the city’s poor. It is a place of constant life and energy, and where you will find most taverns and other places of commerce, such as bathhouses.

Locations Within

• The Golden Flagon
  • The most famous tavern in Aurastis, as well as one of the largest. Three floors of polished wood, painted murals and a massive hearth always burning. Here, you’ll find a mixed crowd of both the residents of the Insula Magna and the young nobles looking for a fun time.
• The Lantern Plaza
  • The central civic plaza of the Insula Magna. It is always crowded, with street performers and food vendors competing for space. While famous for its festivals, it is also infamous for the bronze pillar in the middle, where notices, and sometimes criminals and other types of grim messages are displayed.
• The Vinewalk
  • A rowdy street, lined with taverns and wine-shops, famous for its cheap prices. Grape vines are strung across balconies and barrels are stacked in the road. The Vinewalk has never closed.
• The Bronze Menagerie
  • Both an animal market where exotic beasts are bought, sold and displayed, as well as having a central pit where gladiatorial battles, be the beast against beast, beast against man or man against man, are fought.

The Mercatus

• The Mercatus is where Aurastis’ grand marketplace has its home, while also being the city’s logistical hub, filled with warehouses, auction squares, counting houses and caravanserai. It is loud, bustling and colorful, with traders from all over coming in to sell their wares. Most merchants gather in the Great Bazaar located within the Mercatus. Within the Mercatus, all arcane magic is forbidden by law.

Locations Within

• The Silk Canopy
  • This grand market hall is the centerpiece to the Great Bazaar within Aurastis. It is a covered marketplace, with colored silken cloth sprawled overhead, filling the hall with filtered rainbow light.
• The Domus Mercatorum
  • This here acts as both the headquarters for the merchant’s council, which regulates trade and such, while also holding the city’s Hall of Coin, the central banking house of Aurastis.
• The Caravanserai
  • A sprawling courtyard surrounded by warehouses, inns and stables, where merchants and caravans unload their goods.
• The Golden Granaries
  • These are the long, fortress-like storehouses of thick stone, capped with golden roofs. These hold the grain, flour and dried produce gathered from the Hortica. They ensure that the city never starves.

The Hortica

• The Hortica is home both to fertile farmlands built inside the city itself, threaded through with canals and irrigation works, as well as the great dockyard where the River Erythas runs through Aurastis. The Hortica is the nexus of Aurastis’ trade, as the Erythas runs north through the Ophirion Mountains, in a tunnel carved through the Underdark to the seas to the north, as well as south through the lowlands to the south sea.
• In place of roads, canals connect most of the subdivisions of the district, and most folk traverse the canals in skiffs and canoes.

Locations Within

• The Dockyards of Erythas
  • The main commercial docks of Aurastis, where river trade is loaded and unloaded.
• The Erythas Gardens
  • These are vast stretches of irrigated farmlands and orchards within the city wall. These provide the main sources of food for the people within the city.
• The Ophirion Gates
  • Large gates and watchtowers sit on either side of the entrance into the Ophirion Mountains. Guards watch every boat entering or leaving the tunnel. The gates never close, but during emergencies, it is possible.

The Castra

• The military heart of Aurastis. While technically not a real district and only part of the Hortica, many view it as its own district. It is a compound of barracks, drill yards and armories wedged in between the Hortica and Insula Magna. It also has training grounds for recruits and officer academies. It houses the Legio Aurelia, the standing force of the capital.

Locations Within

• The Grand Parade Ground
  • A massive open square of packed earth. Drills, parades and festivals of martial might are held here, and statues of past generals line the edges.
• The Collegium Bellatorum
  • This is the primary officer academy of Aurastis, where future generals and leaders of the Legio Aurelia are forged. Its marble architecture stands out in the middle of the stone barracks of the Castra. Also here, young nobles and select commoners study strategy, rhetoric, history and leadership, preparing them for command.
• The Domus Praetoria
  • The Domus Praetoria is a fortified compound within the Castra, dedicated entirely to the Praetorian Guard, the hand-picked elite guards of the Emperor. The Domus feels almost more monastery than military - recruits here are trained in loyalty, psychological conditioning and martial perfection.

The Agora

• The Agora is the second of the two residential districts. It is home to most of the city’s performance, philosophy, artisans markets and civic gatherings. On top of that, it is also home to the city’s sites for clay strip mining.

Locations Within

• The Amphitheatrum Aurelium
  • The Amphitheatrum Aurelium is the largest public performance space in Regnum Aurelia, a colossal open-air theater, carved from white and gold-veined marble and decorated with various relics from the age past.
• The Forum of Hands
  • A raised bronze platform shaped like the open palm of several hands. It is the main speaker’s platform where citizens and senators may address the crowd, surrounded by steps where thousands can gather
• The Prism Square
  • The Prism Square is a large square within the Agora, named for the eight towering glass prisms, casting the square in a large array of colors. The square is a central gathering place for residents, often used for festivals and holy celebrations. It is also where crowds of writers come to read their latest works out loud, and at times engage in friendly duels of poeticism.
• Sa’irah Mines
  • The angular ridges of the Sa’irah Mines loom over the Agora, and the sounds of hammering and drilling fill the nearby streets constantly during the workday. The clay harvested here is mostly used for construction and repairs, while parts of it is used by artisans for their art.

The Sacrarium

• The Sacrarium is the smallest of the city’s districts. It is built around ancient ruins repurposed as shrines and temples. It also houses places of worship for the standard pantheon of gods, although worship of these is a minority within Regnum Aurelia

Locations Within

• The Palasacrum
  • The Palasacrum is the largest temple within Aurastis. It is a sprawling structure, built up and around ruins from the past. Its walls are inlaid with fragments of ancient machinery, encompassing the colossal statues within with a golden light.
• The Broken Idol
  • An enormous statue stands at the top of the ridge the Sacrarium is built on. The torso and arms remain, gleaming with a golden armor and greatsword, but the head lies in fragments at its feet.
• The Basilica of the Pantheon
  • A domed temple housing shrines to the wider pantheon of gods. Its clergy are mostly foreigners or converts, serving a small but passionate community.

The Undercity of Aurastis

• Beneath Aurastis lies a vast layered labyrinth known simply as the Undercity - a warren of collapsed streets, crypts, cisterns, and ruins from the civilizations that rose and fell long before the current Regnum Aurelia. Some passages are no more than collapsed sewers, others open into cathedral-sized vaults filled with silent statues or half-buried machines of a forgotten age.

For the citizens of Aurastis, the Undercity is a place of fear and fascination. Smugglers, fugitives, and cultists use its passages, while the most daring scholars and thieves seek treasures within. The Custodians have declared travel into all but the most accessible parts forbidden.

Factions

The Legio Aurelia

• The main professional army of Regnum Aurelia, mainly stationed in the Castra. Dressed in Regnum Aurelia’s red colors with golden accent, while commanders and higher up dress in full gold.

The Praetorians

• The Praetorians are the elite guard of the Emperor. They are few in number, but each of them is trained to near-perfection. Their uniform swaps out the red color of the army for a solid black with gold accents, and when these are seen roaming the streets, it is some of the only times the streets of Aurastis will quieten.
  • Leading the Praetorians is Cassian Varro, a human in his mid-50’s. He was sent into the Legio Aurelia to earn honor, and swiftly rose through the ranks, until he got accepted into the Domus Praetoria. When the previous leader was exiled for failure to protect the Emperor’s wife from a demon attack, Cassian took the vacant position, and has held it since.

The Golden Hands

• The Golden hands are the city’s primary guard force, responsible for maintaining peace within Aurastis. Members dedicate their life to the city and the Golden Code, the backbone of Aurastis’ legal system. Barracks within the Castra provide the members of the Hands with comfortable homes.
  • The minotaur Sem Ironhand commands the Golden Hands and oversees all military operations within Aurastis.

Scarbearers

• The Scarbearers are the most famous mercenary company within Aurastis, named for the scars their founders showed the Emperor as a proof of their service. They often take high-profile jobs from the guild, and while they try to promote themselves as a guild respecting honor and guidelines, they often come across as brash thuggish fighters out for a paycheck. The Scarbearers also oversee all fights in the arena within the Bronze Menagerie.
  • Once a mercenary within the Scarbearers, the goliath Jopho has now taken to running them.

The Councils of Aurastis

• The Councils are semi-autonomous advisory bodies that draft legislation, manage city functions, and oversee specialized fields of knowledge. They officially serve the Senate, but many wield their own networks of patronage, scholars, soldiers and spies.

The Senate of Aurastis

• While the Emperor holds absolute authority, the Senate wields enormous influence. Nobles, merchant-princes and notable scholars all hold seats. It is less a unified body and more a nest of rival factions competing for influence. Five noble families hold the most power within the Senate, these being
  • House Aschenwald, consisting of scholars, researchers and arcane historians. The Aschenwalds are the newest addition to the notable houses of the senate, having only settled in Aurastis within the past 50 years.
    • Notable members are Michaelis and Aleksander Aschenwald, as well as their prodigy son Emory. Michaelis and Aleksander
  • House Serin, consisting of priests, zealots, and guardians of holy ruins. The Serins are one of the oldest noble families in Aurelia, deeply entwined with the Custodians.
    • Notable members are Senator Octavia Serin and High Custodian Marcus Serin, the leader of the High Custodians in Aurastis.
  • House Varossian, consisting of old nobility and military commanders. Once conquerors of the fertile lands around Aurastis, they have long prided themselves on their heritage as generals and statesmen. Though increasingly seen as stagnant, their influence in the Senate remains formidable.
    • Notable members are Senator Helena Varossian, and General Caius Varossian, a commander of the Legio Aurelia.
  • House Marcellan, consisting of merchants, bankers, and grain magnates. The Marcellans rose to power by monopolizing the Golden Granaries and turning their wealth into political dominance.
    • Notable members are Senator Lucius Marcellan and Helvia Marcellan, the matriarch of the house.
  • House Varro, consisting of generals, statesmen, and Praetorians. The Varros are an ambitious house with a long tradition of military service and expansionist politics, forever calling for war with the Nivarian Empire. Their reputation is burnished by their close ties to the Emperor’s Praetorians.
    • Notable members are Senator Gaius Varro, and his son Cassian Varro, leader of the Praetorian Guard.

The Custodians

• The official priesthood who maintain the sanctuaries and shrines of the old ruins within Aurastis. They control much of the Sacrarium and claim authority over which ruins can be excavated or studied. Their word carries immense weight among the faithful.
  • The Custodians have their own small military, guarding forbidden ruins and rooting out heresy if needed.

The Black Tide

• The Black Tide is an infamous smuggling gang within Aurastis. Their leader, referred to only as the Leviathan, supposedly rules the gang with trusted members of his former fishing crew. Members are often recognized by their tattoos of krakens.

The Veil

• The Veil is a secret network of spies, thieves and assassins, and is the largest crime syndicate within Aurastis. Not much is known about the Veil - the identities and personal details of its members are kept secret even among the group, and those who let such secrets slip are often found murdered before they can be apprehended. They have no permanent headquarters within the city, constantly changing bases to cover their trail.

The Azure Bloom

• The Azure Bloom are a group of mostly spellscarred, sometimes bordering on plaguechanged individuals. They reside within the depths of the Undercity. The Azure Bloom take in those shunned for their spellscars or those plaguechanged, believing the Spellplague to be the herald of a new age blossoming. Until now they have not been cause for worry, but their worship of spelltouched relics has led them to become more bold, sometimes even raiding caravans from excavation sites.

Festivities of Aurastis

• While there is more often than not some minor festival going on in some street or plaza around Aurastis, there are a few set dates for major celebrations and festivities.

Aurelia Magna (15th-19th of Solis)

• Aurelia Magna is the single greatest celebration in Regnum Aurelia, marking the height of summer and the divine mandate of the Emperor. For five days, the entire city transforms.
  • On the first day, martial parades fill the Grand Parade grounds, and generals and legions march, with floats displaying ancient victories and relics.
  • On the second day, noble houses host public feasts. Bread and wine flow from the Golden Granaries, free for anyone.
  • On the third day, the Bronze Menagerie holds its largest gladiatorial battles, from beast fights to reenacted wars, where the victors are crowned by the senators with golden laurels.
  • On the fourth day, the Agora comes alive with theater, masked dances and street revels. On this night, nobles and commoners mingle, their identities hidden. Scandals are common.
  • On the fifth and final day, at sunrise, the Emperor himself lights a giant brazier at the top of the Domus Divina, blessing Regnum Aurelia for another year.

The Feast of Lanterns (14th of Dusk)

• The Feast of Lanterns is a night long celebration, where paper lanterns are released over the Erythas and within the Lantern Plaza in the Insula Magna. The people of Aurastis honor their ancestors and Regnum Aurelia’s past by writing names or prayers on the lanterns.

The Festival of Statues (1st of Bloom)

• During the Festival of Statues, statues all over the city are washed, painted and decorated. Custodians preside over ceremonies within the Sacrarium, but the day is also filled with artisans’ contests, where sculptors, masons and artificers compete to display their craft.