Phedailin, the Great Land

Phedailin is technically the name of the kingdom which lies between the desert of South Nidonn and Jevithem in North Nidonn. The capital city is properly called Duracia, but it is not a commonly used name unless one is specifically in Phedailin and trying to follow the customs. From outside the kingdom (informally), Phedailin refers to the kingdom and Phedailin Palace refers to the city. From within (formally), the city is Duracia and the palace itself is Phedailin Palace. For a list of the highest ranked people in Phedailin, see the people of rank page.

The eastern half of Phedailin is known as Durac Fields. The western half is the Galanor Fields. To the north are the Golemn Peaks, and to the east are the Gutalia Mountains. There is a small peninsula only accessible via boat or by going over the Gutalia Mountains which is simply called the Wastes.

Duracia and Phedailin Palace

Duracia is undoubtedly the most grand human structure in all of Riiga. The massive city of Duracia is situated in the wide fields of Phedailin, exposed to heavy wind and rain, though wind is barely an issue behind the high walls. The city is divided into five parts.

The Palace

Most grand of all is Phedailin Palace, which stands in the middle of the city. The palace is a giant structure, the likes of which took 110 years to complete. It was begun in 3801BD under the order of King Harha and the final statue was in place by 3691. The master architect, sir Oswin Preoland, spend a good deal of his life supervising the construction, checking the plans constantly, redesigning portions, and dealing with the workers. He started planning the palace when he was only 29 years old, and died at 139 only moments after attempting to fix the last statue to an alcove about 70 metres high. He slipped and fell, and so did the statue. The other architects buried the head of the massive statue with Oswin and left the alcove empty. The next day, they announced the palace's completion.

The facade of the palace faces the vast palace grounds, which is a lengthy stretch of pavers, fountains, and lawns lined with trees. Hunnuklad Temple is on the west end of the palace grounds. Some argue that the temple, though smaller, is the heart of the city. Others say that the heart is the palace. The facade has nine doors. The centre door is three times the size of all the others. Above, there are large twin towers in the centre, a pair of five-pointed towers at the far east and far west corners, and two smaller towers between the inner and outer pairs. The palace then extends backwards some distance in a nave, and appears much like a giant cathedral. An eastern wing extends out from the central crossing at the same height, and there are large gardens in the square walled area between the south end and the east wing. The nine paladins of Phedailin have their own quarters in the east wing. There is a large and elaborate tower on top of the east wing in an unusual place. This was added about a thousand years later. A western wing extends opposite the eastern wing, only at half the height and a fraction of the length.

At the northwest corner of the palace is a cylindrical upper chamber sitting at the height of the top of the nave, which buttresses radiating around a taller central chamber which is higher still, with a floor level about 200 metres above ground level. 260 metres up from the ground, the central chamber comes into a point, and is surrounded by more buttresses and towers. This central chamber, both in upper and lower respects, is a sort of royal quarters/retreat. This area is considered so sacred that trespassers may be attacked by guards without question. The middle of the upper chamber is a great round and tall room that is decorated with statues resembling all past lords, kings, and great people of North Nidonn. There are also some statues dedicated to Renin and some of the Lytian royal family from the White Order. There, the walls are coated with silver, and it is said that, although the palace is indeed manmade, it is heavily blessed by Nikina and nothing of Garukavar may set foot in there without dire consequence.

The city's layout

Granted, the city isn't as impressive in sheer size and detail as the palace is, but is still considered to be one of the most extravagent places in Riiga. The surrounding outer wall of the city has ten watchtowers that are constantly manned and smaller towers between them. At any sign of danger, a beacon atop the tower is lit. Chemicals are thrown into the flame to inform the Knights of Phedailin of the type of threat. A red flame means Karithians are approaching. As stated, it is divided into five areas. The central area holds the palace, the temple, and their grounds. Surrounding this area is a high inner wall with three gates; eastern, western, and southern.

The west inner gate leads directly into the large barracks district, which mostly contains hundreds of chambers for guards, training facilities, some specialised blacksmiths, and stockpiled resources stored in large buildings. The barracks district is where the Knights of Phedailin are situated. This district goes from outside the west end of the grounds, behind the north end of the palace, and stretches almost to the east inner gate.

The east inner gate leads to the northeast corner of the noble district and the south inner gate leads into the heart of the noble district. An inner wall surrounds the noble and military districts, and together they surround the palace district completely. By law, only nobles, royalty, or members of the Phedailin Knights may set foot inside the noble district without need for a letter of pass, but such letters are not difficult to obtain if one has a reasonable purpose for entering. The noble district mostly contains an interesting network of large manors, wide, paved streets, and verdant gardens. Though some manors have their own houses, most of the gardens are public to members of the district. To officially be a noble, one must be granted a letter of nobility from the king (which requires one to own a large sum of money), or simply be the offspring of a bearer of such a letter. Most of the richest nobles own mineral mines somewhere in North Nidonn.

The fourth district is the commercial district, which one can reach via one of four ways: enter through the south city gate; enter through the south gate of the noble district; or enter through either the east or west common district gates. As one could imagine, this district lies at the southern end of the city, between the south city gate, the south noble gate to the north, and the east and west common districts. This district is specificially for businesses. To own a building in this area, one must be selling or buying wares of some kind, and must also have permission to do so. It is home to many of the most expensive taverns and stores in all of Riiga.

The last district is the common district, which actually flanks the city on its east and west sides, and is thus divided into two. These districts are where citizens reside, and when combined, are larger than any other district. The west district has a west city gate and the east district has the east city gate. There is no north gate. One can enter the west common district through the west city gte, the west end of the barracks, the west end of the noble district, or the northwest corner of the commercial distrinct. One can enter the east common district through the east city gte, the east end of the noble district, or the northeast corner of the commercial distrinct.

Above: The city's rough layout. P = palace district . B = barracks. N = noble district. M = Commercial district. C = common distsricts.

The city's appearance and people

The city itself is very well built. All buildings are required to be white, or very pale grey, and roofs a shade of red. Architecture is strong, but elegant. Columns, pillars, vines and creepers, flowerbeds, balconies, small towers, and large windows are all very common in streets and gardens and on houses. In the noble district, there are many bay windows, turrets, white statuettes, gazebos, pavilions, fernhouses, and skywalks. Indoors, paintings, woven murals, wall hangings, carpets, fireplaces, chandeliers, and many other trinkets are also popular. There is barely a single-storied residence in the entire city. Many people make a living off of being "restorers", as most of the buildings in the city are the same -- in a core sense -- as when they were built thousands of years ago. Because of this, hundreds of people spend their days simply upholding the divine appearance of the city.

One would expect the majority of Duracia's citizens to be pompous and self-righteous, and for the most part, this is true, but there are also a large quantity of dedicated and powerful (both socially and as individual beings) citizens who spend their time either delivering high quality service or employing many others so that the money keeps circulating around the city. Many of the nobles in the city actually prefer to spend money than to keep it, as money not spent is money wasted. Almost the entire city is highly religious, and glorifying Nikina through keeping the city beautiful and orderly is one of the city's main priorities, especially since it was that very child god who guided the first Eastern humans to Hunnuklad and showed them where to find the resources to build everything.

Fort Shelrein

Though pittance in comparison with the barracks at Duracia, Fort Shelrein, down the western road from the city, is still a grand defence. It stands on a hill at the edge of the desert of South Nidonn. Though it was built after the Desert Storm in 752AL, and the Karithians had pretty much stopped entering the kingdom, it was built to keep watch and alert the city of any approaching beastmen. It was originally proposed that a wall was to be built, but it proved too ambitious and the wall was cancelled, and was predicted to simply be both an invitation and a mockery to the Karithians. Instead, a single fortress was built. The road from the city leads to the fortress, but unauthorised access is not permitted past Shelrein. The Azure Tower stands just west of the fortress, and this is designed to enable guards to view further over the desert, but is not designed to withstand any major sieging. Azure Tower marks the official border between South and North Nidonn.

The fortress itself is a typical Nidonnian design: the walls are tall and thin, with a two large steel gates blocking normal entrance to the large courtyard. There is a central keep, a stables, barracks, and other small necessities, as well as eight tall towers. The men there used to construct siege engines within the walls in fear of a Karithian assault, but over time it seemed less and less likely that they would be attacked, and it eventually proved too much hassle to keep transporting wood to the fort. There is usually one paladin governing the fort.

Entaro Fields

The richest country in North Nidonn has a suitably expansive area of farmland. Though most of Phedailin is actually farms, Entaro Fields (also called Entaro), situated east of Duracia, in the Durac Fields, has become a sort of "farming central" city. It began many hundreds of years ago as a main road lined with shops, with houses and fields scattered all about, but it has since grown to a large town famous for fresh produce; granted, it's expensive fresh produce. Some of the most popular produce includes grapes, peaches, barenik, lemons, olives, and raspberries, cabbages, potatoes, and liver prickles.

There used to be a town called Entaro Heights north of Phedailin, where the ground is steeper, slightly colder, and rockier, but the different climate proved too much and the inhabitants mostly moved to Entaro Fields to the southeast. Most travellers visit Entaro on their way to Phedailin, and on their way out of the kingdom again, as it is also famous for its breweries and wineries.

Simown

A mining city situated up the Royal River. Old, charming, and filled with history, it has long been the location of the most valuable mines in Phedailin. As such, most of its finds go straight to Duracia. Due to its valuable industries, it has suffered several conflicts in the past. The church there has two expansive graveyards filled with victims of small wars where people fought one another for mining rights.

Logitio

If a traveller was to avoid Entaro Fields on the way to Duracia, they would find themselves passing through Logitio and then Simown. Logitio is a small fortified city which once acted primarily as an outpost guarding the second road to Duracia. It also guards the valuable mining city of Simown. Strong walls and tall towers have protected the city and surrounding lands for countless years. Despite its strength, it has been sieged in the past, both by bandits, and by other greedy provinces trying to reach the mines of Simown.

Deaterio

Though small in comparison with other great ports of North Nidonn, Deaterio is Phedailin's best seaside city. It sits in a large bay directly south of Duracia, and has been Phedailin's docking city since they first began to use boats there. Beside Ontoglais -- technically a town -- it is North Nidonn's southern-most city. It's known for its very old and wonderfully crafted paved streets along the seaside docks.