Floresta

Large City, population 13,713 (79% human, 9% halfling, 5% gnome, 3% dwarf, 2% half-elf, 1% elf, 1% half-orc)

GP Limit: 40,000 gp

Cash on Hand (Total for City): 27,426,000 gp

Imports: Alum, charcoal, food, hides, luxury items, metals, sand, stone.

Exports: Alchemical goods, artwork, books, cloth, glassware, leather, optics, paper, parchment, timber.

Community Authorities

Imperial Satrap Minda (LG dwarf female ari 13), the Urban Senate (20 members, presiding officer Emeris Tierney (LG human female ari 13)), the Imperial University (under Arch-chancellor Kamin Moriah (LG human male exp 16)), Urban Constable Jorn Krikor (LN halfling male war 14).

Military Formations

The Satrap’s Guard: 137 troops—2 captains (1 6th-level aristocrat, 8th-level fighter), 2 lieutenants (1 5th-level aristocrat, 1 3rd-level paladin), 6 sergeants (6 3rd-level warriors), 16 corporals (12 1st-level fighters, 4 2nd-level warriors), 111 guards (11 1st-level fighters, 100 1st-level warriors).

Floresta Auxiliaries: 685 men (noted below by class and level)

Other NPCs

107 adepts (1 15th-level, 1 14th-level, 1 12th-level, 4 7th-level, 2 6th-level, 12 3rd-level, 24 2nd (3 militia), 63 1st-level (5 militia)); 76 aristocrats (1 11th-level, 1 6th-level, 1 5th-level, 4 3rd-level, 4 2nd-level, 65 1st-level (25 militia)); 45 barbarians (1 13th-level, 2 10th-level, 2 6th-level, 4 5th-level, 4 3rd-level, 8 2nd-level, 24 1st-level ); 45 bards (1 15th-level, 1 12th-level, 1 11th-level, 2 7th-level (1 militia), 2 6th-level, 2 5th-level, 8 3rd-level, 4 2nd-level, 24 1st-level (4 militia)); 45 clerics (1 15th-level, 1 14th-level, 1 10th-level, 4 7th-level, 2 5th-level (1 militia), 8 3rd-level, 4 2nd-level, 24 1st-level); 11,880 commoners (1 20th-level, 1 18th-level, 1 17th-level, 2 10th-level, 2 9th-level, 2 8th-level, 4 5th-level, 8 4th-level, 24 2nd-level (3 militia), 11,835 1st-level (200 militia)); 45 druids (1 15th-level, 1 14th-level, 1 11th-level, 4 7th-level, 2 5th-level, 8 3rd (1 militia), 4 2nd-level, 24 1st-level); 420 experts (2 15th-level, 2 8th-level, 4 7th-level, 4 4th-level, 8 3rd-level, 8 2nd-level, 392 1st-level (100 militia)); 37 fighters (1 17th-level, 1 12th-level, 1 10th-level, 1 8th-level, 2 6th-level, 2 5th-level, 4 4th-level, 4 3rd-level, 12 2nd-level, 9 1st-level); 45 monks (2 14th-level, 1 10th-level, 4 7th-level, 2 5th-level, 8 3rd-level, 4 2nd-level, 24 1st-level); 23 paladins (1 12th-level, 2 10th-level (1 militia), 1 6th-level, 2 5th-level, 1 3rd-level, 4 2nd-level, 12 1st-level (6 militia)); 45 rangers (1 12th-level, 1 11th-level, 1 10th-level, 2 6th-level, 4 5th-level, 4 3rd-level, 8 2nd-level, 24 1st-level (5 militia)); 61 rogues (1 16th-level, 1 14th-level, 1 13th-level, 2 8th-level, 2 7th-level, 2 6th-level, 4 4th-level, 8 3rd-level, 8 2nd-level, 32 1st-level (4 militia)); 45 shamans (2 13th-level, 1 12th-level, 6 6th-level, 12 3rd-level, 24 1st-level), 45 sorcerers (2 12th-level, 1 10th-level, 4 6th-level (1 militia), 2 5th-level, 8 3rd-level, 4 2nd-level, 24 1st-level); 563 warriors (1 13th-level, 1 11th-level, 2 7th-level, 2 6th-level, 2 5th-level, 2 3rd-level, 553 1st-level (320 militia)); 45 wizards (1 12th-level, 1 11th-level, 1 10th-level, 2 6th-level, 4 5th-level (1 militia), 4 3rd-level, 8 2nd-level, 24 1st-level (4 militia)).

Floresta is an ancient, prosperous city tucked along the shores of the River Ilog. It began its long history as the site of an elven city known to myth and legend as Luulesi’im. The original elven inhabitants were conquered by the human warlord Terel, who forced them into submission and relocated the majority to the modern city of Sabbia after razing Luulesi’im. The removal of the elven presence from Floresta’s current site and the surrounding provinces opened the vast forests of the central Aureshan Empire to exploitation by Terel’s human subjects. After some fifty years, the humans built upon Luulesi’im’s ruins to create a support depot for logging along the Ilog. Initially little more than a semi-permanent camp, Floresta soon became a base of operations for timber buyers, and then attracted businesses to provide goods and services to the timber buyers.

This rapid growth went unchecked for decades, even in the face of several outbreaks of disease and three fires that consumed whole neighborhoods. The last fire, approximately 400 years ago, provided an excuse for an Imperial planning experiment that resulted in the city’s current layout of straight, broad, paved streets in an orderly grid, and an overwhelming preference for yellow-white brick buildings roofed with baked clay tiles. It was at this time that the Imperial University was established by charter at the edge of the city, primarily as an institution responsible for training lawyers, philosophers and government officials.

Fifty years later, the advanced glass-making techniques discovered in the Kingdom of Enteria made their way to Floresta, where an obscure professor of mathematics, Espello Scathan, took an interest in the use of glass to make silver-backed mirrors that could reflect light with great efficiency. His research and experimentation began as a hobby, but culminated in his invention of the heliograph and a simple signaling code to pass messages long distances in line of sight. Its adoption by the Imperial Legion’s engineering corps made Scathan rich, and led the Emperor to endow an entire college dedicated to the technical arts. Floresta developed into a worldwide center for the manufacture and trade of optics and glassware.

The city also enjoys a brisk business in the engraving of books, the making of parchment and paper, and the preparation of all manner of alchemical goods. These trades have sprung up since the founding of the university, and exist largely in support to its activities. They are nevertheless major export industries for Floresta.

Municipal government is the province of the Urban Senate, a holdover from the city’s youth. The majority of the Senate comes from old, moneyed aristocratic houses that started as timber merchants and moved on to investment and land management. They jealously safeguard the economic well-being of the city, imposing price controls and setting quality standards on all goods manufactured in Floresta, as well as imposing taxes to regulate trade and provide for the upkeep of civic amenities and infrastructure.

The Imperial Satrap for Agrona Province, Imperial Satrap Minda, uses Floresta as her seat of office. She leaves the day-to-day governance of the city in the hands of the Urban Senate, and devotes the majority of her time to provincial concerns. Nevertheless, the city’s auxiliary forces take the field at her command, not the Council’s, and her household guard under the Urban Constable is responsible for policing the city. Although the Senate makes law in Floresta, their decrees are enforced at her hands, and subject to her discretion.

The Imperial University represents a third major center of authority in the city. Although it lacks swords to enforce its decrees or even the power to make a legally binding proclamation, the great school’s integration with the economic and social life of the city makes it difficult for any but the most powerful of senators or the Imperial Satrap herself to defy the wishes of Arch-chancellor Moriah and the Faculty Council.