Wednesday, April 9, 2014

A to Z Challenge: Gibbons, the Eastern Quarter of Jarlsburg

I was feeling under the weather yesterday and while I wrote this up, I didn't get to post it.  I hope to get caught back up today.

Jarlsburg is a medieval fantasy city of my creation that is the location of the Pathfinder and DnD Next games I have run in the past.  This A to Z is my effort to better introduce others to the locale and continue to flesh it out while the game is on hiatus.

The sprawling metropolis of Jarlsburg is split into four quarters with Gibbons being the eastern most.

Gibbons is kropish for "sanctuary" and the majority of the quarter is dominated by Zorgor.   Zorgor, or "labor" to the Krops, is filled with numerous industries such as baking, sewing, smithing, and gem working.  Most of the area that became Zorgor was a slum known as Dribble,  the krops that settled the area were citizens loyal to King Feonker XII that had fled their homeland in the wake of the Denoweir Revolt over a hundred years ago.  And through hard work they renewed the area in less than a decade.

To the north of Zorgor is the neighborhood of Nodens, another kroppish word meaning "rest" or "sleep".  Nodens is a respite from the kroppish settlers daily work grind, it is filled with small gardens and trees, well-crafted and smartly painted houses with sculptures and murals throughout the community.  If you live in Nodens, you watch your neighbors back and they watch yours, to be accepted there is to become part of a much larger family.  The community has all most no crime and is ever vigilant against it.

Meanwhile, to the south of Zorgor is what remains of Dribble, the home of many of the workers who have either been expelled from Nodens or deemed unfit to live there.  Sadly, many of the tenements here are owned by the community of Nodens as a whole and they use this sway to create a secondary class of citizen to do the most dangerous jobs in Gibbons.  Essentially they have recreated the problems that led to their King's overthrow and the rise of the Denoweir Union in their homeland.  While it's not impossible to leave Dribble for Nodens, it is practically unheard of.

Other smaller communities in Gibbons include Molly (known for providing housing many students to Essex College), Mont de Viln (where the Essex College campus resides as well as the cheapest ale in the city), and Lowel Place (a three block span that has become uninhabited because is haunted by the victims of St. Kiln, the Hobo Guild is responsible for keeping everyone out).

Molly is also the home of the now defunct Fraternity, Orko Frodo Ookla, which has become the current headquarters of the secret society known as the Phrenologists.  The arcane order toils amongst the shadows of the many nations of the Twin Rivers with a central goal to unlock the potential of the mortal races.  While their order has been outlawed in nearly a dozen nations in the region, only a select few in the city, outside of their order know they operate in Jarlsburg.

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