Oseria

Template:Location

## Description

Oseria is a small city-state in the far north of Thrae, sitting on the border of the sunless ring. The city uses a simple metal coin currency system and is ruled by a Dynasty: the Ebonharts. The family is notorious for being kind and charitable, but the harsh conditions in which their city resides leaves tensions high. Many conniving businessmen, plotting thieves, and bloodthirsty warlords are looking for their chance to turn the tide of power and sway the hand of the city's current ruler, Osterik. Oseria is divided into quarters. The first quarter being mainly agricultural with various farms, but the occasional towering tavern for weary travelers and returning hunters alike. The second quarter is the inner city, where most of the middle-class and above live. This is also where the original castle and fort stands, standing as a frigid watchtower.

## Culture

Oseria's culture is rich and unique, being a clash of religions and architecture from all over. This is due to Oseria having been built upon trade and tourism which subjected it to a rainbow of tastes and beliefs. Upon immediately entering Oseria's borders, one would be welcomed with a bounty of examples of this. From the geometric monuments, road-markers and statues sitting along paths and roads, to the hay-covered wooden houses on the outskirts with swirling carvings and serpent posts, to the towering, curve-roofed taverns and resteraunts, to the walled off inner-city with well-thought out stone roads, sharp edges, and tiled roofs.

This vibrant culture is also reflected in their choices of weaponry. From triangular spears, to straight-edged shortswords. From massive studded maces, to small curved bows. From plated, grooved tower shields, to towering battleaxes.

Though that's not all. Culture is more than just buildings and armaments after all. Oseria's arts, fashion, music, and social classes are as vibrant and diverse as the buildings within the city itself.

Fur coats and cloaks, porcelain masks, vibrant silk dresses for both men and women. Soft melodic tunes played by a riverside, bouncing notes harmonizing in inns and taverns, and roaring voices reveling in the glory of mead halls. In Oseria, there's certainly a type of style for everyone. With such exotics, much of the city revolves around production and export; something the people pride themselves on. However, with such a trade heavy city, a competitive state of mind also resides. This can be taxing on the people as it heavily divides the classes. The rich are always getting richer and the poor are always getting poorer. It doesn't help that a physical barrier divides these two classes, the first wall, pushing all those without gold in their coffers out into the blinding cold whilst the rich and middle class sit comfortably in their stone homes heated by stone hearths.

## History

Long ago, far in the north, there lived a Great Lord in a Great Castle. This lord's name was Oserian, the small king of the white fort. There are two legends of Oserian, both wild opposites, but both no truer than the other.

Oserian's ancestors had first established and built the fort, Oseria, as a northern pillar to watch for danger from the sunless wastes. However, soldiers needed food and so came farmers to till the frozen land. With farmers came traders seeking excess food and sell off weapons and armaments. The fort grew into a castle, one that Oserian watched over protectively. That is, until something strange had happened.

One day the once open and charitable lord became reclusive; withdrawn to his fort, Oserian would have no visitors and the curtains were forever shut. A dark time for castle Oseria. The guards no longer patrolled the outskirts at night. Thieves and murderers run amok, not to mention many of the residents had began to disappear- one by one. This continued until an unnamed Knight Errant stopped by Oseria for rest, hoping the lord would welcome them. Surprsingly, Oserian did open the castle doors to him. Only the knight was not greeted with blankets and food, but instead, they were greeted with swords and a feasting hall of blood. The great lord Oserian had become a vampire, a vile demon of the night, and had taken to greed and lust. The unnamed knight errant managed to escape the clutches of Oserian's charmed guardsmen, and with their mighty blade, they drove it into the vampire lord's heart- ending the shrouded night casted over Oseria.

The people of the castle had lost their lord, and they were without leadership. By the will of the people, the unnamed knight errant became the new lord, and they watched over the castle with a kind heart. Castle Oseria's doors would once again open to traders and the guards would once again do their duty. With time, the knight errant's line, the Ebonhart, would help blossom the castle into a city with two mighty walls that spanned the outskirts. One to protect the inner city, where the middle-class and upper-class lived. The second to protect the farmers who lived on the outskirts, and to keep out the northern winds. Since then, Oseria has suffered many issues. Vampires, Demons, Rampaging Ogres and Giants, Bat-like monsters, ferocious beasts alike. That, and the growing mass of thieves and mercenaries lying underneath the city's bowels, seeking to corrupt and tempt the Ebonhart's current Lord of the castle- Osterik, a kind, but inexperienced man, with promises of protection or coin.