Deepgate

**Deepgate**

CE Large City (South)

Corruption +3; Crime +2; Economy +3; Law +0; Lore -1; Society +0

**Qualities** Tourist Attraction, Resource Surplus (Adamantine), Notorious, Subterranean, Racially Tolerant (Drow)

**Danger** 20

**Government** Autocracy

**Population** 24,000 people (10,000 human, 5,000 half-Drow, 3000 Drow, 1,000 elf, 1,000 Dwarf, 1,000 Orcs, 1,000 Kobold, 2,000 other)

**Notable NPCs**

**King Asgar Earthsong X** LE Male Human Fighter 5 / Bard 5

**Contracted royal advisor Lan Popan** NE Feale tengu Lich Wizard 10 / Blackfire Adept 7

**Noble serial murderer/Holy judge Xov Ciennydre** CE Male Drow Slayer 5 / Assassin 10

**Arch Executioner Nolif Vire** CE Female Drow Antipaladin 10

**Mich Yard** TN Male half-Drow Alchemist 2 /Gunslinger 4

**Marketplace**

**Base Value** 12,000 gp; **Purchase Limit** 75,000 gp; **Spellcasting** 7th

**Minor Items** 4d4; **Medium Items** 3d4; **Major Items** 2d4

Sitting between the border of two empires, and despised by both,
Deepgate has made a name for itself, a name that has survived repeated
attempts to be wiped from history. The city is a death trap for all
things, fortune, fame, decency, morality, life is one of the few things
that you are likely to keep no, matter how much you don't want to. They
say if you can make it in Deepgate, you can make it anywhere. A true
enough statement, as anyone who can make a living in Deepgate is truly a
 monster of the highest caliber.

The namesake of Deepgate is the 10 meters tall adamantine gateway
that leads to the Deepworld. a mystery to all who study it, and an
attraction to all who would, the Deep Gates purpose, construction, and
creators are all unknown. The city Deepgate is a history of its own, the
 humans and drow who populate the city have a intertwined history with
the gate from both sides.

The drow's history of the Deep Gate, which they refer to as the Last
Wall, involves the drow expanding and creating a frontier settlement on
their side of the gate. Working to both understand the secrets that they
 have forgotten of it (or so they say), and to prepare for whatever
awaits when it opens.

The human history of the Deep Gate involves two large mercenary
companies agreeing to form one mercenary company and setting up a base
of operations on an open plain. While digging a tunnel to establish a
basement, a digger hit the Deep Gate. the diggers excavated the site and
 discovered the Deep Gate. A baffling mystery the company of mercenaries
 had to turn their base into a tourist attraction for all who wish to
study the large adamantine construct. The mercenaries having to give up
there mercenary work and turning they're established Bass into a new
settlement as more and more people came to study the Deep Gate.

Centuries later the Deep Gate opened for reasons that no one knows,
and so the drow and human settlements on both sides interact for the
first time. needless to say a war broke out and the humans won.

It was not as bad as a war could have gone though. While the drow had
 been preparing for such a thing for as long as there settlement had
existed, the human simply far outnumbered them. Due to this the peace
treaty between them resulted in a unique standard of social distribution
 for both sides. The drow who lived there would keep their titles and
ranks, as would the humans, but the humans would be the only ones who
could become kings and queens of the city. elected from their own noble
houses by the drow nobility.

Religion is another matter entirely, as there is no one
state-sanctioned religion the city's religious population is wild and
varied. There have been shadow wars in Deepgate for as long as Deepgate
has existed. these shadow wars range from shadowy cults and religions
fighting each other to righteous cults, holy cults, shadow cults, wicked
 cults, and every other religion and cult you can find fighting each
other.

Currently the most powerful religious force in it Deepgate is the Pure Church. The Pure Church is led by the Pure One or Pope and is
elected into the position for life by the Archbishop's, a circle of 17
figures who are themselves elected in to their position by the various
factions who support and hold power in the church.

The Merchants Guild is a continuous power struggle of all business
owners in Deepgate. The Merchants Guild is led by whoever has the most
money, and thus the most power, in the guild.

The Culture Guild is the most legitimate power in Deepgate. But just
because it's the most legitimate doesn't mean it doesn't hold its own
secrets. There recently made powder is a well desired and selfishly kept
 secret, and many wait with bated breath to see who it will be who
starts a war with the Culture Guild to get their hands on it.

While Deepgate may be run by kings and queens, they are, for all
intents and purposes, penny kings and queens. Deepgate itself is little
more than a city-state that will often join the force that holds the
most power in the region, and while the current empires that it sits
between would love nothing more than to wipe the city out of existence,
the city and its rulers keep to themselves and pay tribute to whoever
claims rule over them regularly.

The Empire of Grandia holds dominion over Deepgate for now, and only maintains that hold for the wealth of the city provides.