World's Faire

XXX years ago, this town was the site of a great fair hosted by King Haegar of [location]. Upon establishing hegemony amongst Baaz, Gildar, the Dwarven Kingdom after the Red River, Haegar sought to mark the beginning of an era of peace and prosperity with a great celebration based on a powerful vision he had after signing the peace accord. In his vision, he saw a wondrous armada of balloons, linked with bridges, floating high among the clouds. Haegar immediately set to work finding someone who could help him achieve his goals: the mage college of Swiftwing nestled high in the Cascades of Jütten. The mages could use air elementals to float the city, storm elementals to protect the city, and magic to ease travel and communication.  No one knows exactly how Haegar got the mage college to take on this burden—or what kind of deal he may have made—but work started almost immediately.

Haegar brought craftsmen from all over the continent: great [race] rope makers and sewers from [location], [race] artists from [location], and gnomish woodworkers, to name a few. Soon, Haegar’s fair began to rise.

The centerpiece was a great ring of circular exhibition halls. At its center, was the fairmaster’s balloon, where Haegar himself could live, host, and display a great map demonstrating agreed upon boundaries amongst the four kingdoms.

Outside the ring were lodges, each a cluster of house-like cabins. Above the center ring, long rows of bathhouse balloons; below, a great kitchen. These buildings were arranged for practical reasons. The smell and steam from the kitchen rose up through the exhibition halls, heating water; the smell of the bathhouses rose high into the sky and away from the fair. Hanging wide from the rest of the city was a floating stone tower, a place for the rich visitors to enter into debauched contests of chance. Above the tower, was a great balloon vault where visitors could stash their valuables and winnings. The tower was attached to a long bridge manned by mercenary guards.

Emissaries and envoys from all over the world arrived, many bringing their own balloons or structures to be raised into the sky, typically taking place in the compass direction pointing toward their homeland. These were often furnished and built in the customs of their people. Those travelers that couldn’t make the journey by land sailed into the nearest port, where the boat was magicked into the air to join the fair city. Exhibitions at the fair showcased technologies, traditions, religions, relics, and culture. It was a point of pride to be well represented in the eyes of Koena.

It is said that over a million people visited that year, including commoners, mages from all colleges, pilgrims, and merchants. They came in long trains of wagons, horses, people, and ships. Some visits were brief, others stayed at the fairgrounds waiting for big event promised at the celebration’s conclusion.

During that great celebration at the end of the year—when all were drunk, merry, and dancing—the balloon vault vanished. With it vanished the legendary heirlooms, vast riches, and cultural touchstones of Koena. Many kings and nobleman have offered an award for the adventurer who could find the balloon vault, but none ever did. Most reasonable people believe the balloon likely crashed in the Cascades of Jutten. Others believe thieves took the balloon and successfully landed, later to stash or fence the loot. However, among the simple people, many ardently believe the balloon vault floats the continent still to this day. Some retell stories coming from the sailors of Shal’ows shipping and other firms, in which the balloon was seen off the eastern shore of Koena with the skeletons of the thieves still manning the controls.

After the fair, the organizing committee and the fairmaster refused to leave the makeshift city. They were having too much fun enjoying the aristocratic atmosphere free from the jealous eye of the commoners. Their peers—the spoiled sons and daughters of nobility, royalty, and merchants—soon joined them.

In time, the fair became a settlement in its own right. The rich began to see the benefits of the protection and communication magicks offered by the mages of Swiftwing. For their part, the headmasters of the wizarding school saw no downside to the patronage of the rich. All they had to do was keep the magic protection going and send a few apprentices and other lowly wizards up to fix and patrol the city.

In time, Haegar’s fair only grew in size. Balloons became denser. In between the floating aramada arose the connective tissue of great rafters and bridges. The noblemen and women of Heagar’s fair kept the governance of the floating city in accordance with the fair’s tradition. The organizing committee appointed replacements for themselves as they grow elderly, and the organizing committee elected the fairmaster, who serves his or her tenure at the committee’s behest.

In modern times, amongst all the secluded and protective revelry, the floating town does have one consistent problem: running the tethers. The floating city is anchored to the Swiftwing keep and the surrounding grounds by a series of umbilical tethers. Perhaps to steal, perhaps to eat, perhaps to ascend to the heavenly life of the cloud’s inhabitants if only for a moment, unwanted visitors attempt to breech the city from time to time by climbing the tethers. Often, these climbers are magicked to death at night by the wizard patrollers, and their bodies can be seen dangling from the tethers in grisly poses like rotten fruit of a pitiless vine.

Haegar’s fair is a retreat from the world for the upper class. Seeing the failed attempts at running the tether is an unacceptable affront to the aristocratic atmosphere. However, due to the magic auras protecting the village, retrieving these corpses is difficult for the wizard patrollers. Instead, they cast glamour and illusion spells so that they appear invisible or as something pleasant, like a songbird.

On some days, with a prevailing updraft, you may see some beautiful lady or handsome gentlemen scrunch their nose, if only for a second.