Cha'Haak

Cha'Haak, translating to The River's Crown in Selasian, is a powerful city-state dominating the interior of the continent of Selas.

## Cha'Haak - The River's Crown

Crest of the Nosticov Family

Area around Cha'Haak

## Geography

Cha’Haak finds itself midway along the Vtralus river, which stretches from Moonstone Mountains to its mouth in Myth’Alora.  Cha'Haak was built where the river is wide enough to sustain large barge vessels, longboats, canoes; and even sea-faring ships like galleons are able to navigate this region. The city also finds itself along the Itzocal Escarpment, a large series of cliffs and tall hills that jut out above the lowlands to the north and proceed the steadier incline of the mountains and hills of the southern highlands. This medial zone between the lowlands and highlands affords Cha’Haak a variety of benefits; including fertile valleys, defensible terrain, varied climate, and close access to resources. These have allowed the city to become far larger than its neighbors in the Selasian interior.

### City of Cha'Haak

At a current population of close to 500,000, Cha’Haak has been built into the valleys surrounding the wide black waters of the Vtralus. The city itself is divided into 6 districts, each separated according to function, as most people in the city live in the surrounding towns and use the city as a place to work.

The **Plaza District** is the oldest district in town, built around the *Old Plaza*, it sits in the geographic heart of the city. As the most dominant structures in the city, the six-sided *Pyramid of Ioun*, with its impressive clockwork infrastructure allowing the priests to keep track of the stars and deep time, and the similarly six-sided *Pyramid of Sehanine*, with it’s many tin-coated spires, leer over the city and the Old Plaza. Other important sites around the Old Plaza are the *Hero's Stelae*, which depicts Xbalanque and Hunaphu Nosticov, the legendary founding twins who freed the city from Viekali control, as well as the *Seven Serpents Academy*. The Plaza District is known as the meeting place of the city and cultural heart of the city; due to this, it is often swarming with various cityfolk and foreigners either passing through or stopping to admire the famous Classical Baroque and Post-Classic Gothic architecture.

To the west of the Plaza District, the **Staropesc Bank** lies along the banks of the Vtralus. Often this part of town is bustling with activity as it is used as the primary commercial district in town, with many shop owners establish businesses along the riverside avenues or the famous *Karlov Passage*, that reaches between the Old Plaza and the West Gate. Famed as an architectural marvel and for its exceptional durability and longevity, the *Chapat’Kan Bridge*, built under orders from the legendary diarchy Chapat and Kan Nosticov, is a landmark of the city and also the major thoroughfare to get people from the western side of the city to the Old Plaza. The Staropesc Bank also has a thriving art scene, including the national theater, the *Amaq'Teatro,* and the *House of Tanec,* a dancing house and architectural marvel.

Across the Vtralus from the Staropesc Bank is the **Novy-Tinimit**, a newer development. Most of the Novy-Tinimit is devoted to living quarters for the high-level bureaucrats and merchants that reside in the city full-time. Major landmarks include the *New Plaza* and the nearby six-sided *Pyramid of Correllon,* with it's beautiful multi-colored marble Classical Baroque facade. Other important buildings include the *Chotekov Palace,* an old merchant's elaborate palace that the National Guild uses as it's headquarters, and the *Chrám sv Chajinel'Kumatz,* the elite order of paladins that worship the rite of ancestors and the god Bahamut's localized name, the Stříbrný-Kumatz.

Siting above the city's expansive layout, the **Nim Paláq'ij,** is a series of walled estates, temple shrines and administrative buildings, built around the *Gaucomatz Palace* on the high hills of the escarpment. During the day, this district is a flurry with activity with bureaucrats, nobles, and heads of the merchant guilds, fluttering between their estates, the Palace, and their respective occupational structures. Between the Palace and the rest of the district is the *Královský Plaza,* which is famed for erecting a stelae of each diarchy since the founding of the city. The Nim Paláq'ij also contains the *Harrachov Monastery*, famed for it's expansive and ancient library, and the *Vršovci Hall*, the meeting place for the Cha'Haak elite to meet and barter with the other nations of Selas.

Outside the city walls, to the north of the Plaza District, the **Scales District** and **Prumyslový** are the city's primary ghettos, with a focus on the exportation economy. The Scales District, on the eastern side of the river, is a marshy lower region of the city with flooded out streets. Originally built as the designated neighborhood for the lizardfolk underclass that was used to build and maintain the city's impressive architecture. Now, the Scales District serves as the primary port for the city and is nearly always crowded with ships, barges, and sailors. It's most prominent buildings are the *Synagogue of Sess'innek,* and the surrounding impressive lizardfolk cemeteries, and the far more recent and imposing *Ministry of Port Authority,* building which was built so the National Guild could directly oversee the port. On the other side of the port, Prumyslový is the smallest and newest district, being built within the last couple of centuries in tandem with Cha'Haak's rise to prominence and the advancements in industrial manufacturing. Rising along the high banks of the Vtralus, Prumyslový is a forest of smoke stacks and cotton gins, mostly made of brick tenement housing and matching textile mills and tobacco product manufacturers, that use the products grown lower along the Vtralus or in surrounding areas that are imported into the city.