Freigard

*Get a view of those mountains!!!*

- The typical reaction upon seeing Freigard for the first time.

*Been living here for most of my life. No matter how long or how far I have travelled, I have always seen Freigard as my home.*

- Tormund Giants' Friend, owner of the popular establishment The Troll's Flagon.

*That's a nice Declaration of Independence you got there in your museum. Shame if, uh, something where to happen to it.*

- Atmos Slibard. Two days later the Northern Declaration of Independence went missing.

The City of Freedom, as it is called, Freigard is one of the largest city in the whole world and the largest in the whole Northern Union and it's capital, with a population of 7.5 million people. The city is built in the centre of a huge valley between two mountains and stretches all the way through the whole valley and into the mountain range itself. It is a marvel of modern architecture, thanks in large parts to the efforts of legendary architects Ephraim ben Mordecai, Uesugi Haruna, and Nef-Hathor. These architects designed the city to both include aspects of the different cultures who made Union and also stand out as it's own unique design, thus making it a truly universal city. Moreover, with it's three great walls and many forts, it is a city designed for defence as well as for practical living. It is believed that if attacked unexpectedly, it has enough supplies to last at least three years. In addition, by building into the mountains, the city has direct access to many of the Dwarven and Hobgoblin settlements of the Union, allowing for both reinforcements and evacuation in times of crisis, and trade and travel in times of peace.

The city also is built along the Great River Odiches, with many canals and streams cutting through the city, leading to the creation of a series of advanced bridges, many of which are piston-based. The river is seen as the lifeblood of the city and the Northerners take great care to keep it clean and drinkable. Riverboat travel is incredibly common as a form of day to day transportation, as well as one of the main forms of trade. The other main form of travel and trade are the train systems of Freigard. Freigard has three train systems: the Over Trains, the general travel trains which go to everywhere in the Union, and the subway system or Under Trains. Moreover, trams are frequently used to traverse the city, as well as gondolas for the mountain sections of the city. With all of these, one would expect the city to be a mess but surprisingly it all works thanks to clear oversight and good funding from the city council. The city is also known for it's many parks, revines and gardens, allowing the stone heavy city to be filled with vastness of greens. Many people are also known to have their own garden of any size.

As the capital of both the Northern Union and the unaligned Freizahlen State, the people of the city are famously very proud of their home and consider it to be the finest in all the Union (leading to many arguments with people from Kalik). They see themselves the truest expression of Northern culture and society due to the fact that it is a vast salad-bowel (or melting pot) of all the cultures of the Union in a single place. Many scholars and travellers see them as the perfect "Northerners", being cheerful, hard-working, progressive, polite, filled with dry and witty humour, and simultaneously fascinated by the past, present, and future. Moreover, they are shocked by how casual and unflappable Freigarders are, as attested by one Imperial

traveler (Atmos Slibard) being completely shocked upon walking into a public park to see some people casually walking naked as though it were the most normal thing in the world.

The aforementioned love of the past is most present in the multiple museums throughout the city, most famously the iconic Museum Island, which holds six of the city's largest and finest museums of all sorts. the museums and libraries of the city hold some of the largest collections of artifacts, books, and memories from all the places conquered or suppressed by the Empire (a collection rivalled the great libraries of Kalik).