Ravenna

**"Five Hundred Crowns?! Five hundred crowns for a damned pony?! Adar's Will.... I could buy a whole barn for that price!" -Rori Dunbil, on purchasing a Ravennan Stock Pony.**

Ravenna is the equestrian capital of the Free Coast, if not all of Adurra. The ancient tradition of horsemanship has existed for millennia on the Ravennan plains, and has been refined into an art unlike anywhere else. Everyone with money enough to purchase a horse is expected to ride, and those that do not ride are likely involved in some fashion with their care. So ingrained are horses in the Ravennan society that the Prince of Ravenna has never been seen in public off of the saddle.

The reputation of Ravennan horsemen has drawn knights from across the Free Coast to train under the many Knight-Captains at court. As a result Ravenna is a capital of chivalry and knightly honor, home to many dozens of knightly orders. Though many of these Orders are wealthy enough to undertake quests or wars of their own choosing, most of these Knights are available for rent by the highest bidder. Consequentially Ravenna is also home to the most mercenary companies, and steel merchants, on the Free Coast.

Ravenna is perhaps best known for the ubiquitous breed of horse: The Ravennan. Renowned for it's intelligence, dexterity, and endurance many consider the Ravennan to be the single finest mount on the face of Adurra. This reputation has made the Ravennan breed the most expensive anywhere on the Free Coast, and owning a Ravennan is a tremendous status symbol. The Ravennan breed is characterized by a graceful physique, and a notable tendency towards bi-color eyes.

## The Citadel

At the heart of the city, flanked on two sides by the Grand Canal, lies the Citadel. Home to the voq Ginard dynasty, the Citadel has been under continuous construction for the last hundred years. Four massive towers dominate the citadel, two of which are complete. Reaching well over a hundred feet above the city streets, the Citadel is meant to project the tremendous power the Prince has over the city. By long standing tradition no building can rise higher than the Citadel, and each successive Prince seems to expand the enormous towers even further. With the number of professional soldiers in Ravenna the Citadel takes obedience very seriously. All knightly orders are required to make oaths of peace within the walls of Ravenna, under threat of dissolution by the Citadel. Only two orders have ever drawn steel within the gates of Ravenna, and both of their forts lie in ruin still as a warning to all others who would defy the Citadel.

## The Grand Canal

Connecting the smaller river Conne to the great river Virgaurt the Grand Canal cuts the city in two. The east bank of the Canal servicing traders, workshops, and the common people of Ravenna. The west bank is dominated by the spires of a dozen knightly forts. Here on the west shore the noble families of Ravenna mingle with visiting knights from across the Free Coast.

## The Red Opera

As a city of steel merchants, Ravennans are no strangers to violence. But in recent years the streets of the city have become the stage for a horrific pantomime. A cabal of red-cloaked assassins have kidnapped, tortured, and murdered respected members from every organization in the city. Little is known of the Red Opera's motives, only that their performances are increasing in frequency, and the spectacles are getting only more horrific.