Fionport

A sketch of Fionport's layout and architecture by tumblr user @thewatchau

Location of Fionport within Duilintinn by tumblr user @thewatchau

Fionport is the capital city of House Schneeplestein and one of Duilintinn's six major urban cities.

## Name Origin

Fionport means "fair/white port" in the old Feadhainn Language.

## History

### Waldren Occupation

During the Waldren Occupation, Fionport was one of the first cities built by the Waldren Trade Enterprise after their arrival cerca. the year 1000. As the principal harbor used by the commercial ships traveling back and forth between Waldren’s imperialist empire, Fionport quickly became a thriving trade city, which it remains to this day.

### Interim Years

After Waldren left Duiintinn to its own devices during the Interim Years, the rich merchant families of Fioport continued to operate as normal, growing richer and more corrupt with each passing year. However, the future king Sean's quest to found Duilintinn inspired a spirit of justice and rebellion within the younger generation of Fionport's upper class. These rebels would eventually rise up to take control of their city and use its resources and placement for the good of a greater community, pledging their support to the future king soon afterward.

### Modern Day

Today, Fionport is the most vital port city in Duilintinn. It holds the central guild hubs of the Scholars' College, Lifeworker Institute, and Keepers of Memory, along with a secondary guild hub of the Merchants' Guild that rivals the importance of the aforementioned main guilds.

## Architecture and Layout

Fionport features a neat grid system layout and clearly marked city districts. While the unifying factors of each district are constantly changing, in modern day, each corresponds to a guild.

In addition to the guild districts, Fionport features two “unofficial” districts: the rich, fancy district along the central roads and the crowded, poverty-stricken district along the fringes. Generally, the closer to the roads, the better part of town you’re in.

In these poorer areas, you’ll often find people with an opportunist mindset trying to create their own adventures and miracles, from wannabe-sailors and merchants bustling to and from the harbor, searching for their chance to become part of a bigger world, to ambitious students unable to pay for guild membership dues, living nearby just for the chance to use the publicly accessible resources.

The center of the city is full of fancy homes and shops made of white stone, with red clay tiles and glass windows. This is what people usually imagine when they think of stereotypical Waldren architecture. Standing in a triangular formation in the southern half of the central city, three large, elegant complexes represent the three major guilds of House Schneeplestein; the Lifeworker Institute, Scholars’ College, and Keepers of Memory\*. Additionally, the secondary hub of the Merchants’ Guild sits on the northern side of the main road, near enough to the harbor on the edge of the city without stepping outside of the affluent city center.

*\*The Keepers of Memory guild hub is not shown on the map because someone forgot to draw it. It was me. I’m someone. :P It would be located somewhere in between the two southern guild hubs.*

Surprisingly, Fionport’s capitol building is rather subdued compared to the lavish buildings owned by wealthy citizens. Simply consisting of a large, round tower attached to a rectangular building, the size and elegance of the capitol are what makes it stand out, rather than its complexity. It’s believed that the largest tower of Fort Stiofán, built during a series of renovations by a powerful faction that rose up after Waldren abandoned the region, was inspired by the design of Fionport’s capitol.

Like all regional capitals, Fionport’s government center also holds embassies for the other four Noble Houses.

In contrast to the elegance of the central city, the white stone buildings along the fringes of Fionport are less well preserved. Many have been repaired using other materials or amateur techniques, lending to the crowded, chaotic feel of the poorer regions of the city. In these poorer areas, you’ll often find people with an opportunist mindset trying to create their own adventures and miracles, from wannabe-sailors and merchants bustling to and from the harbor, searching for their chance to become part of a bigger world, to ambitious students unable to pay for guild membership dues, living nearby just for the chance to use the publicly accessible resources.

This cultural landscape may be jarring to see by many who have been lulled by Duilintinn’s relatively prosperous and socially-minded culture. While much progress has been made throughout the kingdom to reverse and recover from the injustices of both the Waldren Occupation and corrupt power struggles that dominated the Interim Years, some locations were far more entrenched in that history than others. Fionport’s history cannot be understated as one of the central stages of both the Waldren Occupation and Interim Years, and the effects of such a history cannot be erased overnight, nor even in several decades. Much like the stark class divisions in and around the city of Cordoire, Fionport is a stark reminder that, for all her efforts to the contrary, Duilintinn is not a perfect, idyllic nation without flaw. Thinking otherwise will only allow us to ignore the issues that yet remain.

## Trivia

* Part of the reason that the Merchants' Guild has such a major role in Fionport is that the author forgot that it was a Cordoire guild, not a Fionport Guild, and forgot that Keepers of Memory exists. That's also why the Keepers of Memory doesn't have a guild marked on the map at the top of this article.