Adira

**Adira** is criminal-run city in the kingdom of Larsia. It is one of the most dangerous corners of the Ward.

## General Information

The demonym is Adiran. The residents of the city are from all over the Ward. Many are as large as Dom. They are bruisers, bandits, pit fighters, sailors, thieves, and beautiful courtesans. There are no guards or city watch. The only form of defense are the wardens are on the bridges, walls, and gates. The laws of Adira are simple, there are none.

Adira is a place of card tables, concubines and brothels, and night markets hawking goods from all over the Ward. Curio shops have real dragon scales. Spindletouched mages sell tonics and poisons outside taverns. Thieves' gangs and pirate crews outfit their companies here. Its streets are bristling with rusty knives and gutter rats. Adira is most active at night.

### History

Adira was formerly known as Piradorant, meaning the Adoring Port, during the Cor Empire. The small city and surrounding territory had sworn allegiance to Old Cor long before their armies arrived. Thus, they were treated well. The city's walls were gilded and the streets were wealthy. But with the fall of the empire, so did the city fall. In modern times, Adira is often cut off by battle or blockade between Larsia and Galland. Thus it survives through less than honorable means. The King of Larsia lacks the strength to wrest it back from the criminals who control it and Galland doesn't bother. Adira has adapted to the world as it is, becoming what it needs to be.

### Geography

Adira is a three days' ride by horseback from Ascal, Galland to Adira. It's "a pilgrimage for all below and beyond the laws of any crown." Adira is a Cor-built wonder. It cannot be assaulted from land. It is a fortress slum on a marshy peninsula. The land around Adira exists in an eerie in-between, part of no kingdom and separated by a narrow barrier of mud from the rest of Larsia. A stone causeway zigzags over the marshes, with no less than six drawbridges, all of them pulled up. Alongside the causeway are the docks. The final bridge connects the causeway to the city hill. The city is walled in by a crown of mossy stone and wood palisade. The city walls are as wide as three men abreast and the gates are flung wide open. Murder holes pock the ceiling of the gates. A shantytown bunches around the gate and walls. It's loosely organized. While it looks like a slum, it doesn't have the despair.

After passing through the gate is a square where streets branch off in a spiderweb. A notable landmark is the Priest's Hand. It's a former church from two centuries ago. Now it is a marketplace. The pews have been removed to make room for stalls. It has a domed roof and a former shrine to Tiber. The yard of the Priest's Hand used to be a cemetery, but most of the gravestones have been torn up. Now it serves as a meeting square outside the market. The Adira port juts over the water with fat planks of wood hammered together to make a square. It bridges the main peninsula and a set of rocky islands the size of a cathedral. The islands are a land unto themselves. One island has an onion-domed roof painted pale orange, the telltale sign of a Treckish church. Another island has palisade walls around it, the planks painted woad blue with Jydi symbols of white-and-green knots marked over them. A third island has a flat top, crowned in a verdant garden and a small bell tower with white and yellow-gold pennant flags looping from roof to roof, marking an Ishei district.

## Known Locations

* The Priest's Hand
* Ishei Teahouse