Torrune

Torrune is a huge, bustling mercantile city in the central Helvandrian League. It is located at the confluence of the Helvander and Greywine rivers, just below the cataracts that separate the upper and lower Helvander. It is the largest city in League lands, and the second richest and most important, after Hakoris. In fact, it is probably the largest human city in all of Rhydain, exceeded in size only by the dwarven capital of Kuzulnizam. Its position at the river confluence downstream of the cataracts makes it a natural hub for river-borne trade, and it also lies at the convergence point of several major roads and overland trade routes fanning out into the central League lands and beyond.

Torrune is an autonomous city-state governed by its own archon, typically styled simply as “the Lord of the City”. Thus Torrune is properly an archonate, but it is rarely called such. It is a full-fledged member of the League in its own right; Torrune’s archon is a palatine elector of the League and not subject to the authority of either of the lords whose lands surround the city’s territory (the Duchy of Charagma to the north, to which Torrune formerly belonged, and the Huareb principality to the south and east).

Torrune's name derives from the old Tuvai "tarhu", meaning a threshold or the foot of a stair, appended with the suffix -rhun or -rûn, often seen in place names and denoting "the area around," "the margin," "the vicinity," or "that which is near" (cf. the Helvanderûn). "Tarhu" in this context is a reference to the lower end of the cataracts, and Torrune's name simply means "the place which is near to the bottom of the falls".

**GEOGRAPHY AND LAYOUT**

Torrune proper lies just east of the point where the Greywine joins the Helvander; this confluence is roughly two miles downstream from the last of the cataracts. The city straddles the main channel of the Helvander and is divided into two walled sections, called simply the High City and the Low City. The High City is the smaller of the two and is situated on rising ground on the river’s south bank, encompassing four notable hills. Within the High City are the Archon’s palace, Torrune’s monumental tessaraon, and the grand houses of most of the city’s wealthiest merchants and magnates. The Low City, substantially larger, is located just across the river on the north bank, where the ground is mostly flat and low-lying, although it does have one large hill rising in its western half. The Low City is home to the majority of Torrune’s population, mostly poorer and working-class people, and is the site of most of its commercial activity.

Two huge bridges span the Helvander, connecting the High and Low Cities. The more easterly or downstream of these is the so-called Fortress Bridge or Dwarven Bridge, and its westerly or upstream counterpart is Qorro’s Bridge or the New Bridge. The former is so named because it was built by dwarven architects and masons during the Old Empire days, and because at its midpoint it passes through the imposing Beklagard fortress, which rises from the Helvander in the middle of its channel like a gigantic stone ship. Qorro’s Bridge is of much more recent construction (thus its alternate name, the New Bridge) and is of less marvelous workmanship, although it is still an impressive engineering feat.

Just west of the walled portions of Torrune, separated from them by the Helvander-Greywine confluence and located on the wedge-shaped area of land that lies in the crook of the river junction, is the disorderly and disreputable district of Fenside. It is not walled, and is relatively new compared to Torrune proper, although its origins go back several centuries. Two smaller and less impressive bridges join Fenside to the city proper: The Nyrrian Bridge which crosses the Helvander just above the confluence and connects to the Low City’s Millstone Quarter, and the Boatmender’s Bridge which crosses the Greywine and connects to its southeast bank outside the walls of the High City. Immediately west of Fenside’s bottomland rises the ill-famed Hex Hill, whose summit is said to be a cursed place.

In addition to Fenside, there are two other sizable districts that have sprung up outside the city walls: The Shambles, which lies mostly north of the Low City, and Little Maarna, which spreads out to the southwest of the High City, stretching from the Temple Gate down along the Greywine's east bank. Both of these are genuinely new, having appeared only the in past few years and grown very rapidly; and both are little more than shantytowns. They are inhabited by refugees from the far west, displaced from their homelands (Sularia, Dranuria, Ojaum, etc.) and driven into Rhydain by the catastrophic invasions of Gol Garga’s horde. Of the refugees that reached Helvandrian lands, many flocked to Torrune in search of work and shelter, and these sprawling, chaotic slums outside the city walls are the result.

The actual boundaries of the Torrune city-state and the Archon’s territory extend for up to several miles beyond the immediate environs of the city. To the northwest, the Portage Road, the Helvander cataracts, the much smaller town of Sillport above them, and the surrounding land all also lie within the city’s domain. North and east of the city, the Archon’s rule encompasses a substantial area of the surrounding farmland, woods, and villages. To the south, the city’s domain likewise includes a sizable portion of the rolling hilly country along the Helvander’s southern banks. The boundaries seperating Torrune's territory from that of Charagma and Huareb are well-marked with standing stones, especially on the major roads, which serve as signposts for wayfarers to inform them when they cross from one magnate's domain to the next.

**THE CITY’S HISTORY**

Main article: History of Torrune.

The known history of Torrune stretches back over two thousand years, to the establishment of a Qossite trading post below the falls in roughly 900 BV. However, the site was likely settled before then, quite possibly for millennia; latter-day scholars simply lack written records of those ancient days. Legends of pre-human habitation of the site by elves or dwarves are likewise unverifiable. Qoss controlled the area, along with much of the rest of eastern Rhydain, for nearly a millennium, but its period of dominance was ended abruptly by the Great Cataclysm and the entrepot located where Torrune now stands was apparently put to the torch during the ensuing period of chaos.

The site was resettled and rebuilt by the newly founded Asgali Empire roughly a century later, in the 100s CV, and over the next few hundred years grew to become one of the empire's premier cities and trading hubs. It was during this time that the massive Beklagard fortress, and the impressive bridge linking it to either river-shore, were built with dwarven assistance. However, the fall of the empire in 844 CV brought an end to large-scale river trade and a new period of anarchic feudal warfare, in which Torrune was sacked repeatedly and mostly depopulated. Robber-barons and river-pirates menaced what scant commerce still flowed on the Helvander, and Torrune shrank to little more than a village on the edge of the old city's ruins.

However, the rise of the Helvandrian League in the 900s CV led to another renewal in Torrune's fortunes. The restoration of large-scale river trade up and down the Helvanderûn and ushered in a period of tremendous growth and rebuilding for the city. All this prosperity was greatly to the benefit of the dukes of Charagma, whose domains included Torrune and the cataracts. Eventually, the chief merchants of the city arranged to outright buy its independence from Charagma, taking advantage of the duchy's weak leadership and dire financial situation after the War of the Four Palatines (1083 - 1087 CV).

Thus in 1089 CV, Torrune became a self-governing city-state and a member of the League in its own right, ruled by an Archon elected by a council of the city's most prominent citizens. However, subsequent political upheavals in the city have led to the Archon's position becoming hereditary rather than electoral, much to the chagrin of many of the rich merchant clans who used to have a hand in choosing their ruler.

The growth and prosperity of Torrune have continued apace since then, spurred on by the fact that tax revenue from the booming river trade is no longer being siphoned off by the dukes of Charagma. In recent years, the city's population has swelled even larger with the arrival of great numbers of western refugees fleeing Gol Garga's invasion.

**QUARTERS AND DISTRICTS**

The Low City and High City are both divided into several major quarters or districts, in turn each divided by long-standing convention into several neighborhoods of varying sizes. This is in addition to the Fenside, long considered it's own distinct "third part" of the city with its own collection of (mostly downscale and disreputable) neighborhoods, as well as the new slums of Little Maarna and the Shambles outside the High and Low City walls respectively.

**TRADE AND COMMERCE**

Torrune’s position downstream of the cataracts is what gives the city its great commercial importance; all trade and traffic flowing along Helvander between the upper and lower parts of the valley must be portaged around the unnavigable falls, and Torrune is the hub where goods are unloaded from boats for portage to the upper river, or re-loaded for continued shipment downriver. The other end of the portage route is Sillport, just above the cataracts, roughly four miles upstream from Torrune. The two are connected by the portage road, which runs along the north bank of the river and bypasses the cataracts. Both Sillport and the portage road lie within the hinterland of Torrune and are subject to the laws of its archon.

The singular importance of the portage route to trade on the Helvander, and the peculiarities of League laws allowing local rulers to levy taxes on commerce at points of transit (e.g. from river-barge to wagon and back again) as well as when it enters their territory, account for the great prosperity of Torrune. All the commerce on the Helvander inevitably flows through Torrune and the lord of the city is able to extract a uniquely large amount of revenue from this trade, making him the envy of other Helvandrian magnates.

The Greywine River is also a major trade artery in its own right, and an important branch in the network of commercial routes for which the Helvander is the spine. The fact that it joins the Helvander just below the cataracts only augments the importance of Torrune's site as a natural trade hub. Its economic importance coupled with its central location in League lands also naturally make Torrune a major crossroads and nexus of overland trade, further enhancing the flow of goods through the city.

LAW AND GOVERNMENT

ROADS, CANALS, AND PUBLIC WORKS

WALLS AND DEFENSES

TEMPLES AND RELIGION

PEOPLES AND INHABITANTS

DAILY LIFE

CRIME AND PUNISHMENT

OUTLYING AREAS