Hakoris

Hakoris is the capital city of the Helvandrian League and the League's primary seaport. It is located near the mouth of the River Helvander on the Modrinian coastline, where the great river flows into the Orphan-Bird's Bay and thus the Sea of Tyrus. Hakoris is the seat of the Prince-Palatine and his court. Its position as the convergence point for almost all trade flowing in and out of Helvandrian lands (and thus the rich dwarven kingdoms around them, especially Kuzul-Kadrin) makes it one of the biggest and wealthiest cities in Rhydain. Torrune exceeds it in sheer size, but not in richness or splendor.

The city is noted for its many beautiful temples (particularly that of Kothaur, for whose cult it is a major center), and for its dozens of splendid palatial dwellings. The former have been endowed with riches over the centuries by Palatines seeking to curry favor with the gods and their priesthoods, while the latter have been built by generations of the Taefemach's most successful mercantile clans to show off their wealth and prestige to each other in the city where all must gather to engage in League politics. The largest and most opulent of all is the Palace of Concord, the Prince-Palatine's own residence. However, the biggest structure in Hakoris is not the Palace of Concord, nor any of the tessaraon's grand temples, but the city's enormous hippodrome. Chariot-racing is not generally a popular entertainment in Helvandrian lands, but it was introduced to Hakoris via trading contacts with the Phyridian Empire (where it is quite popular), and many of the city's people are now fanatics for it.

Hakoris lies on the west or left bank of the Helvander a few miles from its mouth, situated on a neck of land which separates the final stretch of the river from the Strakewater (a wide, shallow lagoon just to the west). The city itself covers the land between these two bodies of water and is roughly rectangular in shape, with its longer axis running north-south, its western walls facing the lagoon, and its eastern side on the river. The Strakewater is connected to the Sea of Tyrus but a belt of rocky shoals and sand banks prevents anything except small boats from entering it; thus the maritime port of Hakoris is entirely on the city's eastern side, on the riverfront, and ships approaching the city do so by sailing up the Helvander.

Hakoris lies only a couple miles downriver from the old site of Thandrium, which was the capital city of the Old Empire up until its collapse. In fact, the ruins of Thandrium were heavily exploited as a source of stones for the construction of Hakoris, starting a few decades after the Old Empire's fall. Many of the palatine city's grand edifices stand on foundations of blocks taken from tumbled-down old Asgali palaces, and its streets are paved with slabs that may have once lined Thandrium's imperial avenues. In the days of the Old Empire, the present site of Hakoris was instead occupied by a large fortress rising between the Helvander and the Strakewater, controlling entry to the river mouth and access to the capital city a short distance upstream. The decision to found Hakoris on the location of this fortress, rather than to rebuild on the ruins of Thandrium, was based on the superior defensibility of the former site. This consideration was much more important in the chaotic post-Asgali period than it had been in the days of imperial stability. It was also influenced by the fact that slow shifts in the Helvander's course had gradually moved the main channel away from Thandrium's old site, making it less useful as a river-port than it had been several centuries before.

The defensibility of Hakoris was put to the test in living memory, in 1212 CV, when Thanagai II of the Kirdan Empire dispatched an invasion fleet from Phoacia to seize the city. This took the Helvandrians quite by surprise, and the Kirdan navy brushed aside a smaller fleet of League ships before landing its troops only a short distance down the Modrinian coast from Hakoris. They reached the city two days later, put it under siege, and were able completely invest it. Thanagai II had assumed that the fractious, decentralized structure of the Helvandrian League would prevent them from responding effectively before he could seize the city and its surrounding region. Once it was in his hands, it would be nearly impossible to retake, given the great military power of the Kirdan Empire, the strength of the city's own defenses, and the ease of ferrying more forces across the Sea of Tyrus to reinforce it.

As it happened, the Helvandrians were able to muster an army more quickly than the Tash-Teshivan expected, and they were aided by reinforcements sent from Kuzul-Kadrin. This army drove off the Kirdan besiegers in a battle that ended with the latter retreating back to their ships and (mostly) escaping back across the sea before they could be crushed conclusively. Nevertheless, Hakoris was subjected to siege for several months before being relieved. This was not a simple attempt to surround the city until their supplies ran out; the walls were under frequent attack by siege engines and by mines dug by the skilled Kirdan engineers. There were also attacks with floating siege towers and all manner of ship-mounted weapons on Kirdan vessels in the Helvander, and even on shallow-bottomed floating platforms in the Strakewater on the western side. The walls held out admirably, a point of pride for the Helvandrians since they (unlike the fortifications of, say, Torrune) were built entirely by human architects, without any dwarven assistance.