Barrowton

The largest city in all of Helias, Barrowton is the capital of the Swurn Isles and the world’s largest and busiest trading hub. Positioned strategically on the coasts of Wesral Ocean, it is a convenient location for trade with many cities on various western continents and Mea, with it's primary external trading partner being Menathis. As such, it is the primary port for the Swurn Isles. The city is also famed for its Grand Colosseum where a variety of events are performed for its thousands of residents.

Both the provincial and national capital city, this is the oldest, largest, most defensible, and rich city on the isles. The king of the isles sits in the nearby Castle Muchos, however the majority of the isles’ administrative tasks are done by workers in the city.

## History

### Ancient Era

Although not officially formed as a settlement until much later, it is believed the site Barrowton exists on was home to some form of presence by the Ancients civilization before their fall, much like most of Swurnia. It is unknown whether remnants of this civilization have a direct tie between those who created Barrowton.

### Dark Era

Barrowton was officially formed in 392 BR by various tribes in the Barrowlands region. During this span, it was just a small village, and it's population was never really able to grow significantly due to being not well fortified against the hostile forces of the world and survival was the number one priority of residents. After Ridgeview was formed in 249 BR nearby, hostilities quickly started occurring between the two rival villages over shared resources. In the following centuries, many battles occurred between the two towns, and the residents of Barrowton viewed the residents of Ridgeview as a bigger threat even than the monsters of the night.

During this era, Barrowton was not the trade powerhouse it eventually became. Although it had a small dock and hosted the occasional wandering trader from distant lands, usually Menathis, it did not have much economic power to leverage it's central location and build the infrastructure to gain ground as a trade hub that it later became. At this time, Barrowton's economy was generally small-scale farming operations and any trade that was done was typically their excess grown food in exchange for quality of life conveniences.

### The Rebirth

In 1 AR, Aarno landed on the coasts of Swurnia after spotting Barrowton from his boat. This became the first meeting of a Paragon and a Habitant population. The residents greeted him warmly and with great curiosity. As a result of the warm welcome, Aarno happily settled a homestead on a nearby hill and started assisting the residents in their day to day lives. Due to his great powers as a paragon, his assistance brought great benefits for the town, such as him defending against a roaming pillager attack, and his assistance in creating a wall around the town to fortify from future threats.

This additional level of safety allowed Barrowton to focus on it's economy, and shortly had built a port and was hosting traders from more and more regions, most notably with Menathis. This addition immediately allowed Barrowton to establish itself as a trade hub, as it is positioned in a prime location to be the middleman of trade between the Pliphia, Mea, and Ecolira continents and thus was able to host traders from the largest cities in the world despite it's small port and population.

This sudden prosperity allowed Aarno to feel confident in the ability for Barrowton to be self-sufficient for a time, and he left to explore Swurnia. After a two-year journey, he returned, having visited and assisted Ridgeview among other adventures. The residents of Barrowton felt initially wary of him having positive relations with Ridgeview, however reluctantly accepted his insistence to have the mayors of the towns meet for talks. At these talks, a non-agression pact was signed by the mayors and a tentative truce was in action. For the first time in the history of both towns, hostilities were drawn to a close.

Within a couple years of this truce, enforced by Aarno, Ridgeview started sending traders to Barrowton to capitalize on Barrowton's newfound prosperity. This marked a major turning point in relations between the two towns as it was the first time a Ridgeview resident was allowed inside of Barrowton.

The construction of the nearby Castle Muchos started bringing additional travelers from around Helias to Barrowton, who stayed at it's taverns to get a glimpse at the towering behemoth of a fortress. These travelers purchased goods from Barrowton and increased it's wealth, and as such this was the spark of a new economy as of yet unseen in Helias, a tourism economy.

All of this newfound prosperity allowed Barrowton to reinforce it's recently built wooden fence with stone, and create what eventually became known as the Old Town Wall in 29 AR.

### Modern Era

In roughly 32 AR, Barrowton found its population exploding as travelers from around the world who visited Barrowton chose to settle there permanently, which was being strongly encouraged by officials in Barrowton as it needed more and more manpower to fuel it's growing economy. Space within the Old Town Wall was at capacity, and as such residents started to settle outside the safety of the walls. To facilitate this safely, Barrowton built a barracks which hosted an official standing military force, which was tasked with patrolling the area around the city to help residents outside of the wall have a level of safety despite the lack of physical barrier.

Having grown significantly in just a few short years, the Old Town Port began to be insufficient at servicing the vast amounts of naval traffic Barrowton was now seeing. It was decided in 39 AR to begin construction on a grand port on the southern coasts of Barrowton. This was to be the largest port in the known world, and would be capable of handling enough naval traffic to facilitate it's quick growth to being one of the largest cities in the world.

## Districts

### Old Town

The Old Town district is the district that houses the oldest buildings in Barrowton and was the original walled city of Barrowton before its population grew. The area of this district is marked by the Old Town Wall, and this district is the one district not generally focused on a certain area and rather a full self-sufficient town within the city, due to its nature as having once hosted all that a town needed to function. You can find the old military barracks of the city, a host of various artisans, the Swaffos Pre-Memorial Library, as well as the Old Town Port, which is still a busy port despite the creation of The Port district.

### Colosseum District

Centered around the massive Grand Colosseum, the Colosseum district is the primary entertainment district for the city. Although the Colosseum is the primary focus of the district, it also hosts a large amount of inns & taverns, as well as [OTHER ENTERTAINMENT OPTIONS].

### The Port

As trade and naval traffic exploded upon the expansion of Barrowton's trade industry, the Old Town Port was deemed unable to handle the gigantic amount of ships that were passing through it. As a result of this, The Port district was created on the south shores of Swurnia, and is the largest port in all of Helias. It hosts a gigantic number of ships, and supplies the majority of Barrowton as well as is a port for goods that go all across the Swurn Isles. It is the industrial centre of the city, and has a large number of warehouses and factories as well.

## Economy

### Trade

Barrowton due to it's location on Swurnia, is positioned in an extremely convenient location for trade, allowing it to be the single busiest worldwide trading hub. It's position in the centre of the Wesral Ocean allows it to be a convenient location for cities in Mea, Pliphia, Ecolira, and Preke. These continents make up the vast majority of the population of Helias and many of the largest cities in the world are on these continents, and as a result of this, Barrowton finds itself hosting traders from Menathis, Al Sanai, Thyme, Kytha, and other powerhouses. This location also makes it a trade middleman with the Eskan Empire and the Sanai Republic, much like Kytha, as it is not a part of their hostilities, allowing them to profit off of that.

### Tourism

This sector of the economy was created upon construction of the nearby Castle Muchos, as it was the first structure of it's level of grandeur built since the ages of the Ancients. The construction of this brought wealthy travelers from around the world who wished to see it, and in doing so they would stay in Barrowton and spend money in the local economy. This spurred Barrowton to embrace this, as this bolstered the local economy, as well as many of the tourists stayed to become permanent residents, which allowed Barrowton to grow faster. This essentially became the world's first tourism industry.

Since then, Barrowton has attempted to draw even more tourists with other grand spectacles. In 56 AR, construction began on the Grand Colosseum, which towers above the city and can host gladiator events for thousands of spectators. Visiting a gladiator fight at this colosseum would be a must-see activity for anyone who wishes to experience the world.

### Exports

Although not as reliant on base goods production like many smaller cities are, Barrowton does produce a number of goods which are exported to the worlds. Barrowton is especially famed for it's various artisan creations, where it refines imported raw goods and uses it's highly skilled labor to create high quality tools, jewelry, armor, enchantments, and other similar goods to Helias. Due to it's high population and urban lifestyle, many of the residents are able to get an education which allows it to have the highest concentration of skilled artisans.