Venehwa

They call Venehwa the Queen of the Sea and the Most Serene of Cities, and stories say that Venehwa of old bribed the crows to spare their crops. A city full of archetypical sharp dealers passing their years with turbulent conspiracy, bustling trade, and a yearly explosion of licensed mayhem, Venehwa's legendary serenity might be open to question. Perhaps between hijacking sword-pilgrimages, beheading its rulers, and revolutionizing Aoqinwa economics, Venehwa felt peaceful ~ but surely the actions of a few can easily change all that.

## History

The first Venehwadyti were refugees fleeing the war between the dwarf-king Alarak and Lomulu Hilwu, the eleventh king of Olba Logga. They hid out in the brackish swamps at the head of the Hatwy Sea. Raising a shrine to Persuasion in thanksgiving for their safety, they founded the city of Venehwa 1133 years ago. Venehwa's sea-girt refuge became its bulwark, and as Venehwadyti traders moved out into the oceans, the sea built Venehwa's unique power and prosperity. 427 years ago, Duke Mwetlo Ols-eol-o formally married the Most Serene of Cities to Persuasion's second cousin Sea by throwing a magic ring into the ocean; Venehwa's dukes have repeated their vows once a year on Nuptial Day since then. Both the College of High Priests and the Holy Holbytlano Emperor confirmed Venehwa's rights over the Hatwy 191 years ago at a peace conference attempting (and failing) to end Ludolvu II's War in the Hemeya. Neutral Venehwa hosted the conference because it had cunningly avoided becoming entangled in that war, preferring to seek treasure and trade among the dragon-ruled city-states of the Dragon Coast and the giff nation of Taweret.

When the Purple City of Zachar tried to restrict Venehwano trade, Erhich Dhandolho (the 213-year-old, completely blind gnome who was duke of Venehwa at the time) blackmailed and hijacked the Fourth Pilgrimage of Swords and personally led the charge onto the beach that took the impregnable Dragon Coast city. Venehwa emerged, for a time, as the unquestioned mistress of the eastern Voda. Venehwadyti traders penetrated far across the continent to the east, bringing back silks and spices to resell for gigantic profits. Unfortunately, partisans loyal to the purple dragon's memory recaptured the city 90 years ago, while the Venehwano fleet was out of port and raised Venehwa's ancient rival, Tlenoa, to a place of privilege. After 40 years of piracy and counter-piracy, Venehwa and Tlenoa went to war. Badly mauled in the early going, Venehwadyti admirals fought heroically and achieved a final draw 28 years ago. Venehwa came off much worse in the war it fought between 16 and 9 years ago with the College of High Priests over the city of Velwalwa; under Collegial interdict, Venehwadyti could not celebrate Golnevol-e, and their property and citizens could be attacked anywhere in Aoqina without legal repercussions. More frighteningly, the war and interdict led the Tweboldyti and Gwelinidyti families into conspiracy against the state. Thanks to a providential (some say magical . . .) storm, the loyalty of the sailors, and an old woman's well-aimed chamber pot (which killed Badamoste Twebol's standard-bearer and threw his conspirators into confusion), the plot of 13 years ago failed ~ barely ~ to overthrow the Queen of the Sea. Wracked by war, barely escaped from murderous treason, only just emerged from the spiritual terror of excommunication, and its trade in danger, Venehwa dearly hopes for a return to its fabled serenity.

## Government

Venehwa has an admirably stable government thanks to a long-standing ideology of civic unity and interlocking business arrangements among all the major families. Every family in the nobility (which includes the major merchants but has been closed to new members for 31 years) belongs to the Great Council; from the Council come the Gwalastla ("the Forty"), the chief judges. Three of the Forty (known as the Gabyti, "bosses, chiefs, leaders") attend the meetings of the duke's cabinet, the Council of Six ~ one for each hestwele. The duke is selected by a random group of councilors, none of whom can be of the same family. Upon election, the duke must sign a hwomittlome, explicitly limiting their power, and swear an oath to Persuasion; the Six and the Forty are empowered to prosecute the duke for violating their oath.

Of course, it isn't all checks and balances; the duke rules for life, while the Six serve non-repeating terms of one year each. The duke's bodyguard are the sailors and workers of the Olsnol, and the duke commands a secret police force called the Himwolti Motleno ("Lords of the Night"). The Himwolti Motleno, however, share jurisdiction with the individual town watches of Venehwa's parishes; and a Council of Ten (similar to the Six) watches everyone for signs of treason and conspiracy.

### Members of the Council of Six

1. Gaby ??
2. Gaby ??
3. Gaby ??

## Geography

Nearly 200,000 people jam into less than a square mile and a half of buildings, small gardens, and gaaboti ("fields") built on wooden piles pounded into the marsh. Each gaabo, usually planted in grass and trees, holds at least one decorated well-head capping a rainwater cistern to store fresh water, and serves as the heart and marketplace of a goutwade, or parish. The thirty Venehwaha goutwadeti make up six hestweleti ("sixths" or districts), occupying the center of the main, somewhat fish-shaped, "island" of Venehwa ~ actually a hundred or so small islets linked with landfill and larchwood rafts, and intercut with canals. Venehwa's brick, wood, and stone buildings rise along the canals; mwigolti (decorated posts) stick out of the water for mooring gondolas or barges. Venehwano bolttlyti are open on the ground floor, often serving private docks. Larger docks serve immense cargo cogs and galleys from as far away as Brobdingnag, Taweret, or the countries beyond Kyinyeih. Only Venehwadyti pilots can bring these ships safely to harbor; the main Venehwaha "island" sits at the center of a 200-square-mile lagoon, full of sandbars, riptides, shoals, and other hazards. This geography keeps Venehwa safe from attack ~ only a superior navy could force the Lido (the bar across the lagoon), and no navy in the world outranks that of Venehwa.

This invincible navy springs from the Gastol-le, the easternmost hestwele of Venehwa. Including the government Olsnol, shipyards and lumberyards cover this district; the workers (and the lumber) come from Syringia across the Hatwy Sea. The great Liva Sgwavomwano dockyard on the south side of the island throngs with traders ~ who superstitiously avoid the spot where Duke Vitol Mitwol II was stabbed to death 64 years ago. The temple to Initiation known as Saints Tlovanni and Baolo Church dominates the hestwele's north side; across the Lwo Mesdigastino are the busy workshops of the tailors, weavers, coopers, and blacksmiths of the Gannawetlo hestwele. A major grain warehouse and food market along the Vosdamesta Emwetilwano indicates Gannawetlo's thriving trade with the mainland Holbytlaha plains. Lesser merchants (like the triton ?Polo? family) live here, and the dragonborn and kobold traders tend to gather in this district's Gaabo Mowitino. Many charitable orders have established gamwiigolti, or hospitals, here, especially the Olato-lwo Gwosvelino for wounded or indigent sword-pilgrims.

South of Gannawetlo, across the Grand Canal, the "C" shaped hestwele of Nasta Gwotle arcs along the cloth factories on the western Canal, down along the western "jaws" of the Venehwano fish, and curves back east with the Lwo Mwova and Vosgali canals. Although some of the greatest families of Venehwa, such as the Behalosdyti and Mogenigosdyti, have their bolttlyti in northern Nasta Gwotle, it remains a marshy area of food depots and informal dockyards. South of Nasta Gwotle lies Dolsdzuwo, the "hard backbone" made up of many rocky, and hence stable, islands. On the western end of Dolsdzuwo, Saint Nihhol Mesdjigolno's Temple to Freedom watches over Venehwa's hardworking fishermen; the eastern side of Dolsdzuwo, fronted by new bolttlyti around the Nasvi (a temple of Jinx), runs along the Grand Canal, along with boatyards and stonemasons' shops. Dolsdzuwo's petty bourgeois and working-class families face the gasti veggweti ("old families") of Nas Bol across the Lwo Vosgali.

Nas Bol is a round hestwele nestled between the mouth of the Nasta Gwotle "C" and the Grand Canal. This hestwele, the oldest one in Venehwa, runs east from the immense church of Forgetfulness known as the Mwaly, past the ram-baiting pit at the Gaabo Nas-ha Bolha, through canals lined with fashionable homes and wineshops, to the fabeled Lwatlo bridge across the Grand Canal, Venehwa's commercial heart. Its spiritual and political heart lies across the Lwatlo in the hestwele of Nas Molgo, an oval district ranged around the great Hwattla Nas-ha Bolha, with the Molo docks on the south side of the Hwattla (and of the hestwele), just east of the Grand Canal's terminus.

### List of Hestweleti

* Gastol-le
* Gannawetlo
* Nasta Gwotle
* Dolsdzuwo
* Nas Bol
* Nas Molgo

### List of Temples, Shrines, & Churches

* Persuasion's Shrine
* Saints Tlovanni and Baolo Church to Initiation
* Saint Nihhol Mesdjigolno's Temple to Freedom
* the Nasvi (Jinx)
* the Mwaly (Forgetfulness)
* Cathedral of the Serpent-Skirted Lady (seat of the Elder of Venehwa)

### Other Locations

* Duke's Palace
* Hwattletta
* Boste Bumwitino

## Inhabitants

### Families

* Ols-eol-oti
* Dhandolho (gnomes)
* Tweboldyti
* Gwelinidyti
* Mitwoldyti
* Behalosdyti
* Mogenigosdyti
* ?Polo? (sahuagin)

### Individuals

#### Masters of the Realm

* Duke Twovanny Tlol-asdo of Venehwa, 107-year-old male Imperial halfling
	+ noble princess of a diplomatic lineage 7/mariner battle master fighter 6/Peace cleric 2
	+ cavalier in the order of the monument *(daring champion, strategist)* 6/Good *(Peace)* cleric 2/noble scion 7
* Daste Alygweli, 73-year-old male Imperial halfling
	+ plaintiff dueling gunslinger fighter 3/bard in the college of whispers 10
	+ gunslinger *(maverick, thronewarden)* 3/bard *(stilnovista)* 10
* Molgo Bolo, 88-year-old male sahuagin ?? princess of a mythic lineage (midnight form: swan, eyes as the ocean, hair as gold, woodland mastery) 5/scout rogue 3/superior technique (parry) samurai fighter 3

#### Heroes of the Realm

* Thransheskho "the Dog" Dhandolho, 133-year-old male gnome
	+ guild merchant princess of a diplomatic lineage 5/alchemist artificer 5
	+ investigator *(conspirator)* 5/noble scion 5
* ?Domenico Schiavo?, 36-year-old male owlin ?? princess of a lineage of war 1/druidic warrior (*guidance*, *primal savagery*) fey wanderer ranger 8
* Wogelwo "the Black Claw" Molosni, 80-year-old male Imperial halfling
	+ pirate princess of a lineage of war 3/mariner retiarius fighter 6
	+ aristocrat 3/swashbuckler *(Shackles corsair)* 6
* Badamoste Twebol-o, 60-year-old male halfling ?? princess of a diplomatic lineage 4/blind fighting cavalier fighter 3/mastermind rogue 2