Starport

The old Elven Cloud Castle of Air - known as 'Air Star' - that was grounded followint the casting of the GSOV by the Elves. Alvera has succeeded in raising the city, and it is now flying again - albeit somewhat slowly.

Chosen by Alvera as his capital in exile is also a pilgrimage site for the Wyldwood religion. With a population of both Human and Ariel, the City has been calling for mages of power to attend court although the reason for this is unknown.

As a city it is about the same size as Northlake, with the main Hightower/Sabarath highway running through the southern district of the city. Surprisingly the city has little in the way of fortifications other than the central castle, it is known that Alvera prefers mobility to a static defence and as such the Sky Knights that are based at StarPort fit perfectly into his mindset.

Alvera currently holds exiled Court at the Cloud Castle [nudge nudge, wink wink] of Star Port, keeping it as a Wyldwood sanctuary even though his own religious inclinations are elsewhere.

**Military Force: Royal Sky Knights (**Starport**) – approx. 1500** (See Alveran Military)

Heavily armoured knights, all mounted on Giant Warhawks as found at Starport. Individuals or small squads from this regiment often function as royal emissaries/justiciars/troubleshooters.

Commander: King Alvera

People originating from Startport: Cagrun

## Days 35-41:

King Alvera has started fortifying Starport, a ditch has been dug around most of the city and walls are being erected. There have been complaints from citizens whose houses have been cleared to make way for these works.

## My thoughts:

This is exactly what I would expect a grounded flying city to be like: A central citadel that was the main 'flying' bit, but no city walls (which are of no use to a flying city) - with newer buildings and settlements growing up around the original structure.

When Starport was founded is unclear, general acceptance is that it was during the time of chaos. The general belief is that a small tribe of nomadic humans settled here and finding the Greathawks roosting in the high towers of the citadel realised the opportunity presented. Taming the Greathawks allowed this tribe to become a major power in the region prior to the foundation of the Kingdom.

*More of my thoughts - the timing is right, and are you really telling me that the city had been there all along (rather than just landed) and nobody noticed???*

Comment from Gohde: For some reason or other, it is rarely found on a map, however it's location is common knowledge in that it is about midway between Hightower and Sabarath.…

Comment from Roh'dal: The only thing the squad can tell you about Starport is that early during the reign of Williams father it was a ruin but was known to be the home for very large hawks. These were trained as mounts and the city rebuilt around the growing garrison which evolved over time into the Royal Sky Knights.

## Dougal's musings:

* Starport was *chosen by Alvera as his capital in exile*, and is where the brooch and intelligence that we acquired were sent.
* Starport *has been calling for mages of power to attend court although the reason for this is unknown*.
* Starport is a pilgrimage site for the Wyldwood religion. (And add in the Elven comment of "*unless those fairy stories about the wild wood are true*".)
* Most city names appear to be called after something/someone - or are fairly literal geographic/functional descriptions. eg. Nortlake, Hightower, Stormhaven, Riverside and all the other ports - Westport, Norport, Tradeport, Royal Farport etc. **Starport** sounds like one of these descriptive names, but is nowhere near the coast or any large body of water - in fact it is on *'the main highway from Hightower to Sabarath*'. So its name may be quite significant.
* Starport does not appear on most maps, for unexplained reasons.

It is hard not to jump to the conclusion that Alvera is attempting to raise a 'star' in Starport. No evidence yet about what exactly the 'star' is (starship/celestial or powerful being/portal/spell?), but if Starport itself was originally a flying city that they are trying to 'raise' then that would explain why it has no fixed place on the map - or perhaps it is indeed illustrated at the bottom left of our map (after all, the sea monsters turned out to be real enough for the invading Elves.) Or there might be some connection to the Elven '*afeared Sky Fleet*'.

## Caradoc's musings:

The map has pictures of flying city islands or something approximating to this in three of the four corners – its probably worth investigating the historical influences on the map further while researching the mysteriously appearing creatures issue.  The island in the top right has flying critters flapping around it but they appear to be draconic rather than avian. However it would make sense that there would have to be some means of transport to and from a flying city so giant hawks could well have been used and still been living there after it came down.

The map title may be relevant here to in that it refers to North island in ancient times being referred to as the Isle of Hasandra – which is too similar to Hahsandra to be a coincidence. The map is dated to the eleventh year of the crimson dragon – any ideas as to how old the map is based on this?  Where did we get the map from in the first place?  If it’s an old map and one of the flying islands fell to earth after it was made it would help explain why Starport is not shown on this particular map.  If the map has some historical basis it suggests there may be another couple of “stars” out there somewhere – and the elves reference to “one of the stars” would also point to others still existing.

1. ↑ Zoom session 18th March – Meeting Bez Drock
2. ↑ Day 14-20 – The first week in Northlake
3. ↑ Alveran Politics
4. ↑ Day 35-41 – The fourth week in Northlake
5. ↑ Day 21-27 – The second week in Northlake