Roulan

The streets of Roulan, with the White Cathedral in Temple Ward in the background.

## Society

### Races

60% humans
 15% half-elves
 10% elves
 5% halflings
 10% other

## Politics

### Ruler

Aylen Fengaust

***"Roulan -- the capital of Aldia, Erideon, and this corner of the World."***

**— Gradius the Wanderer in conversation.**

**Roulan** is the capital and largest city of the New Monarchy of Aldia. The largest city of Erideon, and one of the larger settlements in the World, Roulan has a population of around 160,000.

As the wealthiest and largest city of Aldia and Erideon, Roulan is paramount amongst the cities of the continent, second to none in influence, productivity, and bureaucracy.

It houses the palace of Laurence II Istiniac, head of the New Monarchy; the Aldian Parliament; and all of the other important bureaucratic organs of the Aldian state.

The city is also home to a foul and festering underground, replete with some of the most infamous criminal bands of Erideon.

## Geography

Roulan is nestled in the rolling hills and fertile valleys of the enormously wealthy duchy of Verhasselt. The low-lying coasts of Roulan make docking and ferrying easy to both seagoing and lesser vessels.

## Trade

Roulan is the capital of trade in Aldia, Erideon, and much of the world around it, accepting merchants and wares from three nearby continents and exporting a substantial fraction of the resources exported from Erideon.

## Defenses

Roulan is defended by tall and nearly-insurmountable walls, staggered in three districts. Its large population and well-designed, overlapping defenses mean that the city is, for any army of a realistic size and disposition, impossible to capture and hold. Historically, Roulan has only switched hands by the surrender of the city's garrison, or by the rebellion of the same.

## Notable Locations

On the right is a quick and dirty map of Roulan I just drew up. It's just the area inside the innermost city walls, so it does not include the enormous shanty town outside the walls themselves.

### The Old Bourg

The Old Bourg is the area of the capital north of the Seitern river, and the location of the first settlement of the region -- specifically, the Old Keep of Roulan. It houses most of the city's administrative and bureaucratic organs, as well as the oldest and most traditional of the city's guilds (e.g. the masons, the smiths).

#### Castle Ward

* **Castle Docks**, a series of private docks for seafaring vessels.
* **The Old Keep**, the first fortification of the city, and the former seat of the local government.

#### Five Hills

* **Guildhouse of the Worshipful Company of Whitesmiths and Blacksmiths**, popularly known as the Smiths' Guildhouse, houses the Smiths' Guild.
* **The King's Bridge**, connects the Five Hills ward to Temple Ward.
* **The King's Plaza**, the administrative center of the city, and the seat of most of its bureaucratic organizations. Around it is the City Hall, a large number of Guild Halls, and many other such buildings.
* **The Lysorian Corner Club**, an elegant and well-appointed 'corner club', meaning it is both restaurant, hotel, and society. The Lysorian Society is known to be composed of progressive-thinking aristocrats and burghers.
* **Yarrow Bridge**, the common name of the Great Bridge of Andreas the King, on account of the Yarrow growing on either side. It completely spans the Seitern river, leading from the Old Square to the Great Arch and Laurence's Square.
* **North Yarrow Square**, also known as the Old Square, a smaller plaza, mostly known as the site of public executions.

#### King's Ward

* **The Royal Gardens**, located around the palace itself, and are completely enclosed in yet another set of walls.
* **The Royal Palace**, the seat of the Aldian Monarch.

### The New Bourg

The New Bourg is the area of the capital south of the Seitern river. It houses many of the city's large markets, as well as many newer guilds and merchant organizations and companies.

#### Great Arch

* **The Great Arch**, a monumental arch erected to celebrate the liberation of Aldreic from tyranny via the Glorious Revolution. It was constructed, at an incredible cost, by the monarch of Aldia.
* **Laurence's Box**, the pejorative name given to the *Square in the Memory of the Glorious Revolution Everlasting*, and also known as South Yarrow Square, directly south of Andreas's Bridge and the Old Square. It is infamous because the monarch seized and demolished private property in order to erect it, and the Great Arch next to it.
* **The Queen's Bridge**, connects the New Bourg to Temple Ward.
* **The Queen's Plaza**, where most craftsmen sell fine wares, and the chief market (per se) of the city. It is pejoratively known as a place of relatively cheap wares, for which reason the residents of the Old Bourg criticise it.

#### Queen's Ward

* **The Golden Pavilion**, a newer palace built only recently, and, yet again, at monumental cost.
* **The Royal Library**, the monarch's personal library and the royal institution of research and learning. It is the only such institution that enjoys royal patronage. It is one of the most prestigious centers of learning in the New Monarchy, Erideon, and, indeed, the world. However, it does not offer any sort of education except to the royal family itself.

#### Temple Ward

* **The White Cathedral**, the near-universal (outside of clergymen) name of the *House of the Holy of Holies in the City of Flowers* for the imposing epicenter of the White Covenant. The cathedral is closed to the general public, and guarded zealously by the Auditors of the Faith.
* **Tenpenny Ward**, the portion of Temple Ward that remains open to transit, specifically transit between the King and Queen's squares via the eponymous bridges. 'Tenpenny Ward' is known as such because of the former toll of five pennies required to cross each bridge, and levied by the bridge authority; the royal patronage in building Yarrow Bridge, as well as numerous ferries that offer transport for less than five coppers, means that the toll has not been collected in decades. However, the name remains.

#### Port Ward

* **The City Docks**, the principal docking point for seafaring vessels bringing their wares to the center of the city.
* **Fentam's Square**, named after famed captain Hieronymus de Fentam, where one may acquire all manner of goods from overseas.

#### The Strands

* **The Tarhenius Collegium**, an institution of learning composed of many outcasts and 'deviants' (they refer to themselves as 'freethinkers', led in an anarcho-communist fashion by no person in general, but the will of the collegiates.
* **The Athenaeum**, a place of learning particularly in the fields of geography, exploration, and the social sciences. It is rebuked by many as being a pedestrian institution.