Thrommelport

Thrommelport (archaically, Thromport) is a large independent city-state, in fact one of Urva’s largest cities, situated at the westernmost point of Taijuria (Cape Kueron, at the tip of Peiramia) and commanding the Dragon’s Jaw strait that separates Taijuria from Rhydain. Its singular position means it can control the flow of all shipping and commerce between the Sarpic Seas and the Emerald Ocean, giving it unique strategic importance and greatly enriching its rulers and merchant class.

This same enviable position has always made Thrommelport an object of avarice for various empires and kingdoms in the region, and at various points in the past, the city has been subjected to foreign suzerainty, forced into tributary status, compelled to allow free passage for ships of this or that empire, or outright conquered and occupied. On just as many occasions, however, it has succeeded in rebuffing such attempts by much larger empires, either by virtue of canny political maneuvering, its superbly trained fleet, its formidable fortifications, or all three. Thrommelport is currently a fully sovereign and independent city-state, with the lord of the city calling no king his master.

Physically, Thrommelport is built on the slopes of the three steep, projecting promontories that form the tip of the Cape Kueron headland, running together with parallel ridges from their triple summits down to the shore of the strait. It is this triple promontory that gives the tip of the headland it’s distinct three-pointed shape, with a pair of deep coves or inlets sheltered between the projecting spurs of lands where the promontories meet the water. These two coves, partially enclosed by manmade seawalls, form the natural harbor of Thrommelport.

The city proper is characterized by the steep slopes it perches on, with rank upon rank of high houses and cramped courtyards stacked on top of each other up the sides of promontories, clinging to their rocky flanks and threaded through with claustrophobic lanes that switch back onto themselves countless times as they climb from the shoreline to the heights. In places the city is almost more vertical than horizontal, and instead of major boulevards, wayfarers will ascend set after set of broad but steep stairs linked by narrow, shelf-like public plazas terraced onto the slopes. Often the doors and windows of one house will open out onto the roof of the one below it, which serves as its front court. Alleys are apt to be tight, winding stairways, seeming to twist ever upwards, that may open out unexpectedly onto a bit of rooftop or the edge of a buttress with the cityscape dropping away below and a breathtaking view out over the straits beyond. Cargoes can scarcely be moved around by cart or wagon in such a city, so the lanes and stairs are constantly crowded with swarms of pack-mules and slave porters hauling heavy loads of every imaginable description on their backs. Pulleys, winches, and chain-hosts suspended from cantilevered wooden beams are used to move loads too large for these methods, or in places where the slope is too steep even for mules.

At the city’s highest points, the tops of these three parallel promontories, stand three monumental structures that dominate and define Thrommelport’s skyline. On the northernmost height is the XXXXXXXX, a mighty fortress and the central or uppermost citadel of the city’s fortifications. On the middle height is the huge palace of the lord of the city. On the southern height stands the equally enormous Great Temple of the Khreianoa, the patron goddesses of Thrommelport; it is the largest temple to them in Urva and serves as a worldwide center of their cult. Legend has it that underground passages tunnel down through the rock and join the vaults of the temple with tidal caves and grottoes far below, at the foot of the promontory where it meets the sea, and that these secret caves are holy to the Khreinoa and are used by their priests for sacred rites.

The military forces of Thrommelport are aimed mainly at defending the city and its hinterlands, and maintaining control of the Dragon’s Jaw against any attempt to force or blockade it. As long as the strait is open and trade continues to flow, Thrommelport will flourish; it has little need of conquests in faraway lands. To this end, the seawall fortresses are armed with huge dwarf-built catapults, reputed to be among the world’s most powerful, and the city’s fleet is built around a core of unique armored “turtle-ships”: heavy, broad-bellied war galleys, their decks and sides covered by iron-scaled shells bristling with hundreds of spikes. They are slow and lumbering in their movements, totally unsuited for long sea journeys, but very difficult to sink or board, and ideally suited to naval battles in the narrow confines of the strait outside Thrommelport’s seawalls. Many are armed with the incendiary weapon known as Throm's Fire or Thrommel's Fire, an alchemical (some say sorcerous) liquid which burns ferociously, clings to its victims, and is able to stay alight even in water, floating across the surface of the sea in blazing sheets. The secret of this substance's manufacture and use is closely guarded. Many claim that, like the great catapults of the seawall forts, it (or the method of its production) was originally supplied by the dwarves of Rhydain in exchange for some long-ago favor.

The origins and early history of Thrommelport are hazy. Given the great importance of its location on the Dragon's Jaw, t seems likely that some sort of fortress or settlement has occupied its site since humanity first sailed out from the confines of the Sarpic Seas. There is ample evidence of Qossite control of the straits, and some evidence that a Qossite citadel once stood where the XXXXX Keep is now located. However, the temple of the Khreianoa atop the southernmost promontory is reputed to pre-date Qossite control by many centuries. If true, the temple is truly ancient, and the city must have been a major maritime hub and cultic center--not just an outpost or fortified settlement--as long ago as ~1500 BV.

A popular tradition associates Thrommelport and its founding as a city with the Krennish people, so much that it has sometimes also been called "Krenport" or "the City of the Krens." Certainly this theory would square with the Kren's seafaring habits, their intense veneration of the Khreianoa, the proximity of their reputed homeland, and their distribution across Taijuria and the Tythian coast. There are certainly many Krens in the city's population today. However, the truth of it is unknown.