Kena

Kena was a city-state and major trading hub in the land of Yemas. It was one of the largest settlements in that land and was often considered the *de facto* capital. It was destroyed as a result of the actions of Keeper.

## History

Kena was founded in the distant past by settlers of Aventus. They were looking for a place to build their settlement when Kenos appeared, struck the ground with his spear, and released the waters of the sea to form the harbour. The city was dedicated to Kenos as thanks for his role in its settlement.

After the Great Flood of Aventus, many of the empire's refugees came to Kena, causing it to grow substantially, becoming the regional power it remained until the present day.

Throughout the early history of Kena a number of heroes ended up having connections to the city, such as Androkles the Magnificent, who took part in the Pankenan games during his lifetime. Such heroes gained hero cults in Kena, and each was revered by the inhabitants of a particular city district.

Kena was initially a monarchy and remained one for the vast majority of its history. During the rule of King Archidemus III, there was great social unrest due to his increasingly tyrannical policies. This led to Perseus the Good launching his coup which resulted in the deaths of the royal family and all the nobility. He then instituted a democracy, and had the royal palace torn down and used to build the public ecclesia. From then on, any citizen who turned up to the daily ecclesia meeting was allowed to speak his mind and vote. While this ultimately meant that only the very wealthy would have much of a say in how the city was ran, it did allow for more opinions to be voiced. He also banned the use of lawyers in the ecclesial court, deciding that every person would have to defend and prosecute for themselves. This was done in a bid to try to make sure that every citizen went out of their way to get a good education for their children, to give them the tools not only to succeed in the courts, but in life in general due to the better education.

700 years ago, Kena was involved in a major war with the city of Medonia in Saugland. Admiral Thucydides oversaw the war and helped lead his people to victory. As part of his war efforts, he had the Thucydidean Walls built around the city. These walls stood 50 metres high and were 10 metres thick and surrounded the inland sides of the city. The construction of the walls took longer than the war itself, and the admiral is said to have died of old age on the day they were finished.

A contemporary of Admiral Thucydides was the political theorist Socrates. Socrates travelled throughout the Southern Continent in his youth, studying different forms of government. He returned to Kena in his mid-forties and became a sophist, or private lecturer. He lectured those who could afford him on a number of topics, but he specialised in politics. Using what he had learned in the courts of other nations, he was able to come up with some innovations in political theory and thought and was the first in the history of Kena to suggest the possibility that the sinking of Aventus was deliberate due to political mismanagement. Socrates notably refused to write down his teachings, and they are instead known from what his students wrote about them.

One of Socrates' students was Xenophon the Saviour, who was also a student of Admiral Thucydides. Xenophon considered himself Thucydides' successor and became a military leader for the city. He attempted to use some of what he had learned from Socrates about the political structure of Kena's rival city, Epidaemon, and argued at the assembly for the adoption of some of their military and social practices, such as state education, in Kena. He was promptly banished for this and went to Saugland as a mercenary. After the man he was supporting in a civil war was killed in a battle that the Yeman mercenary army Xenophon was part of ended up winning, Xenophon was given a leadership position in the remains of the mercenary army and the task of getting them back to Yemas. After many hardships and betrayals, he managed to get the survivors home, and for his efforts he was granted his citizenship back in Kena.

About 500 years ago, some people from the Kingdom of Wei came to Kena, and started explaining The Way to them. To do this, they explained The Way through the actions of some of the city's historical figures, and the practitioners of The Way in Kena decided to make Thucydides a Saint, and Socrates and Xenophon Minor Saints. Small shrines were set up to the three of them in accordance with the tradition of Wei. The ecclesia didn't mind this as they saw it as a continuation of the city's tradition of hero worship.

Kena became the centre of what was unofficially termed the "Kenan Empire", or leglly, the Danian League. It had initially started off after the Saugland Wars as a mutual defence pact, but over time Kena came to dominate it because of its significant navy. Due to Kena's military resources being far beyond the other members, who had been downscaling their militaries in the following time of peace, they offered the other member states a choice: they could either supply ships and sailors to the alliance on a yearly basis or pay an annual sum of gold to Kena to maintain their navy. Most cities chose to pay the tribute since few could maintain navies of their own of the size Kena demanded. Those who tried backing out of the alliance at this point were invaded by Kena and turned into client states. The Danian League was viewed both within Yemas and without as the rival of the older Yeman League, centred on Epidaemon. The two alliances have had a number of wars against each other, generally in the form of small skirmishes and raids during the summer months, along with the occasional naval battle. Major engagements, by the standards of the outside world, were incredibly rare, with the largest being sieges of small coastal colonies. The fighting goes on for a decade or so, then there's another decade or so of relative peace as they rebuild their forces. Ultimately, the state between the two leagues is considered as a cold war until major military action is taken.

Kena was a major target in recent years of Volibag of North-Listhanis. Due to the number of merchant vessels coming into the port, he viewed it as easy pickings when he needed more material goods as well as slaves to sell. Due to the party's victory against him and his subsequent return to Ligurwia, trade became safer again, leading to an economic boom, with merchants coming from as far as Nordmarch to trade.

The party came to Kena to have some downtime before heading to Lindholm. They went to the Drunken Satyr Inn, where they were approached by Captain Kirnov with some mercenary work. After agreeing to the work, Keeper went upstairs and performed a ritual to summon Draeg Treespeaker. Draeg told Keeper that he was doing good, and then proceeded to destroy the city, turning it into a forest and reincarnating all its inhabitants who died in the process of that into trees. The party quickly left on the ship of Arne Erling.

The party soon returned to Kena to loot any and all magic items they could find, do some research in the city archives that were rapidly crumbling, and attempt to return a semblance of life to the city. Keeper attempted a ritual to summon Luvese, but he ended up summoning Arto instead. After Aly successfully bargained for their lives, she tried summoning Kamal, only for her ritual to fail. Keeper eventually summoned Luvese who, since he was mostly powerless and unable to help here, said he'd speak to the moon and flew off. Abe, through some wild magic, was able to animate one of the trees as a treant. Due to the mess of deities who had been summoned by the party over the last few months, Serra summoned Clerus. Clerus put a divine interdiction against summoning powerful entities on the party, which can only be avoided through special magics. He then went off to deal with the other summoned deities.

Keeper has been charged with restoring the city, and so he is now travelling to learn ways of doing this.

## Acropolis

The acropolis was located at the top of a large outcropping that formed the bay the harbour was located in. It is currently one of the few undestroyed parts of the city, and has temples to the following gods:

* Akgo Coralhelm
* Carios
* Feranus Watertreader
* Harclo Brinebeard
* Kenalus Deepsea
* Kengob
* Kenos
* Nodold
* Nuikamuy
* Pratio
* Sadokrey
* Salvo
* Shona
* Thedun Oakcracker
* Trito
* Verilum
* Wacre