As'nar
As’nar is the main stage of Elemaer: a center of culture, learning, religion, law, commerce, and even magic. It is, by about a factor of five, the largest and most heavily-populated (nearly 5.5 million inhabitants) single settlement on the entirety of the planet of Elemaer. As’nar is where the money is minted, where the Council of the People rule from, and where the Orders of the Elemental Gods have their Great Temples. As’nar is to Elemaer what no city has ever truly been to Earth – a thousand times the metropolis of New York, London, or Paris, administrating on a scale larger than Rome or Washington ever did, and acting as a theological staging ground like no place outside Eden or the fields of Valhalla has ever been for a nation of Earthly humans.
The site of As’nar was chosen by the goddess Alexairea as the gods were preparing to populate the world with humanity, and is recorded in the Book of Origins, the first of the five Sacred Texts, as the place where the first humans (eighteen of them, according to some theologians; the number is never given outright) were created, and where the first gifts of the gods, including the wheel and agriculture, were presented to humans. The land the city is built on is flat and very fertile, the soil being able to support a wide range of crops (including, incidentally, some of the best orchards of Johdr fruit on the entirety of the surface of Elemaer) and the climate is moderate. Water and travel are provided by the wide, freshwater Edo River as it flows out to sea from its source in the Kal’inur Mountains to the northwest.
The skyline of As’nar is dominated by the five Great Temples of the Orders of the Elemental Gods, the five largest buildings of any kind still existing on Elemaer (they are five of the six largest in history; the other was the Temple of Darkness, which no longer exists on Elemaer). The Temples were built by the gods themselves, and are beautiful works of superhuman craftsmanship and architecture, in addition to providing for the best fighting force any Elemaeran city could ever hope to harbor. Although not a requirement in any of the Sacred Texts, travel to As’nar is a basic and perfectly natural part of a religious life.
As’nar, in addition to being the base of operations of each of the five Orders of the Elemental Gods, is also the staging ground for the world’s most powerful secular authority: The Council of the People of As’nar. This thirty-nine member body includes a representative of each Order, a representative of each of the nine most influential crafts guilds in As’nar (membership to this group changes frequently), a Commander of the Civil Guard, and a member of each of the twenty-four District Panels that oversee smaller sections of As’nar. Most decisions of the Council are made by majority vote, although the Council’s charter calls for the balance to be shifted at times – for instance, matters of economics add extra weight to the crafts guilds’ votes.
As’nar also has a firm hold on the economy of Elemaer. From the expansive basements of the Councilhouse (modeled on the apparently world-girding basements of the Temples) comes the only really well-standardized currency in all of Elemaer, the ethas. The ethas is minted in denominations of ½, 1, 2, 5, 10, 15, 25, 50, 100, 250, and 300, all of which (with the exception of the copper half-ethas and the platinum 250- and 300-ethas coins) are coins of gold and silver of different weights, shapes, and inscriptions. In addition to being the source of most of Elemaer’s currency, As’nar also sports the Great Market, the channel through which the trade of a third of the continent of Azurin (and every trade route worth the dirt it is paved with) runs through. Despite the low tax charged on trade in the market and on use of the municipal docks, As’nar still manages to pull in quite a bit of money supporting trade, especially during the warmer seasons when the trading vessels come in droves.
As’nar’s millions take their leisure time in a variety of ways. Some prefer to spend it in one of As’nar’s pubs, such as the Far Corner (located more or less directly between the Temple of Fire and the Temple of Air) or the Hand of Gold Inn (an upscale bar located just south of the Great Market). Others enjoy a trip to the Public Gardens or the Grand Bestiary, or to see the goings-on at the Vala’sur Arena Complex, which sports a nearly constant train of plays, concerts, sporting events, and ceremonies. The adventurous sometimes make a trip to visit the Dome of Seals, the building that houses the original Bane Gate (now firmly blocked up) that the demonic armies of Ar’tok traveled through in the First and Second Wars of the Gods. The Dome of Seals also hosts a yearly ritual in remembrance of the Wars of the Gods, a ritual which also includes an attempt to budge the Bane Gate’s huge keystone from its slot in the lintel, which is made of diamond.
