Reliad

The City of Reliad is one of the largest cities in the inner wilds region.

Description
Reliad is an ancient city surviving both invading armies and natural disasters. While buildings and walls may have fallen, the people of Reliad have remained. This is probably due to perfect position as a trade city; it's located at the foot of one of the only passes through the Kirin's Mane and at the mouth of the river Rhine. The Shrouded Bay (so called for it's perpetial fog cover) is also one of the final ports before attempting to cross the dangerous icy waters of the Northern Straights, and many ships stop in at this port to take advantage of the benifits of Reliad's Voiceless.

The City of Factions
Since the sudden Exodus of the Drow half a decade earlier, the city has been slowly returning to an abbreviated version of the Nine Guilds. The Clergy of Abadar have been a main stabilizing force in the region, though thiers is not the only efforts. The different areas of the city have come to be known as districts, which are held as territories between several different factions.
 * The Carmandine Order - This is a loose association of wizards and other spellcasters who have occupied the Towers District since the fall of the Cloaks. The population in this District has grown since the end of the drow occupation, ostensably as a show of arcane power in the region, as much as for the large amounts of latent magic in the region. There is also rumors of a "Hidden University" hidden amoung the towers, though if there is such a place only the most powerful mages would have access. The Carmandine Order is loosly ruled over by a council of the ten most adept and powerful beings in the magic arts. That council is headed by the legendary Aurin Lamplighter, said to be demostratively the most powerful arcanist to have ever lived.
 * The Four Families and the Clergy of Abadar - The Gold District, as it is known because of the proliferation of banks, money lenders, and merchants. As such, it also houses the Abadarian Guard, Reliad's version of a police force. While the guard does have a clerical hierarchy, led by Commander Limes (an avatar of Abadar) the guard is mainly in the region to maintain status quo and further the reaches of civilization. The actual decisions are mostly made by the Hierarchs of the noble Four Families, The Barnets, The LaCroix, the Corleone, and The Van Lockes. This is also the area of the city over which the two large earth motes (giant floating rocks) reside. The larger one, Prios Mor, has been appropriated by the Abadarian Guard and is used as a maximum security prison and is where the notorious Cracked Shield Compound is said to be hidden. The Gnius, on the other hand, is the largest collection of casinos, brothels, and other dins of inequity in possibly the entire world. Large enough to be very nearly its own city, it was once the above ground abode of the drow who had to reside near the surface. The real estate is now joint owned by only two of Families; the Corleones and the Barnets. It is said that anything can be bought or sold on The Gnius. The rest of the Gold District is devided more or less evenly between the four Families.
 * The Primeval - not so much a faction within the city, but rather a loose confederation of tribes and clans of the more monstrous races who find the machinery and fast paced city life of Reliad to be too much and choose to live outside the walls. That, or their kind is simply too violent and is not allowed inside the the city proper by the Guard. The less nomadic of these races have built slums and shanty towns that abut the city walls and are rarely patrolled by the Abadarian Guard. Most of the time this area is simply a dangerous place to be, but in times of great crisis, what is known as the Call of the Blood is put out, and the slums outside the walls become truely deadly. The Call of the Blood is the precursor to the the Sitting Before the Stone. This is where the most powerful of the Primeval send reprisentatives to come to a consensus before a massive adamantium boulder. Here, the words that are inscribed upon the stone must be obeyed by all Primeval in the inner wilds, or face the wrath of all Primeval.
 * The Street of Cunning Artificers - of note mainly because the large wide thoroughfare spans across the city in its entirety, this street is where the majority of the creative tinkerers, artificers, and other such inventor ply thier trade. It is on this street that the massive Northern Railway has its headquarters, as well as that of the Windlight Airship Company.
 * The Voiceless - less of a faction and more just the silent working masses, the Voiceless are the reason behind the progression and relative decadence of the city. They aren't so much a people as they are a group of undead, constructs, and other such entities with only one thing in common: one way or another, they lack the faculties for speech, and provide endless work. Prolific throughout the city, these silent workers run great underground engines that provide free power for any that wish it. They also occasionally will take over work in an entire area, such as some of the larger warehouses in the aptly named "Steel District" and provide free labor and maintenence all on thier own. This is most apparent in the docks area of the Steel District, where the Voiceless work in droves to service and repair ships that dock in at one of the wharfs and wish it of them. These automata are viewed with distrust, however, as every handful of decades or so, there is without much warning three days of psychosis that seems to take them. In fact, the only warning is the lights strung up all over the city flicker and dim, as thier power (drawn straight from the engines of the Voiceless,) is interupted. This time, known as the Three Long Nights, is full of eerie screeches and howls, as well as strange music and dance. Almost a festival, were it not for the piles of corpses left behind afterwards, both of voiceless and unfortunates caught outside and unable to defend themselves. The vast majority of the time, these beings are completely harmless, and will often not even defend themselves if attacked. There seems to be no central leadership or any form of seniority amoung the Voiceless, but there is a legend of a being that lives deep underground known as The Voice. this being is said to be in constant contact with all of its subjects, and occasionally will contact people, who are never seen or heard from again. This legend is unsubstantiated, of course, as after a certain point underground, there exists a layer of impenetrable and perpetual darkness, unpeircable by lantern light.