Capital city of the Hartheran State (alt spelling: Vultor, Vuhltore). Commonly called "The City of Keys", due to it's many gates.

Click for a full city map

History

Sited at the confluence of two rivers, where the Velun joins the Verais, throughout ancient history the city was always a crossing point between the Imperial powers of the west and regional powers in the east.

It was also a religious centre from early times, sacred to the Emanuné kingdom which built the first city here. The Temple Mount - the rocky promontory at the confluence of the two rivers - was in ancient myth the place where "the yama of the Iron God descended from heaven into the spread youmee of the Mother Goddess, from which all life was born".

The priestly kingdom gradually became a pawn in the game of power between the Dor-en-Sann Empire and Saloya, and was eventually annexed by the Empire. The old Emanuné capital city lay somewhere in the modern Verais distinct, its ruins long-since obliterated.

The EnSanni built a garrison city, Bahl Dorr, on the site of the modern Docks. This imperial city was razed and rebuilt by the invading Saloyans, and called Buldoya. Within a century this city was in turn seized by the Junda barbarians who founded the Hartheran State, and renamed it Vuhltore. (see History of the Downfall of Saloya )

Growth

Vuhltore can in fact be seen as three cities, as it is divided into three by the rivers. On the west bank, the EnSanni garrison city Bahl Dorr was built on an ancient river bend, in a basin formed by low hills. The Saloyans and early Hartherans extended this to a fortified city, with walls atop the hills that surround this basin. Beyond this were a series of small towns and villages that were eventually enclosed with by stone walls, swallowed up by the city.

In the east was the original Emanuné city of Biyahl, built on the low domed hill now known as the Old City. It was essentially a sprawling ceremonial complex, lightly defended; a series of halls and palaces for the administration of the ancient kingdom. The Saloyans rebuilt the crumbling complex as a winter capital, housing the Palatine's court during the winter months when the upland roads were blocked by snow. The Saloyan palace-city was virtually destroyed during an earthquake that split the hill, forming the cliffs and barren rockscape further east. With its fortifications breeched the opportunistic Junda easily seized the city, and later built an impressive fortress here in what has forever after been called the Old City.

When the city government moved to the Detatedn, the old fortress was half abandoned, and turned into a mortuary temple and crematorium. For centuries the quarter was run-down, haunted and depressing, until the slum-land was cleared to build the new Basilica and University.

Last is the southern quarter. The Temple Mount was built by the early Emanune people, on a spur of rock where the rivers joined. The surrounding land was rocky and uninhabited except for isolated huts. The Saloya maintained the temple complex, but the old religion gradually decayed and the temples fell into ruin. Later, the Junda took advantage of the rock's strategic location above the landscape, and using Saloyan expertise turned the whole area into a fortress, now called the Detatedn. The fortress has been added to over the centuries, and is now a sprawling mass of walls, towers, courts and dungeons.

Between these three centres, areas of land were gradually enclosed by dykes and then by walls, eventually settling into the rough ring shape of the city today.

Internal Structure

The city is the capital of Harthera, and of Teloyun cordrome, the military province surrounding it. The city is heavily fortified, and as it has grown, new walls were built, so that the city is a series of walled districts. No new districts have been constructed for several centuries, though the city's districts have been internally rebuilt many times.

There are sound reasons for limiting the city's growth, bearing in mind Hartherans' logical and militaristic mindset. First and foremost is military strategy.

Urban warfare is the worst and bloodiest kind of fighting. In unwalled cities, the enemy can easily take outlying districts, using them as bases, garrisons and sniper posts, while the defender fights a street-by-street battle, often involving civilians. In case of a siege of Vultore however, the enemy would find it difficult to take the city except by breaching it district by district. The walls would still be secure, allowing artillery fire from the walls. The walls are also a highway allowing militia to move quickly to attack and to retreat in safety. The many towers are fortresses in themselves, all very costly to take. This rationale applies equally to insurrections within the city. By keeping districts separate and the population enclosed, armed uprisings are limited to separate portions of the city.

To enforce this defensive strategy, the military government prohibits any building within two miles of the city walls, so that approaching forces will have no cover against artillery fire. This has created a curious effect as the city has expanded. The city is surrounded by a ring of sparsely inhabited farmland, around which are clusters of dormitory towns and villages, housing agricultural labourers and city workers too poor to find accommodation within the city. As time progresses these towns will undoubtedly merge into a ring of suburban sprawl, separated from the city proper by a ring of agricultural parkland.

The second reason for maintaining internal walls is fire control. By dividing the city into distinct regions, fire outbreaks (a constant scourge in any dense city) are more easy to control. Every large tower along the walls has water tanks, pumps and hoses, allowing fires within pumping distance of the tower to be controlled by a mist of water. This might not save the entire district, but it will prevent it spreading throughout the city.

The last reason is an economic one. As the city has expanded over the centuries, each successively enclosed district has had longer walls. The cost of constructing miles of heavy outer fortifications, often over difficult terrain, has become prohibitively expensive. The threat of direct invasion has also greatly decreased as Harthera's regional enemies have been crushed, so the expense of constructing new walls now seems an unnecessary extravagance.

The city has not come under external military threat for many centuries.

Administration

Each city district is administered by a Bueroch-Director (J. dyerog ). A bueroch is a military administrator, responsible for: deploying and maintaing the local militia, maintaining good order, patrolling the perimeter walls, and monitoring traffic through the internal and external gates. Bueroch offices also keep registers of births and deaths, and issue identity papers and the various passes needed to travel throughout the city. Buerochs are often retired military officials, appointed by the city governor.

Transport Restrictions

The Hartheran military is very security conscious, threatened internally by nationalists, and externally by Orror and its pernicious religion. (The decadent Anarthi to the south are not considered a threat, except as a moral one.) Every citizen is issued with documents at birth, and transport is only permitted by license. This is particularly true within the city, the heart of the Hartheran State. Only residents and those with permits may enter the city, and even residents are only allowed to travel during certain hours. The bridges and most city gates are closed at nightfall. Citizens are theoretically allowed free access within the city, though beggars are usually turned away from affluent areas like Kelose.

The city's two "Restricted Districts", the Docks and Southgate, are the only exception to this. Most Hartheran cities have free districts, where merchants and travellers from outside the city, even non-Hartherans, are given a certain freedom to enter and do business. Anyone may enter and leave these areas, but they are not allowed into the city proper. Travellers are issued with temporary documents on arrival, and anyone unable to produce these proofs on demand are liable to be questioned or ejected from the city.

The Rivers

Vuhltore is formed by the two rivers, the Velun and Verais, which join here. In a strictly geographical sense the Verais flows into the Velun, because the Verais is the shorter and younger river, but thereafter it is officially the Greater Verais.

The Verais begins in the Nashant uplands far to the east, in the old Saloya heartlands. It is broad and fast-flowing, long ago carving quite a deep valley into the surrounding rock east of the city. The Velun begins in the distant Dun Jaen mountains far to the west. By the time it reaches Vuhltore it has already flowed across thousands of miles, fast flowing in the mountains, through forests and crossing the rolling plains, becoming thick with silt along the way. By the time it reaches Vuhltore it is wide and slow, meandering back and forth across rich western alluvial plains, narrowing only to pass through the hills surrounding the city. The banks of the Velun are constantly shifting, and in ancient times they were swamps, then water meadows, cultivated for crops. These meadows have long since been drained to accommodate poor housing, but the banks still flood occasionally.

Industry

Textiles - various textiles are spun and fashioned in the south, and shipped to the city where they are dyed and sold as fashion dictates. Dyesgate is a noisome district of the city, its colourful effluents polluting the lower river and clouding the sky with acrid steam. Cloth is sold to textile merchants in the cloth markets, to tailors, seamstresses and fashionable clothing shops throughout the city. Clothing production is one the city's biggest industries.

Artificing - the heavy industries of metal extraction and manufacture happen elsewhere, the refined materials being shipped to the city for fine manufacture. The city's artificers produce mechanisms particularly for the navy and military - balloon heat pumps, weapons, heating devices, compasses, timepieces and so on. Only fine artifacts are produced here; the heavy industrial production for shipping goes in where the ships are constructed, in Harlon.

West Bank

Docks

City Quays - The ancient EnSanni garrison city of Bahl Dorr was built on a tight loop of the river. Over time the river broke through the neck of the loop, forming an island (modern Tackspur). The loop eventually silted up to form an oxbow lake. The Hartherans saw the potentional for this lake to become a perfect river harbour. The northern edge of the lake was dredged out some seven hundred years ago, and channels and quays constructed of stone. This quays are the heart of the city's modern commercial district, bustling with barges and river vessels, surrounded by warehouses, exchanges and markets.

Tackspur - Tackspur was once a river island, now silted up at the southern end to form a low stretch of land just under a mile and a half long, but less than a quarter of a mile wide. The entire island is a military installation housing the city's naval headquarters and naval docks. At its northern tip are a series of towers and fortifications guarding the entrance to the harbour. Underwater chains allow the garrison to close off the harbour to ships in case the city is attacked, or to prevent ships leaving.

Beacon Hill - is one of the few surviving features from Imperial times, a part of the EnSanni city of Bahl Dorr. It is an artificial mound built on an area of high ground, once topped with a keep and watch tower. Several towers have been built on the site at various times in history, including an observatory and a windmill, but it is now a signal tower keeping watch for commercial shipping, and for sending important messages throughout the city. Beacon Hill is one the most affluent parts of the Docks Quarter, its slopes covered by the houses of rich merchants - conveniently near their offices, near the signal house, and with excellent views over the river and the city.

Barrow Sump - lies Between Beacon Hill and the Docks' north wall. It is a dank patch of land, a boggy valley shadowed by the hill and the walls beyond. It was once used as a rubbish dump and later as a slurry pit, particular after the city banned dumping human waste in the river. Today it is a slum for the very poor, living in tumbledown housing perched on its filthy slopes.

Metrosandendt - the EnSanni built a series of forts on hills around their city, and this, the highest hill, was always the most important. The early Hartherans built a fortress here, defending approaches to the city from the west and giving a commanding view of the area. In time it was linked to the others, forming the modern city wall. Like most other administrative buildings in the city, the old castle was overgrown by annexes and endless interconnected courtyards, which sprawl across the hill into three city districts. It has been rebuilt many times over the centuries, creating a sprawling, rambling complex of towers and courtyards A grand façade was built on the eastern front two centuries ago, to provide an impressive show of Hartheran power from the dockside, but today most citizens use the west entrance in Tabray. The Metros is the principle military and administrative complex of the western city, as the civic bureaucracy of all three western districts are located here. It issues all documents and passes for the West Quarter, as well as housing the local records offices and the lower law courts.

Tabray

Ebr Park - this was once a series of animal markets

Tabray Market -

Metros Market -

High Ferry -

Aasven Barbican -

Eihdbis Gate -

Northgate

Harlon Gate -

High Fane -

Dray Ferry -

Dray Fery Park -

South Quarter

Civic Centre

Detatedn - the massive government palace, the hub of the entire Hartheran empire. The building is a nightmare agglomeration of towers, halls, garrisons and barracks, a brutally functional fortress which has expanded like a cancer over the centuries, swallowing up the entire rocky precipice, slowly edging southward as the river eats steadily into the cliffs at its base. The rock was once the Temple Mount of Emanuné, only of the holiest sites of the ancient world. The sanctum was demolished the the Junda, its huge blocks used to construct the earliest fortifications, now swallowed up by later additions. The main fortifications were constructed by the Chelidt Overlords, who turned the whole mount into a rocky fortress. The oldest surviving sections are in the north, but the rivers have slowly eroded the base of the cliffs, so much of the old structure has collapsed into rocks below. The northern section is dank and crumbling, seldom frequented, and the vilest dungeons of the Hartheran state are almost certainly found here. The more southerly portions is a seemingly endless series of buildings, watch towers and courtyards in a riot of conflicting architectural styles, housing the centres of civic and military government. Its halls are decorated in sumptuously brutal Hartheran military style.

Atendaas (Longfield) - The Longfield was originally a pastural enclosure, part of the original citadel, atop a ridge of land between the two main sections of the fortress. This long walled avenue is now parkland, lined with grand hierarch palaces, military residences, governorship compounds and residences for the high commissioners of the Hartheran empire. The Longfield slopes gently downhill from the gates of the Detatedn, to the Bireilundt Palace. A wide triumphal boulevard links the two, lined with prize relics from the conquered old kingdoms of the south.

Eilunn

Eilunn was once an affluent suburb in the shadow of the Bireilundt Palace, and its avenues are still lined with faded mansions. Some are still occupied by once-wealthy families, but most have been turned into tenements for minor government functionaries. Today Eilunn is dominated by the vast and sprawling Palace, which looms over the entire district.

Bireilundt Palace - While the Detatedn uphill turns the great wheels of government, the sprawling Bireilundt Palace houses the official offices of the vast administrative bureaucracy which powers Harthera. It is a huge edifice, five storeys high in places, a vast wall of stone, pillars and triumphalist architecture fronting a rambling mass of utilitarian blocks and gloomy courtyards, where the ceaseless tidal paperwork of state flows back and forth. All important government records are kept here, and all passports, licenses and civic documentation are issued from the various high draughty halls that punctuate the building like asthmatic lungs. Ordered queues often spill out into nearby streets on busy days. It is also home to the High Courts of Justice, notoriously whimsical and inefficient law-givers.

Navy Plaza - the Bireilundt is also home to the Admiralty, which has swallowed up the entire eastern portion of the building. Last century the government built a great spur of triumphalist architecture, dedicated to the nation's military and naval victories. This gateway divided the once bland expanse of courtyard in front of the palace in two. The western half is a sometime food market, seasonally cluttered with crowds and queues awaiting entry into the civic halls. The eastern section is now Navy Plaza, a grand square surrounded by impressive statuary, where military parades are held and grand public announcements are made from the palace balconies.

Velun

This aptly-named riverside district occupies the sloping ground between the old walls of the fortress, and the shifting banks of the river Velun. It was once not properly a district at all, and was considered outside the city proper - merely a slope of flood-prone mud between the riverbank and the walls. However, as time passed the poor built hovels here, establishing grubby markets, inns and all the services of any other district. The less poor grabbed the drier ground upslope, clinging pitifully onto the city walls. The district housed the very poorest - street cleaners, dirt movers, rubbish collectors, and the thieves and whores who inevitably spill out of poverty. But gradually the district dragged itself up from the mud and today grasps toward a grubby respectability. The riverside is clustered with wooden shacks, many on stilts, with wooden streets rising above the river mud. In winter the river often floods and sometimes freezes, making streets of ice. Various attempts have been made to check the river banks, but the land is to flat and marshy, and irregular, to easily hold it in a dependable channel. Today Velun is less violent and disease-ridden than in previous centuries, when the city would lock its gates and leave fires or plague to burn itself out within the district's walls. It still houses workers for the grubbier industries (including the cheapest whore-houses), but it is mainly the source of domestic servants, who either serve in the great houses of the South Quarter, or who cross the river by ferry into the middle-class homes of Tabray.

High Ferry - the most thriving area of Velun is near the ferry, a series of chain-linked barges that carry passengers over the river from Velun and Tabray. The ferry is the only way of crossing the river without making the long journey eastward and crossing Castlebridge, virtually circumnavigating the city. Efforts have been made to built bridges along the Velun, but the ground is too soft and the bedrock too deep to make this realistic. Highferry Road crosses district from the ferry to the gates, and it is lined with markets, cheap shops and other services.

Undercliff - one of the quietest and most inaccessible parts of the city, Undercliff huddles under the shadow of the Detatedn Palace. It lies at the easternmost end of Velun.

Kelose

Kelose was once an enclosure housing livestock, a small farm, infirmaries, granaries and all the minor industries to service the old fortress. It was protected by walls on one side and steep slopes falling down to the river on the other. As the fortress evolved from a military stronghold into a government complex, the richer hierarchs and powerful families took land here to build grand houses, nestled against the safety of the fortress walls.

Today the district is a graceful enclosure, the higher northern side a wealthy district of parks and gardens. The southern end is clustered with neat streets, genteel shops and well-ordered markets, serving all the needs of the great houses nearby.

Kelose Gardens - two hundred years ago local authorities took the decision to restrict any further building toward the centre of the enclosure, which would block air and views for the mansions already built. Instead the inner area was turned into garden, landscaped by prominent artisans of the day, containing perfumed flower-beds, trees and genteel promenades. It is crossed by a single road, that carries traffic east and west, from Atendaas to Highbridge.

Vodrodim Palace - this was the site of an ancient castle, originally built as a sumptuous Saloyan residence, then rebuilt as the eastern gatehouse of the old fortress city. It defended the end of the Vodrod Bridge, long since collapsed. The palace has been frequently rebuilt over the ages and is now the residence of the District Bueroch. It has an extensive inner quay, used by important hierarchs for transportation by ship up and down the river.

High Bridge - After the collapse of the Vodrod Bridge, the residents of the increasingly wealthy Kelose district resented travelling south to the Terat Bridge, having to cross the river with the dray-carts and common foot traffic. Efforts were made to reconstruct the Vodrod Bridge, but the bridge had collapsed because of fractured bedrock on one side. Moreover, the Palace was now residence of the local Bueroch, who resented the prospect of having constant traffic passing beneath his windows. Eventually a site was found between two outcroppings of solid rock, in a narrowing where two buttresses of rock thrust out high above the river. Highbridge was a marvel of contemporary engineering, an elegant single-span arched bridge made of iron chains faced with stone. The bridge has weight limits and is only able to carry light carriages and foot traffic. Subsequently it is restricted to official vehicles and local residents, who require a special permit.

Grestaian

Grestaian Park - this vast parkland was once an important military staging area, for martialing troops against a city invasion. Today it is a vast area of parkland and gardens, crossed by important highways that carry traffic across the city. Building is prohibited within the district, except for facilities. It is the largest area for public recreation in the city, used for fairs on public holidays, for mass state celebrations, and most famously for games and races. The most important is the annual Grestaia Chase.

Cardnenn

Cardnenn is largely a genteel residential district, with rows of neat houses surrounding a low hill called Cardnenn Rise. The northern portion nearer the river has the main cross-city road, leading between Grestaian and the Terat Bridge. The bridge is the only real connection for goods and heavy traffic between the South Quarter and the rest of the city - Highbridge being limited to light local traffic, and the only link to the west being the Velun ferry. Along the road and near the bridge are various markets and shops, primarily serving the local area, particularly draperies, laundries, tailors and domestic suppliers.

Cardnenn Rise - a low circular hill in the south, its feet are surrounded by the district's walls, but its heights are ringed by streets of neat middle-class houses.

Odratenedn Palace - Not so much a palace as an extension of the tower fort overlooking the river, this rather grimly functional outpost serves as the administrative offices of the district, as well as the headquarters of the river watch, who patrol the river in boats moored on the rivergate wharf.

Terat Bridge - the second oldest bridge in the city, and the oldest surviving, it was first built over a millennium ago and still is a vital link. It is the only bridge carrying goods traffic into the South Quarter, the only option for travellers going to Tabray is to take the ferry, or travel the long way round by the Terat Bridge. It is a bustling area with thriving markets, and one of the most important shopping areas in the city.

Southgate

Southgate is poor, cramped in the dip between two parallel curtain walls that once formed the outer ramparts of the city. It is one of the city's Restricted Districts: foreigners, refugees and visitors to the city can stay here temporarily, in one of the many cramped and foul-smelling hostelries that line the streets. It lies just inside the city's southern gate so is a district of markets - fruit, vegetables, livestock, flowers and every item of local produce can be bought here. It also has extensive flea markets, where migrants sell their treasured possessions for cash. An endless variety of items can be found, legal and illegal, from all over the world, on the quarter's cramped rambling streets.

Murderhole Market - Inside the great barbican of Southgate is a huge stone yard. It was built for marshalling troops, but primarily as a trap for invading forces. If the outer city gate was breached, marauding soldiers would spill into this yard, which is surrounded by ballista towers and hundreds of arrow slits. The only exits are through a series of smaller gates on the north side. Today the yard is a bustling market for local produce. Farmers from outlying villages sell their wares here, without needing to venture further into the city, or the perils of Southgate. Indeed farmers seldom have leave to enter the city at all. Curiously this is one of the only areas in the city where free assembly is permitted, and there is a great tradition of preaching and lambasting. Speakers stand on the old Pillory Stones in the northeast corner, haranguing the crowd on whatever topic is in their mind. The city government permits this outlet here, partly because should trouble arise, the yard is easily secured against rioting.

East Bank

Verais

Highbridge -

Terat Bridge -

Bury Gate -

Estayn

Eastquay -

Castlebridge -

Brok Market -

Abil Park -

Dyesgate -

Old City

Basilica -

University -

Citadel -

Bone Hill (Necropolis) -