Khoven (City)

Located in the centre of the First Quarter is the grand city of Khoven. Named after its founder, Marten Khoven, it is a city-state that has fully embraced arcane magic. Filled to the brim with powerful arcane wizards, a veritable anomaly on account of arcane magic's tendencies to induce paranoia in its users. Its populace is kept largely stable by a combination of thorough vetting of those pursuing arcane installations, regulations on the installations themselves, and a myriad of enchantments woven into the city itself, meant to calm the overactive tendencies of an arcanely influenced mind. Though by no means a paradise, it still stands as a counterpoint to most literature on the arcane.

As a city state, they remain mostly neutral. Being that they supply most of Sevess' arcanely enchanted materials, and that the city harbours some of the most powerful people in terms of sheer magical ability, few are willing to risk making an enemy of the city state. And the city itself, despite its vetting, regulation, and protections against paranoia seems to still inherit the tendency of its populace to maintain isolated lives, as they have no strong allies to speak of, only trade partners.

To those living within the city walls, it is a very densely packed, interconnected metropolis of wood and stone, interwoven with bizarre architecture, quaint establishments, tight alleyways, sprawling streets, open markets, and a verticality to it that makes it very, very easy to get lost. Buildings often have bridges connecting them on their upper floors, weaving above the streets and alleys. Stairways down lead into tunnels that themselves lead to large underground installations such as The Gauntlet or other surreal wizard construction projects, and some swear that the city has ways through these subterranean tunnels to The Inner Circle.

That rumour is given fire by its disproportionately large population of goblins, drow, duergar, and other normally subterranean ancestries. Though, that may be due less to a connection specifically to Sevess' expansive cave network, and more due to how diverse the city itself is. Anyone who may be shocked by any of the less common ancestries will quickly become numb to that in Khoven. Animals given higher intelligence, dolls brought to life, naga, and gryphons, all walking and conversing with humans, elves, dwarves, and orcs. Though the city accepts this diversity, it often does not equally accommodate it - centaurs find particular difficulty and distress with the low ceilings and stairs, and many of the larger folk are covered in scrapes from navigating tightly packed walls, and suffer back pain from having to stoop to enter any doorway. But, they have a home and a place here nonetheless, and that is sometimes more than can be said for other, more narrow-minded settlements.