Ville des Marai - An Overview
The Lands
The city of Ville des Marai is set at a mean elevation of 5' above sea level, and many areas even drop below sea level. The average yearly temperature is 68.1° f, while the average yearly precipitation is 61.8", Ville des Marai experiences hot, humid, languid summers (94° f, humidity of 94%), and mild winters (58° f). It is located 105 miles upriver from the Gulf of L'eau Bleue along the Rivière Tumultueuse and near Lake Truite and is characterized by the river rushing through the city itself. There are natural levees along the Rivière Tumultueuse, making the region less vulnerable to hurricanes (although deadly hurricanes will still occur from time to time). However, the region is now showing signs of subsidence due to sentient interference. The effects of erosion and the loss of wetland have resulted in an unstable tectonic region, and mild earthquakes are fairly common.
Outside the city are very fertile grasslands, fed by the Rivière Tumultueuse. These go on for several miles and then turn into vast bayous and marshes made up of sluggish water, bald cypress trees, maiden’s hair moss, pelicans, egrets, alligators and lizardfolk. A huge adult black dragon is known to prowl the eastern bayous, but sightings of the great beast are incredibly rare. It’s well known that there are ruins of an ancient civilization hidden within the thick plant life, and many adventurers have set out from Ville des Marai to make their fortunes but more often than not are never seen again.
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| Shimrexxafaque, aka La Mort de L'ombre |
The City
Due to climactic changes a dozen years ago, the Rivière Tumultueuse rises 10' on average every three years in spring. This once caused widespread flooding in the area and especially to the city of Ville des Marai, as it sits 5' below sea level and the river runs right through the heart of the city. Magical walls of force are regularly erected to try and prevent this, and the water rushing by the invisible walls is an attraction that draws many people to the area to view. A grand celebration takes place at these times, known as La Fête Humide, or just La Fête. The city takes on a party atmosphere, alcohol flows as fast as the river, and everyone celebrates life in abundance. Ribbons and decorations of purple, gold and green are seen throughout the city, and even the poor make the attempt to join in when possible. This last part is in thanks to a wandering wizard, Kelwyn the Red, who causes three gold pieces to appear on the floor in the middle of each impoverished home on the first night of La Fête. How he does this is unknown, but it is rumored that he has allies among the powerful spirits that roam the lands.
Ville des Marai itself is ruled over by a governor, currently Marquise Désirée Fournier. The Marquise is an absolutely beautiful dark-haired woman with a personality that leaves people fawning over her. She truly loves the city, and will do anything to help it to keep thriving. Once a month the Marquise meets with the heads of all of the guilds in a meeting called Le Grand Rendezvous, during which complaints are heard, conflicts are resolved, guild taxes are collected and city issues are dealt with. Le Grand Rendezvous concludes in a masquerade party and this is where many political plots and intrigues usually take form.
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| Marquise Désirée Fournier |
The Architecture and the People
Architecture within the city is incredibly varied, depending on the wealth of the ward of the city one is in. No matter what ward you are in, however, there is a prevailing attitude that no matter what gets thrown at Ville des Marai, the city will survive it.
• The Upper Class
Noble and wealthy homes are large and made of sturdy brick that is often whitewashed and accented with various colors (purple being the most common). The common style includes stylistic motifs that use pilasters, six over six double hung windows, egg and dart and dentil moldings, porches supported by columns, and doors flanked by sidelights and topped with fanlights. They tend to be fairly ornate, with fluted columns topped by complex capitals, friezes and entablatures embellished with garlanded or patterned carvings and massive porticos. A distinctive roof line with multiple dormers and a corner turret are currently all the rage, but some of the older homes lack these features altogether. The wealthy will often have "estate lights" situated around their homes, which are floating glass globes that give off a significant amount of light from sunset to sunrise (although they can be dimmed or extinguished with a command). These help to light up the estate at night, as well as to help to deter thieves.
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| An Upper Class Estate |
The nobles and the wealthy of the city are a fairly stand-offish lot, more often than not looking down on those of lower rank and outright ignoring the poor and destitute whenever possible. Many of the upper class prefer to wear purple peacock feathers on their hats or as accents in their garb to denote their status. Marquise Fournier herself wears a garish purple silk cloak completely covered with these feathers. Peacocks wander the noble wards freely, and it is law that anyone that harms these birds (other than the nobles themselves) will be imprisoned for one week for every feather the injured bird possesses.
Nobles usually wear clothing made of silks or satins of various bright colors and accent their clothing with bracers, vests or corsets made of supple black leather with silver or gold ornamentation. Shirts have ornate collars and cuffs made of stiffened fabric and often decorated with small jewels or metal threadwork. Dresses are long and lavish, always accented with metallic threadwork and semi-precious stone beading. Women usually wear delicate slippers or, alternatively, short black leather boots with a heel. Men almost always wear black leather knee-length boots decorated with gold or silver accents. Clothing for both sexes is usually puffed at the shoulder with numerous decorative slashes showing fine white silk underneath. Hats are worn by everyone, with women’s hats being small and decorative or overly large and ostentatious. Men wear a stiff felt hat with a wide brim that is typically pinned up on one side. An adornment of large feather plumes, most commonly the purple peacock feathers, is affixed to the side and a wide band or ribbon often encircles the hat. The most elaborate hats even feature jewels affixed to the band. The Noble Guard wear these hats (with violet plumes) along with fine studded black leather armor and are armed with light crossbows and rapiers. Mimicking the Noble Guard, noblemen are almost always armed with rapiers as well (although very few actually fight with any proficiency to speak of). It would be scandalous for a noblewoman to go about armed, but many carry a small dagger secreted upon their person for self defense just in case.
• The Middle Class
The most common middle class buildings are townhouses, with hallmarks of the style marked by simplicity with brick, stucco or weatherboard exterior walls, large six over six windows, windowed doors, no dominant entrances and shutters attached with strap hinges on all windows and doors. In 2-story townhouses or mixed use buildings, fanlights above ground floor windows often open to provide ventilation and can provide illumination to an entresol or mezzanine. Unroofed second floor galleries with wrought iron railings are quite common, and it is normal to see people sitting at small tables in these galleries sipping alcoholic drinks at all hours of the day or evening. The buildings almost always have small bird houses or aviaries on the walls of the galleries, and a common parting among the middle class is “may your birds nest early.”
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| A Middle Class Townhouse |
The middle class wear basic comfortable clothes made out of materials that are easily available, like linen or wool. The typical woman’s outfit is a dress with a tightly fitted bodice and a full skirt that drops to her ankles. Men usually wear a white shirt with buttons or ties but missing the noble collar and cuffs. For pants, men wear puffed trousers above the knees and thick hose or leggings up to the knees. Colors are usually vibrant but not as ostentatious as the nobility, with blues, yellows and reds making up the majority. While the City Guard wear chain mail armor and are armed with sword, compound bow and pike, the common man is not allowed to be armed with anything more dangerous than a short bow (for small game hunting) and a dagger (more for utility use than combat). Women wear their hair long and plaited, often covered by a scarf or kerchief. Men wear simple caps of a wide variety of styles, the most common of which is a woven hat with a wide brim made from common reeds.
• The Lower Class
The lower class cottage always has a fairly bland but effective style of construction. The typical cottage is 1 to 1½-stories tall, 2 rooms wide and 2 rooms deep, often with small storage rooms (cabinets) attached at the rear to each side. Cottages have hipped or side gabled roofs, frequently with tall, narrow gabled dormer windows. A typical cottage façade is symmetrical with four openings, usually four sets of windowed doors or two sets of windowed doors and two double hung windows, all shuttered. Smaller cottages that are 1 room wide by 2 rooms deep, with only one door and a window (a “2-bay cottage”) also occur, although less frequently. The front façade is typically sheltered from the weather by an overhang that directs rain away from the front façade and windows. Earlier cottages are typically of brick between posts or masonry construction with smooth plaster or wood weatherboard sheathing. More recent Cottages are often of frame construction with wood weatherboard siding. While the cottage is a vernacular type with minimal stylistic features, cottages built at different times may exhibit subtle stylistic details of their period, such as arched or flat-topped windows, dentil moldings, and geometric door surrounds. In some cases, more details are added to update older cottages.
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| A Lower Class Cottage |
A lower class man wears at least a tunic or shirt, and breeches of some kind. He also wears a laced-up or buttoned jerkin (vest) with or without sleeves over this, and some kind of hat with a biggins (coif) underneath to keep his shaggy hair out of his eyes. All but the poorest have cloth hosen (stockings) and shoes, or if he wears no hose, he would have long breeches similar to pajama pants, cross gartered from ankle to knee. Cross gartered breeches were commonly worn by the lower class men as well. His clothing will often have holes or patches on it. The lower classes spin their own yarn and weave their own cloth. They wear wool, linen and combinations of the two fibers, such as linsey-woolsey. They also wear leather when they can get it from hunting, and they line their winter clothes and capes with the skins of rabbit and squirrel.
A lower class woman usually wears a long-sleeved shift under everything and at least two skirts over that, with the upper skirt, usually newer than the underskirts, tucked up out of the dirt. She has an apron on over the skirts to keep them clean if she is doing work, which is most of the time. She wears a tight fitting bodice or vest (scoop or square necked), which usually comes to a point in front, and laced or buttoned on over the shift. It has removable sleeves which are worn or not, depending on the weather. Any woman over the age of thirteen has her hair covered by some sort of headgear, such as a biggins, garland or muffin cap, and the hair itself is usually braided or bundled up out of the way.
Colors for dying the fabrics are obtained from vegetable sources available in the vicinity and are mainly earth colors and muted tones. Trim on peasant clothes is kept simple, and usually embroidery or plain strips of contrasting fabric are sewn to edges to set them off. More often, there is no trim or edge decoration at all, mostly due to cost. Since there is seldom enough money or time to buy or make a lot of cloth at one time, the color of one garment hardly ever matches the color of another. Also, since a peasant usually only has one outfit, it doesn't get washed very often, so it will be well worn, dirty, and patched. The lower class peasant will often wear common green feathers that come from a variety of sources, mostly parrot and king fisher. It is a decree that even the poor have the right to celebrate life in Ville des Marai, and feathers are an expression of this celebration.
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| Gyronny arrondi of three, vert, or and purpe, on a chief argent three fleurs-de-llis vert |