@TheEdVerse Alright, my characters have reached Zazesspur in Tethyr and I went to the wiki for information to help me plot stuff for this location but found nothing there. So I come to you for information on this city that will help me describe it.
— Lysbeth Raven (@LysbethRaven) February 11, 2020
1)
Happy to help; here we go.
Zazesspur is no longer the capital of Tethyr, but remains a thriving port and bustling, prosperous trading crossroads, home to more than 120,000 registered taxpaying citizens. They inhabit a city of 2)
…smooth flagstone streets with smooth dressed-stone-slab sidewalks (a rarity in Faerûn) and soaring stone buildings, built of gray limestone quarried upriver (Zazesspur stands on the north bank of the River Sulduskoon at its…#Realmslore— Ed Greenwood (@TheEdVerse) February 12, 2020
3)
…mouth, where it meets the sea). The oldest buildings are square and solid, of Sword Coast North architecture like those of Waterdeep, most newer buildings have the towers, minarets, and ornamental spires in the Calishite 4)
…style, and the newest buildings incorporate innovations from all over the continent, including buttresses, pedestrian bridges aloft crossing streets from structure to structure, aqueducts, and nested balconies.#Realmslore— Ed Greenwood (@TheEdVerse) February 12, 2020
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Zazesspur is a walled city, except along its waterfront, and ‘sprawl’ development outside the walls has been firmly discouraged, with the result that buildings have been torn down and replaced by ever-taller buildings, over 6)
…the years, so that six-and-seven-storey buildings are now common in new construction, with a strict building code that favours overbuilding to prevent collapses at all costs (for there have been mild local earth tremors…#Realmslore— Ed Greenwood (@TheEdVerse) February 12, 2020
7)
…every three decades or so). Homeowners displaced by the rebuilding typically ‘buy in’ to the taller structure that replaced their homes, so Zazesspur is the one city on the Sword Coast that has the equivalent of real-world 8)
…condominiums: a tall building typically has a shop at street level, with an offices level above, and living-quarter floors above that, all jointly owned by the noble who typically “fronted” the building, the merchant…#Realmslore— Ed Greenwood (@TheEdVerse) February 12, 2020
9)
…investors who “came in on” it, and the occupants of many of the living units (multi-room suites); a few of which will typically be rented out by the joint owners, to others.
Zazesspur has deliberately copied the tolerant, 10)
…accept-all-races-and-outlanders-from-afar stance that has served Waterdeep so well in gaining inhabitants, trade, and wealth, so its crowded streets (where traffic flows well, as coaches and wagons have a decreed-by-law…#Realmslore— Ed Greenwood (@TheEdVerse) February 12, 2020
11)
…maximum size, and the local lawkeepers direct traffic with colorful batons that have earned them the nickname “the Rods,” so that only documents still refer to them as the Watch of Zazesspur) teem with races from half-orcs 12)
…to elves, hailing from almost everywhere on Toril.
The docks of Zazesspur never sleep, and are brightly lit and heavily patrolled at all bells (hours are known as ‘bells’ locally, though the water-clocks now in use sound…#Realmslore— Ed Greenwood (@TheEdVerse) February 12, 2020
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…chimes rather than tolling too-loud bells). They are well served by a shipyard kept too busy doing repairs and refittings to lay the keels of new ships, sailmakers backed up with orders, and warehouses that are clean and 14)
…heavily-guarded, with street youths on staff tasked with killing rats.
Wild hawks have been encouraged to roost in the hollows of the ornamental spires atop many buildings to prey on gulls, pigeons, and other seabirds, and…#Realmslore— Ed Greenwood (@TheEdVerse) February 12, 2020
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…have done so with such success that the pests, and their droppings, are almost entirely absent, and the local fishing boats lack the wheeling, squawking escorts found nigh everywhere else.
Every two summers, the Queen of 16)
…Tethyr names one of the Merchant Dukes of Zazesspur to be Mayor of the city; the honor always changes hands (no one ever holds consecutive terms) and is onerous enough (in terms of endless decisions and paperwork) that not…#Realmslore— Ed Greenwood (@TheEdVerse) February 12, 2020
17)
…even the power-lusty want to be Mayor all that much. The Merchant Dukes are the heads of the city-resident noble families, all of whom are styled Duke or Duchess though they lack duchies to rule. They have successfully 18)
…conspired over the years to prevent city guilds from becoming powerful, but in turn have been prevented by the Crown (since the ascension of Zaranda Star) from lording it over the city. There have been feuds, and are still…#Realmslore— Ed Greenwood (@TheEdVerse) February 12, 2020
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…rivalries, between various nobles and increasingly between nobles and rising-in-wealth citizens whose treasuries are larger than the nobles but see no way short of marriage to become nobles, and resent this—but the Crown has 20)
…spies all over the city whose main work is to turn ire and exasperation to new trade and business opportunities, put forward constantly by the Mayor (speaking for the Crown), so as to channel local energy and emotions into…#Realmslore— Ed Greenwood (@TheEdVerse) February 12, 2020
21)
…new ways for everyone to get wealthier.
As a result, Zazess (as citizens are collectively known) in general feel good about their lives and achievements, and are endlessly entertained (again, thanks to the efforts of Crown… 22)
…agents) with new fashions and fads, new diversions, and new plants to grow indoors and in hanging gardens outside their windows (as the Merchant Dukes enthusiastically agree with the Crown on at least one thing: they want a…#Realmslore— Ed Greenwood (@TheEdVerse) February 12, 2020
23)
…green, growing city where they can eat fresh vegetables and herbs plucked from their own balconies and windows).
Despite the endless parade of new fads and fashions, some local elements remain constant: Zazess like to 24)
…gamble, like roast boar as part of their cuisine, prefer their fish only in sauces and hot-tureen-stews, and like round beds and round tables. Hooded weathercloaks, thanks to morning fogs and frequent light rainshowers, …#Realmslore— Ed Greenwood (@TheEdVerse) February 12, 2020
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…dominate city outerwear, as do stylish boots.
Increasingly, the priests of Gond have come to Zazesspur to find sponsors for small inventions that are useful, and therefore can be made, sold, and resold in bulk across Faerûn. 26)
The city rightly sees itself as the “quieter but better” trade rival to Baldur’s Gate, Waterdeep, Calimport, and the other cities of Tethyr. They do, however, have a perennial problem with embedded spies for pirates, who…#Realmslore— Ed Greenwood (@TheEdVerse) February 12, 2020
27)
…always seem to know when rich cargoes are sailing outbound from Zazesspur, so they can pounce. Some Zazess want to hire their own private escort ships, crammed with armed mercenaries, to combat the pirates—but many Merchant 28)
…Dukes, and the Crown, fear such “aids” would simply become more pirates, and very swiftly, so this is a matter of ongoing local controversy.
There. That ought to do, to get you started.#Realmslore— Ed Greenwood (@TheEdVerse) February 12, 2020