Argentum is the walled city at the center of the Silver Vale, and the seat of what remains of civilization after the Starfall. It is governed by strict law, and its survival is held to depend on the upkeep of its physical and divine defenses.
Description
The inner city is built of high-quality stonework in a consistent style, plain but expertly made. The Cathedral of the Silver Flame is the exception, being more ornate and set with stained glass. Between the canals and the Hearth Wall the building is more mixed, in cobblestone, brick and wood. The Hearth Wall itself is white stone, fifty feet tall, with watchtowers of seventy-five feet along its length. The city has a moat.1 The Outerworks sprawl beyond the wall, built from whatever came to hand and leaning more to wood than to stone.
Lantern Wards
The Lantern Wards are the upper city, a wealthy district of trade and old stone housing. At its heart is the Plaza of the Ascendant, a broad square holding a silver statue of Bahamut forty feet tall, with the Cathedral of the Silver Flame rising behind it. The Cathedral is the seat of the ruling Synod of the Silver Flame and holds the city’s most vital archives. The Grand Canals, a heated aqueduct system, encircle the ward and supply security, heat and water.
Hearth Wall
The Hearth Wall is the most populous part of the city, between the Grand Canals and the outer wall, which is itself called the Hearth Wall. Life here is practical and varied, and the district holds communal longhouses, artisan quarters and barracks. The Canal Markets trade along the Grand Canals on this side of the wall, from booths and barges selling greenhouse produce, preserved meats and salvaged goods.
Outerworks
Farmland stretching several miles beyond the Hearth Wall, still inside the protection of the Silver Flame and patrolled by the Order of the Lantern.
Underforge Vaults
The Underforge Vaults are ancient forges beneath the city, worked over a single volcanic rift called the Everfire, which supplies the city with heat, power and industry. The city’s coins are minted there.
Society
Arcane magic is forbidden in Argentum and throughout the Silver Vale. The Synod of the Silver Flame teaches that arcane hubris called down the Starfall, and those who show arcane talent are taken by the Order of the Lantern for “purification”. The Order does not say what purification involves, and those taken are rarely seen again. Divine and primal magic are accepted, and divine casters draw their power from the Silver Flame itself.
The city is warmed and lit by the Everfire system, which feeds heated canals and glass lamps filled with molten material. Most food comes from the Outerworks and the farmland of the Vale. Public festivals are frequent, and communal meals in the Hearth Wall district serve as both social occasions and demonstrations of the Synod’s providence.
Currency is minted by the Vaultsmiths: platinum Dragons, gold Crowns, silver Embers and copper Anvils. The copper anvil bears the Vaultsmiths’ emblem.2
Orcs and half-orcs live in the city, and are more common than elves or dwarves.1 Dwarven families still mark their doors and signet seals with traditional clan marks, though less often than they once did.1
Citizens carry papers that amount to a birth certificate, which must be shown to cross the bridges into the Lantern Wards.2
History
The Starfall is dated to roughly seventeen centuries ago in the teaching of the Synod of the Silver Flame. Bahamut gathered the survivors into a walled city in the Silver Vale, and there performed the Covenant of the Silver Flame, giving up his life and consciousness to become lasting protection for the city.
The city was not built from nothing. When Bahamut brought the survivors of the Starfall and the Sorrow that followed, he brought them to a city that already existed, built by dwarves or mostly by dwarves, and Argentum grew out of it.3 The dwarven work still shows in the architecture at the heart of the city and in the Underforge Vaults, while everything in the Hearth Wall district was built after the Starfall.3 Hazel supposes the city had another name before it was named for the Silver Flame.3
What counts as the start of Argentum is a matter of scholarly debate. Bahamut arrived with the refugees ten years after the Starfall, after ten years of gathering and protecting people on the move, and stewarded the place for about two hundred years. In 211 PSF he chose to sacrifice himself and become the Silver Flame. The city had been growing since his arrival, but it was officially recognized as operating under the name Argentum the next year, 212 PSF.4
Points of Interest
Everfire Lamps stand throughout the city, glass pillars fed from the rift below. One of them erupted in a geyser sixty feet high during the Festival of Bells, scattering burning Everfire across the plaza.5