Galvanheim
Galvanheim was a major city on the Mainland of Echelon. By the 2nd millennium LA, it was one of the oldest continuously-inhabited cities in the world.
History
The city of Galvanheim was founded as a Boreas Clan trading and rest stop sometime in the sixth century AW, the last in the Elsir Vale before reaching Bordrin's Pass in Echelon's Spine. It was one of the few Seven Dwarf Clan establishments to be built primarily above ground at that time.
Dwarven Elite
Although a dwarven outpost, Galvanheim grew quickly in size and diversity. At the time of the Great Racial War, Galvanheim was known as the most cosmopolitan of all Mainland cities. The ruling class of dwarves, however, would remain until well into the Light Age. It wasn't until 75 LA that a non-dwarf sat on the Galvanheim High Council-- 2,500 years after its founding.
Burgeoning Fortress City
Galvanheim's rapid growth contributed to its disassociation from many kingdoms and governments throughout the ages. With the ability to withstand direct assaults and even prolonged sieges due to its underground farms, when Galvanheim decided to stand alone, it most often did. The city's outer bulwark of adamantine walls made it nearly invulnerable to siege weapons. After the integration of Siroccan technology in the 3rd century ME, its unique Overshield prevented aerial penetration, effectively closing the city up in an impregnable adamantine box.
Association with Pennant Regency
When the Pennant Regency was established in 315 ME, Galvanheim was offered association status with the fledgling kingdom to the east. The city-state maintained cordial trade and mutual defense pacts with the Regency. While never officially a member state of the Regency, Galvanheim's association status led to the common misconception that it was part of Pennant's republic.
Fall of the Regency
During the Pennant Civil War, Galvanheim officially declared secession from the Regency, opting to stand alone as the government split in two. It was unknown why the High Council of Galvanheim wrote a letter of secession, as it was never an official part de jure of the Regency; a more appropriate Middle Era document would have been an abrogation of association.
Some historians attributed the political maneuver as a way to inspire cities like Calogero to follow suit and form their own government. However, as both Calogero and Galvanheim joined the short-lived Avandran Alliance shortly after the letter of secession was delivered to Elder City, this motivation was debated. Other historians thought that an abrogation would have appeared too weak a response to the civil conflict; as Galvanheim had been considered far and wide as Pennant proper, it only made sense to respond authoritatively in kind.
The Ultima War
Galvanheim played a critical role in both the Ultima War and the Dark Age that followed. Its fortress-like construction and Overshield protected many citizens of the Elsir Vale. The Determined heroes who led the fight against Vecna's forces in the Ultima War sent many refugees to Galvanheim; it would remain the safest place throughout the course of the Null.
The hardy adamantine construction, militant presence of the Hearthclan, and impassable Overshield were supplemented by the raising of Lionni's divine shield with the astral diamond Heart of Moradin. Galvanheim was said to be the only city to come out of the Ultima War unscathed.
The Dark Age
Galvanheim remained a beacon of civilization in the worldwide darkness of the Null. However, Galvanheim faced serious food shortages by 100 DA; the underground farms were not fully protected by the divine shield, and the refugees sent during the War stressed the crowded city to its breaking point.
The Heart of Moradin failed around 797 DA, engulfing the city in the Null. While the Overshield remained a useful deterrent against attack, it did not protect against the effects of the Null.
Galvanheim suffered tremendously during the colloquial Dark Time. The High Council maintained order with an iron fist, separating the city's Districts into sub-communities and walling them off from each other. Each Councilor took charge of a District, and attempted to guide its denizens through the Dark Time. Theft, cannibalism, and murder were commonplace, and feudalism reigned supreme, but the city survived.
The Light Age
After the Passing of the Null, Galvanheim was slow to recover. Its proud walls and masterful technology could not protect it from its own citizens, which fought between the reopened Districts for decades. By 75 LA, the Districts were reunited once more under the Bronze Council, three dwarf heroes who conquered the Districts by force and political mastery. The Bronze Council expanded to include two gearforged, a human, and a tiefling.
The Bronze Council led the city into the Light Age, though the centuries of segregation-- both literal and social-- between the Districts were not easily overcome. Some said that Galvanheim never fully recovered from the Dark Time; regardless, by 1101 LA and the establishment of the Dragon Federation, Galvanheim became an important metropolis once again.
Geography
Galvanheim was built on the top of one of the Stonehome Hills, just east of Bordrin's Pass through the Echelon's Spine mountain range. It was situated near the Maevin Mountains, an offshoot of Echelon's Spine. Dwarven engineers constructed the city on a hill situated above a massive underground spring. The 100-foot adamantine walls overshadowed the taller foothills of Stonehome.
Climate
The climate of Galvanheim was typically warm and dry, as the Maevin Mountains to the south-southeast made for a small rain shadow over the Stonehome Hills. The temperature and rainfall levels in Galvanheim were significantly less than the rest of the Elsir Vale.
Districts
The Blister
The Blister was a rough-and-tumble section of the city, populated by mercenaries, adventurers, and the usual sort of traveling folk with few roots. Characterized by a great number of winesinks, taverns, pleasure dens, gambling halls, and bordellos, Blister was not a place to get lost.
Blister's buildings were a mix of timber and stone of architectural styles ranging the gamut. Old dwarven buildings stood next to almost organic tiefling dreaming halls, while a halfling gambling den could sit in the shadow of an old temple dedicated to Sehanine in her more larcenous aspect.
By the Light Age, humans, halflings, and dragonborn had the largest numbers in Blister, though one could find a variety of races there. Most were adventurers, thieves, and traveling folk, representing the city’s most diverse population.
Boneyard
Occupying the southeast corner of Galvanheim, Boneyard was notorious for every distasteful business and venture, including everything from the city’s slaughterhouses, renderers, tanners, dyers, and even the city's graveyards. As an industrial corner of the city, most buildings were plain and functional, and they were constructed to serve the operation and little else. The Boneyard featured broad roads in good repair so wagons could easily navigate the district.
Humans and dwarves made up the majority of the Boneyard's denizens, although the desegregation efforts of the Bronze Council and later Light Age High Councils slowly changed its population.
Elftown
Elftown covered the northwestern corner of the inner city, and took its name from an elven hero during the Ancient World. The community consisted of upscale and well-off entrepreneurs, merchants, bankers, lawyers, physicians, and other members of Galvanheim's upper crust.
With fine buildings of astonishing dwarven art deco architecture, white-washed or painted in pastel colors, Elftown housed some of the nicest homes and shops in the city. Even the smaller houses were sumptuous compared to those of pretty much anywhere else in the city. Many during the Middle Era and Light Age were accented by parks, lawns of green grass, statuary, and beds of exotic flowers and semi-mobile plants. The roads of Elftown were originally covered in pale white stone and maintained by a legion of well-paid servants. Even the side streets were clean and, by 100 LA, lit with everburning torches contained in iron lanterns to chase away the shadows.
In spite of the name, few, if any, elves lived in Elftown during the city's early history. Instead, wealthy dwarves and humans commanded the district since the city's founding. It was ravaged during the Dark Time, but by the deaths of the original Bronze Council, much of the district had been restored to its former glory. After that time, the district became more cosmopolitan, although the human and dwarven elite presence remained a staple of Elftown for the majority of the Light Age.
The Forgeworks
The Forgeworks (often just "The Forge" or "The Works") was an early middle-class district given over to successful artisans, tradesfolk, and other professional men and women. It was the first, and oldest, district in the city. By the early Middle Era, more than half of the buildings in the Forgeworks were workshops with apartments overhead. Warehouses, businesses, stables, and other places of industry rounded out the rest.
As Galvanheim expanded, the Forgeworks stood in the Middle City, south of Elftown. Dwarves and humans lived side by side in the Forgeworks, but one could also find a small population of half-elves, dragonborn, and a few others as well. During the days of the Light Age, the Forgeworks brought folk from all over the city to do business.
High Hall
High Hall, or the Old City, was where the city leaders convened to govern Galvanheim. By the end of the Ancient World, few folk still lived in High Hall since nearly every inch of available space was given over to the various ministries making up the city’s government.
High Hall, the second-oldest district in Galvanheim, consisted of a forest of massive buildings packed tightly inside its walls. Towers thrust up from the fortresslike structures, climbing high above the walls and affording a look at the entire city and the lands all around. It was from High Hall that the Overshield, a Siroccan marvel of adamantine engineering, could be deployed.
Most buildings housed one of the four Ministries that saw to keeping the city operating. The Ministry of Commerce, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Ministry of War, and the Ministry of Health were all ran from High Hall. Each operated out of a marble building fronted by impressive statues of dwarf warriors, artisans, and historical figures, while the walls themselves bore intricate carvings and bas reliefs capturing key moments from the city’s history-- with the exception of the taboo Dark Time.
Nine Bells
The Nine Bells district took its name for the nine temples found in the heart of the district. Since these temples catered to the sick and the poor, the district often drew the hungry, the diseased, and the destitute to its streets.
Before the inter-district walls were raised in the Dark Age, Nine Bells was a place of great wealth—a community favored by those rich citizens who wanted to escape the clamor of the city. However, after the Ultima War, the estates were abandoned and the people fled to Elftown to escape the flood of destitute people that washed into the place. After the perilous Dark Time, Nine Bells became the worst part of the city, and was often a source of embarrassment for the city’s elite.
Despite measures to heal Nine Bells during the Light Age, efforts to revitalize the once-proud district were met with little success. With rotting estates, old vineyards overrun by tents and wooden shacks, sagging rowhouses, and communities of tents, Nine Bells continued to decay throughout the Light Age, even while the rest of the city grew strong. The businesses catered to darker interests, including dreaming halls, sinister taverns, fighting pits, and disease-ridden brothels.
Huddled in the northeastern corner of this district were nine great temples, raised after the Juriatas Accord. After the tribulations of the Ultima War and the Null, they were faced, on all sides, by poverty, despair, and the worst sorts of people. Called the Divine Knot, a few of the temples were repeatedly sacked, used as housing or strongholds, or abandoned altogether, depending on the age.
Substrata
The underground farm district of Galvanheim, Substrata, was built to meet the needs of the city's growing population in the Ancient World. It was chiseled out of solid rock by enterprising Vennagavish and Coppercut dwarves, and used as the primary food supplier of those above ground. Since arable farmland was scarce in the Stonehome Hills, a subterranean hydroponics farm, complete with natural spring, became an ingenious solution for a High Council who wished to remain self-reliant.
The underground district was characterized by vertical farms and farmhouses among a planned series of tall and narrow tunnels. Several offshoots and branches were dug as Galvanheim grew, and by the Light Age, the "planned" nature of the farm tunnels was almost unrecognizable in the maze-like digs.
Substrata arguably fared the worst during the Dark Time. It was constantly ravaged for food, and power over sections of the subterranean district changed hands almost daily. However, during the Light Age, Substrata saw a rapid resurgence. A Galvanheim colloquialism, the "Substratan Renaissance" became an example of hope and hard work.