Intro

Introduction

A sprawling coastal trade center dominating the Nea Bay, Lethys is the largest city in Rhakhaan (see Map of Lethys). Nearly 20% of the Lethian population of about 50,000 is Elvish, mostly Erlin. Lethys has the largest harbor complex on Jaiman, and not surprisingly is the leading ship-builder. Lethys and Haalkitaine are as night and day in both mood and design. While Haalkitaine is a brooding citadel honeycombed with secret passages and court intrigues, Lethys is a bustling seaport, ruled by a flamboyant prince and a council of greedy (if unassuming) families. The emphasis is commerce, and silver will buy you in Lethys what you’d need breeding or blackmail to get in Haalkitaine. Lethys is not only a trading center, it is a renaissance city which owes much of its wealth to banking and astute business ventures by its powerful families (it is a lesser sister to Sel-kai, but nevertheless a wealthy city). Many of these groups have ‘offices’ in cities all over Jaiman and Emer, lending money to other concerns and even governments. As a result they have grown rich on interest and trade. Lethys is practically an independent city-state, though no one would dare say it aloud in Haalkitaine.

6820 in the second era there 'The Haalkitaine Fire' struck the capital city of Rhakhaan and large areas too. The Imperial seat then moved to Lethys.

In the 3:rd era 1001, The King of Rhakhaan, Andej II, returned to Haalkitaine.

The races in Lethys

There are not only one race of people in Lethys, there are two or even three. First we have the normal Rhakhai people of Jameri race, there are Erlini elves, then there are the noble sort of Rhakais, the Zori race. But, these races are mixed together so that there are some different sorts of halfelves in Lethys and this group is the most common one in the city. There are about ten procent pure, or nearly pure, Erlini, there are twenty to thirty procent of pure, or nearly pure, jameri, and sixty to seventy procent of halfelves and in this work I will call this halfelven race for lethysians (notice the difference between lethyans, which are an inhabitant of Lethys). Technically (for rolemaster) there are four different sorts of lethysians, depending upon the amount of elven/human blood :

There are less than one procent Zori in Lethys.

Names

Lethyans like to take their father´s or mother´s first name as a part of the new name.

Like this: Mardon Belogart son was Eddan Mardonade.

They also like erlin names with tree, wood, forest, sea, ocean, high, bear and other animal and naturenames.

The lethyans almost always has two and only two names and not very few times they don´t have familynames.

Physical and mental character

The halfelves are always a mix of the human and the elven races and therefore I will only describe the humans and the elves here, the halfelves are somewhere inbetween (like average to slender built).

The culture

Clothing: They wear colourful clothing with numerous patterns and materials, but they seem to prefer very light clothing, even in the winter. The colour is often green and they do wear different types of hats. There are some differencies between Khuuporters and lethyans clothing.

Hairstyle: The lethyans like to go to the hairdresser´s. They all cut in the special lethyan style, if not they are treated like a foreigner or worse, like a northerner. This style is halflong for both men and women with hair down to the shoulders or a bit shorter, but never longer. The real lethyan has wavy hair and the tops are formed into small balls with stones or jewels that holds the hair down.

Lifestyle: Lethys is artisian central, their life revolve around accomplishments of art, craft and social recognition. Many consider physical and mental challenge to be a higher goal, and therefore engage in many games of note. Sailing is their claim to fame and there are races of incredible magnitude, with as many as 1000 boats every Summer Soltice. Smaller races happen year- round, often when the festivals come to town (see 238).

Marriage: Marriage is monogamous, but cities offer many intrigues and opportunities for transient relationships. Basically, many lethyans believe marriage is important, but is not engaged in as often as other places.

Religion: Lethys is cosmoplolitan, and though there are numerous religious institutions, they are somewhat half-hearted about it. Many of the Dark Gods are represented in the city, protected under the laws of practition of the Allied cults (see 103). Many pure elves and halfelves deeply respect Iloura, perhaps due to shame for their city ties. Elves also are habitual about accepting a ‘spirit’, not a spirit of Orhan, but a rural or house spirit, such as Sylvia (lesser spirit of trees) or Morin (lesser spirit of shaped wood, including wood used in housing and boats) and they have shrines just outside Lethys.

Imports/Exports

Many areas of the vast land that constitutes Rhakhaan are well forested, and timber is a bustling trade, though this is in jeopardy with Silaar becoming well connected and used by both Nuyani and Reandorians, which are well established in Sel-kai. One export of note is the Janus jewel. They are beautiful, imbued with essence, they sparkle, unnaturally. They have interesting properties. Because of the vast wealth that Rhakhaan has aquired over the millenia (they were the only country to survive the Wars of Dominion partially intact), they import many things.

Others

Money: Coinage is minted. Heads: various important people. Tails: sailboat, phoenix, grapes on anvil.

Armour: Anything, though as a rule they do not wear armour, even if every guard wear a light sort of chainarmour.

Weapons: Bows are prefered. Among the meleeweapons you can find almost anything in this city.

The city layout

The City rests primarily on the north side of the Bernen River in the southern inlet of the Nea Bay. It is divided into four uneven quarters:

The Port (Khuuport and Elftown): Including the warehouses, docks and shipbuilding facilities, this is the largest district. There are numerous taverns, Inns and other ‘service’ establishments catering to every taste and budget. The Flask and Mug is here, a few blocks from the commercial docks.

The Trade Quarter (Central): Adjacent to the port, it is where the majority of major transactions take place. The Grand Marketplace runs several blocks and is bustling all day and well into the night.

The Royal Quarter: (East) Smallest of the four, it includes the Prince’s palace complex and the barracks of the militia. The houses of the wealthiest families of the city and many temples are situated here. The Lethys Library is here.

The Artisans Quarter: (South and West) Most of the craftsmen live and work here, residing in apartments behind and above their shops. This is where many finished goods and services can be had.

Khuuport (map)

Khuuport is the western part of the city, where all the seamen live and in Khuuport the poor lethyans live in their small houses. There is always a lot of activity in Khuuport, especially in the fishmarket, some hundred yards northeast of the center of Khuuport, the "Drunken pirate" (see 26) an infamous inn for seamen. The fishmarket is open every day all year and from dawn until dusk. In the northern parts there are a lot of noises coming from the large sawmill, just north of Khuuport (see 31). Khuuport is a stinking hole and they have a lot of problems with lice there. If you stay only one night in Khuuport or spend a hole day at an inn there, there is 15% chance that you get lice (no disease modifications occur, but hygiene will decrease the chance to 5%). But if you get lice, don´t suicide, they have a delousingestablishment where they quickly remove all traces of lice (see 45). In Khuuport there are more percentage pure humans than in the other parts of the city and many of the Khuuporters are other races, not very usual ones in Lethys. These people are seamen coming from other cities and small harbours and many of them stay in their own town, as they call Khuuport.

Elftown (map)

This was once a town for only pure elves, but since many, many years there are a lot of halfelves living here too, but many of them with more elven than human blood. In elftown they have their own council (but without real power (see 116)) and they like to have their own style, but this is not very successful. Because when they change clothingstyle or haircuttingstyle, the rest of the town change too and they are like inventioners in special styles for the lethyans. It is like this in nearly everything (clothing, haircutting, music, entertainment, sports, etc.) and everybody in Lethys know that the elves start the new things and most of the people like it (not all human Khuuporters). There are a lot of old elves (they are healthy since they use all the modern advantages in the city) in Lethys and all of them live in Elftown. Twelve of those are sitting in the elven council, but there are more old elven men living in Lethys, and some of them can look back at a few thousand years life.

Elftown is quiet and not very active as the other parts of the city.

West (map)

The West is the newest part of Lethys and as you can see on the map it is the most planned part of the city. Here, the streets are straight and the buildings is raised with equal distances between them and this part looks quite different from the other. You can find a few buildings made of stone here (to block the great fires) and the architecture is more elven like. West is not very active nor very quiet and it is the smallest of all parts.

South (map)

In the South most of the temples are located and people here are slightly more religous than the rest of the lethyans. The South qre equal active in the nights as in the days (the Souths inhabitants are much for parties) and there can be fights in the streets.

East (map)

The East is the finest part of Lethys, and here all the noble and rich people live and ofcourse also the prince, Westley. Here you can also find the King´s park a very nice one, probably one of the best (see 245). In the East there is one area for the noble families and this area is heavy guarded and you shall have a mission to enter it.

Central (map)

This is the active part in the city. Here they have the market and all the big services like the library and the court. There are a lot of different stores and even if there is no sign that tells of a store there is often some business in the residencehouses too (not told about in the Lethysguide).

It is often very many people in the central and in the spring and in the fall it is often hard to get from a point to another when the small streets are muddy and the big ones, which are paved with stones, are full of people.

The harbour (map)

The harbour is very large and there are hundreds of ships there all year, most of them belongs to the Lethys navy (LN), the largest employer in the city. The other ships anchor close to one of the five huge piers (30 feet high above the sealevel). Read more about the Lethys navy later.

Cape west (map)

Lethys was built on five hills and Cape west is one of them (Semcap, Elftown, East and South are the other four). There are only an unvisitable brushwood on the hill and the huge tower of Kalkyrian in the harbour entrance.

Semcap (map)

Semcap is the best natural wall you can find. The western parts of the cape there are high cliffs (200 feet), which are guarded by men in the Kalkyrian fortress. And the eastern edge of it is the opposite, a clean quiet beach where the fishermen of Khuuport anchor their small vessels.

The Wall

Unfortunately there is no citywall. The city trust in there many men and their heavy guard and the natural walls. From the sea the city is almost invulnerable because of the mighty fortress and the naturall wall of Semcap and Cape west. The rest of the city trust in their men and they have many guards in the close villages. Probably the council will decide to start building a wall, but this will not happen in the closest fifty years (authors thoughts).

Architecture and citystructure

Architecture: The city´s architecture is very special and all the buildings in the city was built in the same style. They use wood when they build their houses here (there are a few stonebuildings too but..) and they use the best sort taken from the closest forests. The houses have one or two floors only and it is illegal to build a house with more than two floors (as there are only two buildings with more than two floors) and it is illegal to build a house as you want in Lethys. The lethyan architect has to decide if the style is the right lethyan one. It is very cheap to build and repair a house in Lethys and therefore most of the buildings are in good shape, which is a must if you are a human, because of the winter.

Structure: The citystructure is a mess mostly because of the many fires and the nonstructure of the old villages that was forming the city in the beginning. But parts of the West and Elftown are planned, but the newest buildings that they raise is being built in a nonstructurethinking, the city´s architect has decidede that this is the lethyan style and they will not allow more straight streets as in the West. Because of the nonstructure it is very hard to find what you want in Lethys (-5).

Streets: There are streetnames in Lethys, but very few people know about them. Many don´t even know what street they live in. The long streets are wellknown, but sometimes people can use different names and this make it even harder to find.

Climate

The climate is like in the rest of southern Jaiman, pretty cold winters and warm summers. In Lethys the wind often terrifies the lethyans in the late fall.

Races

As I already explained the lethyans like to join competitions and races, especially with small watervessels. Every year there are many races in the summertime, but also in the spring and autumn. Many, often a few hundred, boats and kayaks join these races and the prizes can be very fine. The huge harbour make it easy to arrange small races in it where the competitors shall travel around a few of the LN ships anchored in the middle of the harbour.

Festivals

They hold festivals each orhan in Lethys and these are enjoyed by the lethyans. The center of the festivals is always the marketplace in the citycenter. Read more about the festivals in the Lethysguide number 238

Not very few times (every other year or so) they arrange other festivals in Lethys. There has been many different types and they usually hold on for a week and like all entertainment these festivals are loved by the lethyans. Examples are : musical festival, sea festival, sports festival and Rhakhaan festival and these festivals doesn´t need to be hold in the marketplace.

Ships and the Lethys navy (LN)

Most of all Rhakhaans 200 ships in the navy are based here in Lethys.

There are many ships in the harbour and most of them are from the LN, and all but one of the LN ships are built in Lethys. Here are all types of ships belonging to the navy (the percentage is percentage of the LN whole navy):

Lighter: These ships are made of teak and they are used in the LN for antipiracy and convoy escort. (30%) They have a small crew and are very seaworthy and many seamen and traders that travel to small places use them.

Barch: The barches are used for convoy escort and piratehunters and they are very popular among the (30%) pirates. They are also used when something shall be delivered from or to Lethys in a hurry as they can carry light cargo.

Frigars: These are the primary warships of LN and they use a lot of them to drive off pirates. They are (25%) built of Windak, a perfect wood that only grow on Jaiman.

Aavar: The aavars are primary made for merchantbusiness, but they are armed and LN use them for (15%) scouting, because of their excellent seakeeping quality. They are very stout and can carry a lot and they are often made of oak.

Sloop: The LN have one sloop, it is the Prince´s ship. It is imported from Hadrock and it is very large (0%) made in a material that isn´t avaliable in Lethys. The sloop is fast and wellarmed and the prince has decided to buy more of them, but he agrees with the council, that wants them to be built in Lethys.

The other ships seen in the harbour are:

The merhants often use the aavar, lighter and the barch but there are three other very popular merchantmen:

Nor: This is a shallowdraft vessel used mainly in coastal trade between inland nations. Great cargocapacity, but slow and not very seaworthy. These are being built in Lethys.

Corvar: The most common merchantman in Lethys is the corvar a mediumsized ship made of teak.

Temples and shrines outside Lethys

There are two shrines and one large temple located just east of Lethys in an opening in the Saad forest. The shrines are made to two spirits (Sylvia and Morin) and the temple is a large Kuortempel where two knightorders rule, Alcione knights and the order of the silver hand. The temple building is very high and it was built here because of the rules in Lethys, that you are not allowed to build buildings with more than two floors, this building has eight (!) and it is over 150 feet high and it can be seen from the city, which lays three miles from the temple. There are over thirty clerics and all of them belongs to one of the orders, which can cooperate, but they are not very close friends. Read more about the orders in the lethysguide (69 and 250).

Thievesguilds

There are three different thievesguilds in Lethys and they are all active, but despite the fact that the city is criminal, the guild has no power at all, they don´t want to and they realize that the guard is far to strong to fight. Two of the guilds will start to fight eachother and the third (the runners) just make small thefts and pickpocketting.

This is very important for the GM, that the guilds have NO POWER but they can make assassinations other high criminal things. Read about the guild and their problems (10,42 and 230) and the guard (129).

Loremasters

There are two stationary loremasters in Lethys, but the author don´t know much about them (see 207 and 247).

Adventurers

There are two famous (from the Lethys Tribune) adventurer groups of Lethys, Hard as eog and Nine fears none.

The Hard as eog group are four knights, a scribe, a magician, a dwarven trenchfighter, a mentalist and an old beastmaster. They have Lethys as their port and they travel around Kulthea and the scribe write down their adventures and send them to the Lethys tribune. Often, though, they drink and tell their stories in one of the many inns in Lethys. They are very rich, and they often travel with their own ship, Laialon, a barch.

Nine fears none are an evil adventurergroup, but ofcourse don´t any of the lethyans know that they are so. They are nine feared men: a thief, a layhealer, a duelist, a sorcerer, a necromancer, a warriormage, a high warrior monk, a swordsman, a creator and his elven fleshgolem. They seek large monsters and big treasures (and they fight others and steal). They use to be contacted at the threeheaded eagle (see 202).

The great fires

Because of the many wooden buildings and how they were built there has been many great fires in Lethys. The greatest of the latest great fires was the Great fire of Khuuport 5021, that destroyed almost the whole Khuuport part of the city and many people where killed. In 2005 they had the greatest and worst of all fires in Lethys history. A big part of the inner city was destroyed and many houses were completely destroyed. There has been one great fire every fifty years in average since then but since they upgraded the firebrigade (see 88) in 5920 there hasn´t been any great fire and the people in Lethys has forgotten them. The library has managed to keep their books safe because of their deep cellar.

Wells

The wells in Lethys are very important. They serve as marketplaces for pushcart vendors and an area for advertising. The lethyans gather at the wells and they are often standing there giggeling about the latest gossip. Many intrigues have been started there as rumours and ended with a fight also at one of the wells. At each well there are a big place where the lethyans can place thier advertises and ofcourse they are a perfect place for minor speeches.

Pushcart vendors

There are ten wellknown pushcart vendors in Lethys and they all have their favorite places, where they use to stand.

Hooliga Llûn: Sells shoes, saddles and small leatherthings. He is never seen outside the Central.

Laddy Wood: Second hand clothing and jewelry of bad quality. He operates in Khuuport, Elftown and Central

Bo Luggorman: Sculptures and paintings by lethyan artists. Also sell theiftools. Khuuport, East and Central

Wendee Quick: Cold food and hot newcooked fishes. Central, South, West, East and Elftown.

Jugor Zsceck: Ties, socks, hats, underwear, belts, hygiene-articles, sunglasses etc. Central, East and West

Hei Sandan: Lamps and kitchenequipment. All city.

Eddan Eddan: Different things all the time. Central, Elftown, West and South.

Lago Ghûr: Small metal things like hinges, locks and keys (often second hand). All city.

Ledrick Sdort: Different things all the time. Has never been seen far away from the marketsquare.

Xylon Zoff: Womentools like sewingequipment, hairpins and nailscissors. All city.

Evil in Lethys

There are some evil forces in Lethys, but you shall know that much of them are not described here, so if you, as a GM, like to put in more evil you shall know that there are place for them too.

Description to the Lethysguide

There are 290 describes buildings and places in Lethys that you can find in the Lethysguide and here is a short description how you shall manage to find and understand how this work was made. They follow the rules of the Eidolon book. It is important to know that the guide is written for the year TA 6045

Number: This is not a tough one. It is only the number of the building (1-290). The numbers are also to be found on the map (that you have?).

Name: This is the name of the building or place, often this name can be misleading and you will have to read the guide a few times to learn all the places. Important are those places where the name starts with Home of ... .Those places don´t have signs and the people live in these houses, they are not only stores or services or whatever.

Type: This is made to lead you better, but sometimes the type doesn´t help you at all, then you have to read the text. I am sorry, but this is depeniding on my bad english.

Size: The size of the building, nothing else.

Quality: The quality of the products or service in the building.

The pits - worst, inferior - better but far from good, average - a wide area, good - a fine quality and ofcourse the superior is the best.

Prices: The prices are written in percentage of the normal Rolemaster prices. (They are changeable)

Location: The location is written to guide you on the map.

Description: Here you can read about the different places in Lethys.

In the Lethysguide you will also find important persons and here I will desrcibe how you can read the codes following the names. An example:

Important Persons:

The important persons are always located after the description and it always says IMPORTANT PERSONS: before anyone of them.

Lugor D´nar is ofcourse his name and President of ASK is his rank or real profession. Then we have the race and the Rolemaster profession (Lethysian scholar). Notice here that I have only marked the lethysian race not the special number, of the four different I explained in the beginning of this work.

Below the name there are often a number where you also can find this person (he or she is active in two or more described places of Lethys). Then there is the sex and eventually the level of the person. I have had trouble with the levels and it is free to change them but it is a guiding and here are the decoder:

If you miss some stores or services it is very easy to change or put in a new store or service, especially in the Warehouse & bazaar (see 221 in the Lethysguide). There are also many more stores than described in this guide, but those described here are the professional ones.