Rizzozan

15,121 (40% human, 22% elves, 13% dwarves, 10% halflings, 8% half-orcs, 7% others)

Government

Rizzozan is ran like all other Qarthian cities, despite being one of the smallest and wealthiest. Like all other cities, the power hierarchy is made up of the Authority at the top with one of the direct members ruling over everything, the Regional Manager right below them who acts as the mayor of Rizzozan, then followed by the Business Liaison who carries out the day-to-day activities and deals with the businesses of Rizzozan at large.

Rizzozan is a unique exception to the anonymity rule that the Authority requires their members to uphold. The Authority member that controls Rizzozan is named Dulgar Boldergut and his identity is known and open to the public. Naturally, the Authority is uncomfortable with this reality, but due to his power and leverage over the savage marauder group the Ravagers, who only respect him and refuse to work with anyone else, he is able to ensure his own protection from danger. Sort of a mutual destruction kind of thing. Knowing this, Dulgar feels confident that no sane man or woman would try to harm him, and that he is a necessary liability for the Authority, especially with how much money the recycling and scavenging trades bring into the Federation. That being said, Dulgar is no fool and knows he has a huge target on his back. With that in mind, he remains hard to find, often taking up disguises and hiding in plain sight so as to avoid being hunted and extorted. When seen in plain sight, he is accompanied by many members of the Sicarii, either visible or in disguise, and is often seen in the protection of Terris the Bull himself, who is a prominent and well known figure of the Sicarii. Whether from the shadows or in open light, Dulgar has the final say on what happens in his city and issues orders and requests to his Regional Manger.

The Regional Manager is a Harengon (a large humanoid rabbit) named Obbi and through his cunning, savvy business mind, and fey-touched luck, has found his way to the very top of the power hierarchy in Rizzozan. He is the one that corresponds with the Authority and reports back profits, crime statistics, and health checks to them and in return receives the demands the Authority wishes to see happen and is in charge of seeing them through. His Business Liaison a Tabaxi named Gyra has been a lifelong friend of Obbi's and as such has risen the ranks alongside her rabbit-like companion.

Gyra's responsibilities include meeting with the many noble houses that are a part of the collective Mahdavi Houses and the smaller, yet still influential, Kanan Houses, and Hamedy Houses, all of which collectively run the businesses and sub-guilds within Rizzozan. Gyra disseminates the orders from Obbi and ensures that they are carried out by the houses. She also delivers back to Obbi the collections, business information, and concerns from the Houses in the city, acting as a middleman between the two parties.

The noble houses collectively are called, the Thari, which translates to the Wealth, and while they have no direct power over Rizzozan, they utilize their control over most of the money and businesses within the city to lobby Gyra, and in turn Obbi, to carry out certain actions. Often times, this involves reporting new enemies of the Federation, or problematic guild members that either don't pay their dues or are disrupting larger scale business operations. But sometimes this can extend to lobbying for legislation especially when it comes to their Mutaliba, or property claims, and extending their guild's borders.

Life Under the Authority

The day-to-day life for most people in the city is normal and disconnected from any sort of politics or policy, mostly because very little of it even exists. That being said, it is impossible for someone to not feel the thumb of the Thari and in turn the Authority looming over his or her business in the form of taking steep taxes and dues. This way of life is a necessary evil as most people cannot afford the high costs that guild registration requires, nor afford the land in which the business reside. The Thari offer payment plans, with interest of course, that enable businesses to start and register. They even help connect proprietors with suppliers and traders. As a result, the merchant makes their money, the Thari get their cut, and they give a cut of their piece over to the Authority. It truly is a well-oiled machine.

Just as elsewhere in Qarth, every business is considered a sub-guild of Fortune's Favor, but these businesses usually are contained within larger aggregate guilds ran by one or more of the noble house collections. At a high level, Qarth is made up of a hierarchy of guilds, each of whom report up the chain of command, taking their cuts and paying their dues, until you reach the top which is the Authority. In Rizzozan, a shop owner and their business are part of a sub-guild that is either directly part of the Thari or at some point up the chain has ties to them, and the Thari manage all the paperwork and registration to the Fortune's Favor on behalf of all of their businesses, charging for this convenience and collecting dues along the way.

An Interesting Pairing

One particularly interesting relationship that has been established in Rizzozan and is a perfect example of how things operate and change in Qarth, was made between Dulgar Boldergut and a neighboring gang of marauders called the Ravagers. These marauders used to be ruthless enemies of the Federation, attacking trade routes, stealing goods, and ransacking the traveling merchants entering and leaving the city's spires. Dulgar, in his bravery, was able to impress the leaders of the Ravagers and in turn got them to sign on to help get scraps from the surrounding Sahave Desert and trade them in Rizzozan for water, food and other materials.

This deal ended up being revolutionary for the city, as it got rid of a major threat in the region that plagued the Thari and their businesses and it added a massive source of raw materials that was not available before. This not only catapulted the city into becoming one of the largest streams of income for the Federation, but it also catapulted Dulgar's career and earned him a new seat on the Authority, an event which hadn't happened for over 100 years. Presently, the Ravagers are a huge aid to the city, and have agreed to leave carts traveling to and from Rizzozan alone, as well as work together to scavenge for scraps and protect travelers nearby. Implicit in their dealings though was that they would only ever deal with Dulgar as they trusted no one else. This stipulation is no doubt the only reason the Authority haven't removed Dulgar from his seat, despite his identity being open, and most likely the reason why no one has had the courage to challenge his power.

Defense

There are two main forms of defense in Rizzozan, both of which follow the same pattern that all the other Qarthian cities do. The first form of defense is the Sicarii which are stationed throughout Qarth and are an arm of the Authority. Whether existing covertly or outrightly, the Sicarii only ever deal with official matters of the Federation, policing the other police forces, and ensuring the large-scale operation of the businesses within the Federation are operating unimpeded. They are never involved in small, local conflicts, and do not take orders from anyone but the Authority.

As a result of this, the Sicarii are often seen close by Dulgar, especially since his identity is known, and are in charge of protecting him and his family from danger. Aside from this, any other operation the Sicarii carry out is under lock and key and is initiated by the Authority alone.

The second form of protection comes in the form of the hired guard and soldiers provisioned and paid for by the Thari within the city. These guards patrol the streets owned by their respective guilds, remaining loyal only to those that pay them, ensuring nothing strange is happening and that people are paying their taxes. They are also in charge of protecting the noble houses and ensuring their business operations and homesteads are safeguarded from any nefarious actors.

Naturally, as with any guilds competing in close proximity, the hired guards also prevent turf wars from happening by enforcing strict borders of business operations. These invisible lines are the difference between belonging to one guild versus the other and as such are incredibly important to be knowledgeable of and to never cross.

Additionally, due to the interesting topology of Rizzozan, the Sicarii and these hired guard have special flying units that sit atop large flying pterodactyls called Yatir. These arial guards make it easy to patrol across spires and enforce and keep things safe from above. You do not want to be attacked by these mounted warriors, as their specialty is dropping people from atop the spires down to their deaths.

Combined, the Sicarii and the hired help both aid in keeping the city of Rizzozan operating and "safe" from danger.

Commerce

Most of the commerce that exists in Rizzozan comes in the form of scavenging materials and the transformation and processing of those materials into luxury goods and raw building materials. This form of business makes up over 72% of all the profits that Rizzozan earns, and has dubbed the city, the Scrap City. Almost every job in the city is in some way related to either scrapping or processing scraps.

The next highest earning business is ran by the Iron Collar, and deals with bounty hunting. Their headquarters, the Iron Chapter, located on the Trispire, is a massive compound that fuels this massive industry in Rizzozan. Due to its remote location in Qarth, lots of criminals escape here, making the bounties plentiful, and the rewards ever sweeter. This makes up about 12% of the yearly earnings.

The third highest earner is the gambling industry. Like all places in Qarth, gambling is a norm, especially since there are really no rules or laws regulating it. Wether it be at the Grand Prix Casino at one of their tables, or in the back alley behind a brothel, gambling is a massive industry in Qarth and is similarly large in Rizzozan. This makes up for about 6% of the yearly income of Rizzozan.

Accompanying the gambling, prostitution and slaving are another large part of the economy in Rizzozan, making up about 4% of the yearly revenue stream.

At an equal contribution level, drugs and chemical trade make up another 4% of the yearly revenue stream of Rizzozan.

Last but not least, banking fills out the last 2%, with the First Trust Bank producing all of that wealth.

Geography

Rizzozan is a city built atop plateaus and within spires that protrude out of the sands of the Sahave Desert. These spires, as jagged and twisted as they are, provide excellent natural protection from raiders, attackers, and most weather. The elevation of the city is much higher than most others in Qarth, and despite the views being immaculate, this poses a few challenges for a thriving city, on top of already being in the middle of a massive desert.

The first challenge is space. Real estate is, surprisingly, a thriving business in Rizzozan despite most of the available land to build on or in being filled already. As a result, competition for open lots is fierce and can mean the difference between owning a business and working for one. Bridges and walkways have been formed between the spires to connect them all as best as they can, but transporting between them can sometimes cost some coin and a lot of time. If one is sufficiently wealthy, riding the Yatir can prove to be an easy way to cross long distances between spires, but it is not very cost effective.

The existing land in Rizzozan has all been divided into spires, each of which are owned and operated by any number of the Thari. Each house claims ownership over streets and businesses, and is in charge of protecting them, as well as collecting taxes from them. Due to the horizontal limitations to building, a lot of businesses and homes have taken to architecture that favors vertical scaling. It is not uncommon to see buildings that are three, four, five stories tall, with each floor being a different business or homestead. This often results in very visually distinct and interesting cityscapes, many of which appear in Qarthian art!

To account for the vertical challenges that living atop high rising spires creates, the people of Rizzozan have made great strides and technological advancements in construction and machinery to aid them in hauling and moving enormous amounts of scraps and goods from the desert floor below. Through the use of complicated winches, pulleys, and elevator platforms, many of the spires that are considered "intake" locations are outfitted with huge cranes and these complicated elevation systems to both lower and raise goods and raw materials, as well as people, in to and out of the city above. The main Spire, called the Arch Spire, has the most of these elevation systems and has the largest and most complex system of pulleys and gears that drive these platforms up and down. Being that they are so complex and are used so heavily, these systems are often in need of repair, and a specialized worker, one whose job is incredibly dangerous, called Habal, or Ropers, are in charge of fixing these problems as they arise. Being that bad things sometimes happen, there is a redundancy baked into these elevation systems, and so when one part fails, the other backup can be used while repairs are made. For newcomers to Rizzozan, these pulley systems are truly awe inspiring!

On top of limited building space, water and food are a serious problem for those that call Rizzozan home. Throughout the spires, public water is gathered in enormous water towers that protrude hundreds of feet into the sky. These towers collect and save water during the rainy season, and their supply is heavily rationed out to the public of Rizzozan during the dry season. Long lines can be seen during distribution dates where people can wait many hours for their ration of water, and with these dates sometimes being as infrequent as every other week during particularly dry dry seasons, water has become an invaluable resource which water is cherished so highly. Oftentimes, it is worse to spill a glass of water than it is to spill a glass of wine.

The wealthy members of Rizzozan typically have their own private water towers that are much smaller than the public towers, but have the added benefit of being rationed as they see fit. Cactus farms are also used and the water contained within the plants is harvested and stored in cellars.

Additionally, some spires have the luxury of containing places of storage within themselves where water can be placed and chilled. This water is rare, and available for a steep premium.

Aside from those limitations, Rizzozan has two main seasons: wet and dry. Lasting about 4 months out of the year, the rainy season has powerful and deadly thunderstorms that can see many feet of rain falling at a time. Almost all of the water for the year is gathered and stored during these 4 short months. The dry season, lasting the other 8 months of the year, sees temperatures well over 100 degrees on most days. On top of that, powerful and intense wind storms are commonplace and are so strong they can rip entire roofs off of houses. In either season, at night, the temperatures can drop dramatically, even as low as 20 degrees. This dichotomy makes for an interesting wardrobe, but also makes for a tough life.

The geography of Rizzozan, coupled with the intense weather, makes for a unique, but dangerous place to live. These aspects of life take many years to adjust to, with some newcomers being turned off from long-term stays here completely and within just a few months.

Places of Interest

The Spires

There are a total of eleven spires within Rizzozan, each of which have their own specialty and purpose.

Altepire

This is the second tallest spire in Rizzozan and is named after altitude.

Summispire

This spire is the tallest in all of Rizzozan, and is named after the word summit.

North Spire

This Spire is home exclusively to the noble families of the Mahdavi Houses. Entrance is prohibited without invitation.

Star Spire

This spire contains the Starstrut Conservatory, one of the largest conservatories in Qarth.

Trispire

Contains three different spires on top of the main platform, and each of the sub-spires are home to each of the Kanan Houses.

Arch Spire

This spire is the heart of Rizzozan, with most of the other spires being directly connected to it. This is the main intake spire where the scraps are collected, sifted through, and organized.

Ignispire

This spire is where most of the forging and smelting happens in the city. Pillars of black smoke are frequently seen here.

Pontispire

This spire is purely a transportation passthrough one, and contains the largest bridges in Rizzozan. This is also where the Yatir are housed and trained.

Sunder Spire

This is rumored to be the hottest spire, but in reality they are all really hot during the dry season. It was originally one spire, but it split many years ago, and it's name switched from the Cinder Spire to the Sunder Spire.

Aquaspire

This spire contains the largest store of water within the spire itself.

Eurus Spire

This spire is thought to be the one in which the wind is strongest.

Starstrut Conservatory

This is the largest conservatory in all of Qarth and requires invitation to study within. This conservatory is the home to the Starstrut Academy of astronomers that study and live here, mapping the celestial bodies and speculating about their origins. It is headed by Headmaster Ezra Agorim.

Living Metal Foundry

This is the largest foundry in Rizzozan located in the Ignispire. It melts down tons of metal and metallic parts every year, converting them to alloys and ingots.

Swift & Secure Sorting and Storage Center

This "center" is really a collection of huge buildings that are warehouses and storage centers where scrap goes to be cataloged and organized before being shipped off to other spires for further processing. Seeing it in operation is a sight to behold. It's organized chaos. This is located on the Arch Spire.

First Trust Bank

The First Trust Bank is the only bank in Rizzozan and is located on the Eurus Spire. It is large, heavily guarded, and full of coin!

The Iron Chapter

The Iron Chapter is the local chapter of the bounty hunter guild, the Iron Collar, and is a massive compound complete with boarding, taverns, an armory, a training course, and of course, jail cells. This is the one-stop shop for all your bounty hunting needs! It is located on the Trispire in Spire Two (the middle one).

Grand Prix Casino

Located on the Eurus Spire, close to the First Trust Bank, the Grand Prix Casino is a huge building with all manner of gambling and alcoholic delights! Many have lost their life savings here, but some leave filthy rich! In either case, a good time can be had here, and the women and drinks are aplenty!

Society

Being a city developed entirely to take in garbage and scraps from the surrounding sands and converting them into raw materials or luxury goods, the people in Rizzozan don't need for much in the way of a luxurious life. They are, for the most part, a very hearty people, who live to work and work to live.

The vast majority of the population is made up of the working class, which is usually referred to as the Musif, or the Unfortunate. Despite their harsh name, the Musif are content with their lives as workers, scrappers, junkers, and lifters. They rise early in the morning, so as to avoid the heat, work until about midday, after which they take a three hour siesta to avoid the hottest parts of the day, and continue to work well into the night. These people are not the artisans that have the skills to convert raw materials into luxury goods, and instead spend most of their time transporting these scraps, organizing them, breaking them down into their raw components, and then packaging them up to either be further processed by the skilled workers, or shipped out as raw materials for construction throughout Gaia.

The class right above the Musif are called the Hadid, or the Hammers, and they are the skilled working class. Working most of the same hours that the Musif do, these workers are tasked with converting the processed materials into luxury goods and items that can be sold at markets across the globe. The Hadid do make more money than the Musif, but are nowhere near as wealthy as the business owners and the Thari. Despite this fact, many of the Hadid are content with their lives and take great pride in their work.

The upper middle class consists of all of the business owners in Rizzozan, many of whom own more than one operation. This class is called the Divitae, or the Fortunate. These individuals do fairly well all the way to extremely well and live a life of simple luxury compared to the classes below them. Often never partaking in physical labor, members of the Divitae spend their days managing their business or businesses, lounging away, gambling at casinos, traveling to other parts of the continent, or socializing amongst themselves. Overall, these people are pretty disconnected from the low-level happenings in Rizzozan, and are perfectly fine with things staying that way.

The highest class in the city are the guild-owners and the noble houses. This class is called the Thari, or the Wealth, and it consists of not only business owners, but owners of the business owners. Since Qarth is a hierarchy of guilds, these savvy businessmen and women capitalized on this fact and noticed that the real wealth isn't in owning a business or two; it's in owning the guild or guilds in which all businesses belong. Due to their position of power and their collective ownership of much of the businesses in the city, these people are extremely wealthy, and compared to some of the nobles in other cities, are surprisingly richer than most other noble houses. The Thari are so disjoint from the lower classes that they often seclude themselves physically from them by owning and operating their very own spires that no one but them can access. In fact, one can argue that due to their ownership of the businesses in Rizzozan, these nobles own parts of all of the spires, oftentimes renting out spaces for businesses to use. By creating steep entry fees and predatory payment plans, the Thari in the city capitalize and extort the dreams and hopes of the lower classes and make themselves richer at their expense.

Despite being a hearty population at large, some of the upper classes have glimpses and aspects of the high society that the wealthiest cities in Qarth set standards for. While it is true that much of houses and buildings in Rizzozan are made from scrap materials, the ultra-wealthy show off their wealth by creating huge estates affixed with marble flooring, brick exteriors, imported plants and tapestries, and all manner of statues and artwork. They wear gaudy and eccentric clothing, much like the high nobles in Bizmut wear. These people, though disconnected from the sources of the high society, try desperately to match their eccentricity and outlandish trends.

Slipping between the cracks and positioning themselves all throughout the classes, there is a special, more secretive class of individuals that call Rizzozan home. These people, collectively, are called the Iss, or the Lost. Despite having a strange name, this class is a catchall for the criminals and illegal peoples of Rizzozan. Being that the city is so remote when compared to most of the other Qarthian cities, a lot of criminals move here, braving the harsh conditions that exist when living in Rizzozan, with the hopes that no one would care enough to find them. Members of the Iss can span all of the other classes, and often take up new identities and "start over." Bounty hunters have gotten wind of this, and so many of the contracts provisioned by the Iron Collar, or the Iron for short, involve criminals that have escaped to Rizzozan. Therefore, it is not uncommon to see people being hauled away in chains, dead or alive, by bounty hunters.

The Noble Houses

There are three collections of noble houses that operate within Rizzozan. In order of power and ownership, they are: the Mahdavi, Kanan, and Hamedy Houses, and each contain a large set of noble families that collectively cooperate and own land throughout the city.

The Mahdavi Houses

The Mahdavi Houses are the largest and most powerful of the other noble houses. Of the eleven spires in Rizzozan, the Mahdavi Houses control 4 of them and half of another 2. They are, without a doubt, a massive force in Rizzozan, and control most of the businesses within. The prominent families in the Mahdavi houses are:

• House Turay, headed by Kamil Turay

• House Syra, headed by Durio Syra

• House Laena, headed by Soteris Laena

• House Daxios, headed by Arlo Daxios

The Kanan Houses

The Kanan Houses are the second most powerful collection of noble houses and co-own the Arch Spire alongside the Mahdavi Houses. The prominent families within the Kanan Houses are:

• House Hadrius, headed by Yoosuf Hadrius

• House Lucaro, headed by Lucian Lucaro

• House Betto, headed by Davin Betto

The Hamedy Houses

The Hamedy Houses are the third and final collection of noble houses in Rizzozan, and despite being third in the list, are still very successful. Being formed later than the others, during a split of house Mahdavi for monopolistic reasons, the Hamedy Houses are looking to expand their guild's reach as much as possible, and offer some of the better signing deals compared to the other Houses. The prominent families are:

• House Acilia, headed by Coreus Acilia

• House Buteo, headed by Horton Buteo

• House Barrio, headed by Blythe Barrio