Metropolis • Population: 315,345 • (68% Human, 7% Dwarven, 6% Elven, 19% Other)

Ayton stands defiantly against all who would threaten Tal’Dorei and its people. It is the cultural heart of human civilization on this continent, and as the republic’s capital, Ayton is a nexus of politics, justice, business, industry, and education within the realm.

Encircled by 60-foot-high walls that stretch from the eastern fields to the western shore, Ayton is accessible only through its heavily-patrolled gates and by skyship, the denizens of the city are generally well protected from outside attackers and sieges. A well-trained force of guards known as the Arms of Ayton enforces the laws of the land from the Military District. Dense farms and farm communities surround the northeastern boundary of the city, while large slums cap the northern and southern landscape outside of the city walls.

Ayton is the seat of the Council of Tal’Dorei, the nation’s highest governing body. Though the council originally served under the Sovereign of Tal’Dorei, the nation’s final Sovereign was killed by his bloodline after stepping down his sole rule in favor of the council. The Council and its members are described in detail later on this page.

One unintended consequence of relying on magic to rapidly build and expand Ayton is that the mages of Tal’Dorei now hold incredible influence over the fledgling Council. Some in the Republic fear that without a Sovereign, the Council will be unable to keep the arcanists in line, and Tal’Dorei will dissolve into magocracy.

While classically the heart of a human empire, Ayton boasts a diverse populace, with citizens of nearly all races from all of Gaia's many nations, thriving on the new innovations and ideas of its diverse citizenry. Tal’Dorei’s tight alliances with the elven nation of Ryngorn and the dwarven hold of Karghammer invited some of those nations’ greatest artisans inside Ayton's walls, and their friends and families soon followed until Ayton was home to a significant minority of elves and dwarves. Under the rule of Uriel Tal’Dorei II, Ayton developed into a city whose people valued innovation and collaboration, especially in small, cohesive groups—virtues that some historians believe has given rise to the prominence of the modern adventuring party.

While Ayton is becoming more commercial and the use of gold as currency has been ubiquitous throughout Tal’Dorei’s history, many communities within the city are still close-knit enough to use the barter system. During the reign of Uriel Tal'Dorei I, the humans of Ayton adopted a dwarven oath called rudraz, an intimate promise between two people to repay a deed or trade. Though the rudraz is not a contract, the dwarves believed that an oathbreaker would be forever barred from passing beyond the Brightguard Gates of Hilmaire; the gates that allow dwarves to pass to the afterlife. Humans in Ayton treat the rudraz more lightly, often using it to seal matters of business or politics rather than personal promises, but breaking this oath still carries massive social repercussions—few look kindly upon a person with the epithet “Oathbreaker.”

Though the people of Ayton have come a long way since the human supremacy of Uriel Tal'Dorei I's rule, prejudice and discrimination still burns like a lingering fever. Overt racism is most common in the Upper and Lower Slums, where gentrification threatens to eradicate the culture of one of Ayton's oldest immigrant districts. The scholarly elite of the Erudite Quarter and the nobility of the Cloudtop District like to pretend they are too enlightened to succumb to bigotry, their wealth and power allows them to leave their own prejudices unexamined. While elves and dwarves are fully welcomed into human society for their stereotypical characteristics (elven beauty and arcane talent, dwarven honesty and metallurgical prowess), tieflings, half-orcs, and the more rare dragonborn rarely rise to Ayton's highest societal ranks.

However, the swiftness of Ayton's growth has put the Council of Ayton in a precarious position. Not only are they socially indebted to a criminal faction, the Council now owes vast amounts of gold to mages in the service of the Lyceum of Lydonia. These Lyceum conjurers created thousands of tons of stone and steel, and each of their transmuters rebuilt at the rate of one hundred laborers—and the Council cannot afford to pay them for their service, even with their massive treasure hoard. Some members of the Council have already caved to pressure from factions within the Myriad and the Lyceum, and turn a blind eye to the crime and magical abuse that run rampant throughout the city. The fragile new republic already threatens to collapse under the cost of its creation.

Ayton is a thriving city, growing and expanding physically, and spiritually. Thanks to the Myriad's underground networks and established hierarchies, Aytonian society and culture has been able to advance faster than any other society in Tal'Dorei, and at the same time, increase their power and control over the North of the continent. Because the last Sovereign relinquished his power peacefully, before he was killed by his bloodline, the Council of Tal’Dorei was able to transition their nation from an imperial power to a republic without war or insurrection.

Hundreds of tunnels run beneath Ayton, the forgotten remnants of paved-over neighborhoods and secret passageways made by thieves’ guilds during the reign of Uriel Tal'Dorei I. These tunnels are now home to the Myriad's secret headquarters, where all manner of thieves, killers, fences, and spies are gathered underneath their banner. The Myriad's hierarchy is described here.

Some petty criminals look up to the Myriad, committing ambitious crimes in hopes of gaining the Pillarheads’ attention. Though politicians and commoners alike are grateful to the Myriad for their role in rebuilding their city, this unsavory “auditioning” has once again soured their reputation among the city watch.

Ayton is not a tourist destination for its climate—the city is more temperate and prone to rain showers than most— but those who call it home swear they wouldn’t trade their rain for all the sun in Kymal. The city is blessed with cool summers and warm winters, thanks to its location in the center of the Republic, and thus the continent. Though snow rarely falls on the city itself, it relies on springtime snowmelt from the Ironseat Ridge to fill its reservoirs throughout the year. Ayton is, in almost all senses, a city fated by water; were there anyone powerful enough to starve its farms and reservoirs, the city would be theirs.

Abdar's Promenade

Abdar’s Promenade is the open marketplace district and massive bazaar that dominates eastern Ayton. Named for the legendary spicemonger from the Green Isles who helped fund the construction of Ayton, the name of Abdar is synonymous with both generosity and business savvy. Within the tents, carts, warehouses, and shops that stretch for miles of intertwining roads, nearly everything and anything you seek can be purchased, with the darker pursuits leading to Myriad-run rackets that work beyond the reach of the law. The Promenade is ever a whirlwind of commerce and excess, with a vigilant patrol by the city watch. Its most renowned establishments include the four story Laughing Lamia Inn, the metalworker’s paradise called the Anvilgate, and the emporium of mystical riches known as Mythias Marvelous Materials.

Central District

The Central District is the largest residential district within Ayton's walls, housing most of the city’s merchant class, including traveling traders, ship captains, and guild apprentices. The district is a patchwork of thousands of personal homes, tenements, and guildhalls of all shapes and sizes, peppered with small taverns and inns on nearly every street corner.

These neighborhoods lay clustered together among tightly set streets, occasionally broken up by park grasses or the winding roads that snake through the region between the districts. Visitors to the Central District are advised not to go out at night; the wide disparity of wealth from home to home here has seen crime rise recently, and the city watch seems reluctant to find a constructive solution. Residents who know the lay of the land have an easier time at night and can help visitors avoid the most dangerous streets.

The Cloudtop District

The Cloudtop District once stood as the height of luxury and throne of the social elite, containing the Palace of the Sovereign alongside the mansions of the various lords and ladies of the city. An elevated port to arcane levitating skyships called the Skyport platform—first port of its kind— stands atop the Skyport tower. This symbol of advanced magical technology is buttressed against a 100-foot-high wall of shining white stone that encircles the district, a second line of siege defense for the political leaders of Ayton.

During the Great Reckoning II attacked the city, the attack focused most of its assault on the Cloudtop, climbing over the protective walls and leveling many of the ostentatious homesteads, as well as collapsing the palace itself. After the Queen of Chaos' defeat, the fires died down and grounds of the district are being reclaimed. Reconstruction of the palace took place, and Council matters were temporarily held within the Citrine Garrison, the hub of all large military planning and action within the city.

The Temple District

The Temple District rests in the northern area of Ayton, a ward that fosters many great sanctuaries built to uphold the worship of the city’s many dominant religions. Cathedrals to the Lawbearer and the Platinum Dragon stand at apex among smaller temples to the Dawnfather, the Stormlord, the Wildmother, and the Matron of Ravens. Many poorer folk come here seeking shelter, while the pious offer their services and energy to upholding the tenets of their chosen deity.

Travelers and sailors come to leave tokens and gifts at shrines to bless their journeys, while merchants seek the graces of the Changebringer before a risky endeavor. The meek search for wisdom in the great halls of the Knowing Mistress as the artists and wistful folk give praise to the Archeart. Not all folk are drawn toward nor trusting of religion, however, and temples past have been exposed as frauds, or worse, corrupting cells hidden in the service of darker gods.

The Erudite Quarter

The Erudite Quarter acts as the center for higher education and studious pursuits through not just the city, but the realm of all Tal’Dorei. Beautiful towers stretch to the sky across a cityscape of centuries-old halls of learning and student boarding houses. Here, the finest schools and colleges draw the wealthy, the gifted, and the brilliant. Academies of the arts socially duel with universities of intellectual pursuits, all while overshadowed by the Lyceum of Lydonia, the largest and most accomplished institute of arcane study on the continent.

Run by Headmaster Thurmond Adlam, the Lyceum acts as both a training facility for talented magic practitioners, and a formidable center for all forms of arcane research and study. Though its walls were shattered and its libraries crushed during the invasion of the Queen of Chaos, the Erudite Quarter has thankfully been mostly reconstructed thanks to the efforts of the Lyceum’s staff and students.

The Military District

The Military District is one of the smaller districts within the city, containing many barracks and instructional facilities for both the Arms of Ayton, and the standing military soldiers of the city. Men and women seeking to join the Arms of Ayton train within the Walls of Tribute, referred to wryly by recruits as the Quarry, where they are given the necessary skill at combat, arms, and law to keep the city safe. Military recruits are instead trained within the House of Discipline, a grueling camp that readies entrants for the dangers of warfare. While many small stockades are scattered across the districts, the largest prison in the city, called the Black Bastille, is kept here within the Military District.

The Cemetery District

The Cemetery District is a smaller section of the city dedicated to interring the deceased who can afford it. Countless gravestone mark a row of rolling hills sectioned off by tall, iron fences, with mausoleums of more affluent families dotting the grassy hillsides. As surface space grew limited in centuries past, the city began excavating a network of catacombs called the Undervaults. Upkeep, expansion, and general safeguarding of the sites are overseen by the Gravewatchers, a guild of families that has held political and social hegemony control over the district for generations. A very recent excavation in the Undervaults was found to lead into the Crystalfen Caverns, and was promptly sealed off. This did not stop some members of the Gravewatchers from seeing an opportunity, however; passage is occasionally granted to the Myriad or others willing to pay for entry to the dangerous realm below.

The Upper Slums

The Upper Slums began several hundred years ago as a tent city, built by citizens too poor to pay Uriel Tal'Dorei I's outrageous taxes and were forced outside of the city gates. As time went on, the slum grew until it rivaled the size of a third of the city. Though their conditions were still meager when the magnanimous Uriel Tal’Dorei II took over control, the city’s denizens chose to remain, having created a community with its own culture of inexpensive living and brotherhood in poverty, away from the bustle of the city’s inner streets. A microcosm society now exists within the slum, including its own trade square, shrines for worship, and makeshift farms on the outskirts.

Though the district’s name was once a sneering insult by the Cloudtop elite, its people have reclaimed the name, transforming the term “Upper Slums” into a symbol of pride. Two major ills afflict the region; the most obvious is its rampant crime and Myriad activity, for the Arms of Ayton care little for defending the district. The second feeds the first; wealthy Aytononians have suddenly begun building mansions homes within the Upper Slums, diluting its unique culture and fanning the flames of resentment.

The Lower Slums

The Lower Slums are a fraction of the size of its northern counterpart residing just outside the southernmost gates out of Ayton. When a large refugee band from Caldron was barred entry into the city near the end of Uriel Tal'Dorei II's rule, the squatters instead set up shop beyond the walls, slowly forming a community of farmers who requested land in exchange for providing produce and grown goods to the people of the city. After the tyrant’s fall, an agreement was made, and now the farming community has grown to become one of the larger sources of farming products within Ayton. While called a slum to this day by habit, the humble farmers here are rather safe from crime and poverty.

The Grotto

The Grotto is the sprawling series of chambers and halls that composes the Myriad’s main base of operations beneath the city of Ayton. Hidden amongst a series of labyrinthine tunnels and passages that are woven into the sewer system, it’s rumored there are over a dozen entrances into the Grotto concealed throughout the city, and over a hundred others abandoned and filled in for fear of discovery. The very nature of the Myriad's business is to keep shifting out of sight, and as such, the actual core of the organization moves from base to base between multiple subterranean structures, ever building further underground or repurposing a long abandoned hideout whenever necessary.

Azalea Street Park

Azalea Street is one of Ayton’s oldest neighborhoods, and is full to bursting with small businesses, quaint homes, and hole-in-the-wall restaurants. Amidst the chaos of daily life, Azalea Street is also home to a peaceful park that breaks up the smattering of stone and brick of the buildings nearby. When the stress of constant battles becomes too much to bear, adventurers in the know take a moment to visit the Azalea Street Park and recover, maybe even swapping stories with other relaxing heroes. Legend has it that heroes who meditate among the flowers and drink in the sea air return invigorated by the spirit of the Wildmother. A dual statue of the Wildmother and Lawbearer dancing stands within a fountain in the center of the park. Once per week, a character who takes a short rest within the Azalea Street Park gains Inspiration.

The Cinder King's Crater

The very center of the Cloudtop District, despite restoration crews’ best efforts, remains a smoldering ruin, home only to rubble and molten slag, still supernaturally hot from the Cinder King's fiery corruption. Whenever a restoration crew enters the crater, the pools of slag and cinder rise to life, repulsing all living creatures. Why the King's magic lingers enough to create these mindless cinderslag elementals is a mystery; but it seems to be limited to the crater, as the elementals cannot go beyond it without collapsing into inert slurry.

The Godsbrawl Ring

Though the Temple of the Stormlord always has a fighting ring in its center, the annual Godsbrawl transforms the earthen, torch-lit sanctum into one of Tal’Dorei’s most unusual tournament grounds. On the Day of Challenging, the Stormbringer’s holy day, the athletic priests of the Stormlord invite warriors and worshipers of the entire pantheon to the Godsbrawl, asking that each temple offer forth their greatest warrior to act as their god’s proxy in the tournament. The clergy of the Dawnfather and the Lawbearer send their champions, but rarely take it seriously, for they scorn the storm-priests’ notion of “might makes right.” Conversely, the champions of the Stormlord and the Platinum Dragon have a fierce—though friendly—rivalry, trading the title of Supreme Champion back and forth each year after a bloody final round.

Traverse Junction

It looms over the bustling center of the Erudite Quarter, shining like a pyramid of pure sapphire, its walls thrumming with arcane energy. It is the Traverse Junction, and it is one of the most magically-active structures in Tal’Dorei. In nearly every major Gaian city exist teleportation circles that link mages to other circles around the world. Each and every one of these major circles has a twin in the Traverse Junction, a travel nexus for approved mages and world leaders. Any characters renowned in Ayton or honored by the Lyceum of Lydonia may make use of the Junction (perhaps at cost), allowing them to travel to major cities such as Westruun, Ryngorn, Karghammer, or even far-off Ank’Harel, when the war was not ongoing. The telemagi who curate the circles are always in search of new teleportation sigils to different lands.

The Black Bastille

Named for its ash-blackened walls, the ominous Black Bastille is a single-story prison that sprawls across the eastern end of the Military District. The compound has no windows, no open courtyards, and only one entrance, two imposing steel doors flanked by watchtowers. During the reign of the Uriel Tal'Dorei I, the prison was one of the first buildings attacked, setting hundreds of Tal’Dorei’s worst criminals loose to sow chaos across Ayton. The Black Bastille has since been rebuilt, but dozens of its most deplorable inmates still run free, and the Arms of Ayton are eager to recover them. Some include the human demon-summoner Felrinn Derevar, betrayer of the Arcana Pansophical; the half-elf pyromancer Illaman Falconsong, exile of the fire Ashari; and the vampiric tiefling Ixrattu Khar, cultist of the Whispered One and Tal’Dorei’s foulest mass murderer.

Tomb of the Last Sovereign

Uriel Tal’Dorei IV, the last of his line, was slain by the hand of his own bloodline, betrayed by his most trusted allies. Uriel’s wife, Salda, survived him and petitioned the reformed Council of Tal’Dorei to build their last sovereign a tomb befitting his benevolence and magnanimity. They complied, and the monumental Tomb of the Last Sovereign is now home to not just Uriel’s ashes, but to tribute from all who loved him. Those with wealth gave gold, while those whose hearts outweighed their purses gave more personal tribute. Of late, the Gravewatchers have closed the tomb to all. The act is within their right as defenders of the dead, but some grow suspicious of their true intent.