Rosohna

Rosohna (Undercommon or Elvish: "rebirth") is the capital city of the Kryn Dynasty, built on the ruins of Ghor Dranas in the eastern part of Xhorhas.

City description
Rosohna is a vast metropolis living under almost perpetually sunless sky. The streets are mostly lit with thousands of small, green arcane lanterns, though some streets are bright orange from the light of bonfires. The city's buildings are made of stone, metal, and dark clay and some of them are repurposed ruins of Ghor Dranas that have been renovated and constructed over. The buildings closer to the center of Rosohna appear to be extensions of an "elvish domicile design". The newer wards of the city are less cohesive, and they extend from the city center in an concentric rings that become progressively wider in shape and more diverse in population the farther from the center they go. Each district is surrounded by large 15-foot barriers.

Much of the architecture in Rosohna incorporates the Kryn colors of purple and green as the city has been ruled by Den Kryn since its founding. The architecture also extends below the ground level; the Dynasty has, over time, reclaimed the subterranean halls of Ghor Dranas. Some of the underground structures serve as residential areas, some are hubs of the tunnel network the drow use to travel throughout Wildemount, some are used for the farming of edible mushrooms, and some remain true to their original purpose as holding cells for dangerous prisoners.

Lucid Bastion
The Lucid Bastion stands on a large hill in the center of Rosohna, surrounded by a wall made of dull gray quartz with green lanterns illuminating the crest. The Bastion serves not only as the court of the three ruling dens of the Kryn Dynasty and home of Bright Queen Leylas Kryn, but also as the site of many religious ceremonies. The first discovered Luxon beacon is kept within.

Firmaments
The Firmaments district is the luxurious city center and the heart of higher learning of Rosohna. From a distance, the architecture of the Firmaments appears to be made up of broken spires of curved metal, the geometry of which somewhat resembles the designs of the Lucid Bastion. Throughout the district, there are lightless grassy gardens, small reading nooks, sculptures, and spire-like pointed towers that curve towards the top. Outside of the Marble Tomes Conservatory, the area mostly serves residential, commercial, and religious needs: has few shopping venues, and contains some chapels dedicated to the Luxon.

The Firmaments also houses the Nimbus Keep, which serves as the base of the Aurora Watch and one of the points of entry to the Dungeon of Penance. Several elite Den members live in this district.


 * Marble Tomes Conservatory: The conservatory consists of a series of structures with tall glass windows and semi-circular tops, bookended by medium-sized towers on each side. The domed halls and central building of the campus are connected to each other by adjoining hallways with rounded roofs.
 * The Xhorhaus: Gifted to the Mighty Nein by Den Thelyss, the Xhorhaus is a two-story mansion paneled in dark maroon Vermaloc wood with a single balcony on the second floor. The foundation is made of a light-colored stone, and the roofing is made of almost black clay tiling. The mansion has a short tower built into the back right corner that rises to a third story, and on the front of the house are two stained-glass windows that appear similar to those in the Lucid Bastion.
 * Essek Thelyss' estate: Shadowhand Essek Thelyss lives in a gated community within the Firmaments. His home consists of three towers of different heights connected by walkways. At the top of the tallest tower is a weather-vane type mechanism that tracks the shifting ley lines. It is built of slightly iridescent grey brick.

Shadowshire
The Shadowshire is a large underground cavern about a quarter mile across in each direction that can be accessed from the Firmaments by a massive spiral stairway marked by a pair of pillars at the entrance. The tunnel ceilings are a few hundred feet high and the walls have a natural rough, rocky shape, doted by crystals, shining veins of ore, and illuminated by glowing blue moss. The base of the cavern is a bustling neighborhood comprised of buildings made of stone and glass and lit with the same green lanterns as the streets above-ground. Most of the denizens of the Shadowshire are drow.

Luminescent crops are grown in the floor and the ceiling of the central cavern. The underground farmland is magically maintained in order to grow sunless vegetables such as yuyo and kor'run.

The Shadowshire is reclaimed from Torog's prisons during the days of Ghor Dranas, and is now home to some of the poorer dark elves. It also contains the second entrance to the Dungeon of Penance, the first being in the Nimbus Keep.


 * Dungeon of Penance: An iron structure with a spiked, metallic railing, and burning braziers that flank the large front doors. Inside, the temperature is cold and corridors are lit by perpetual, magically lit flames. The prisoners are kept within small iron cages with reinforced bars and many guards and jailers supervise those locked within. Within the prison walls a subtle dunamantic gravity distortion makes it difficult to trace one's path.

There are at least four levels in the prison, with each level downward growing "progressively darker and more heinous". The upper levels have been modified to reflect Kryn design, but many of the lower levels have changed little from when Ghor Dranas was ruled by the Betrayer Gods.

Gallimaufry
The Gallimaufry district can be accessed from the Firmaments through an arched door in a wall that serves as a barrier between the two neighborhoods. Some of the buildings are in a drow style, while others appear closer to the architecture of the Dwendalian Empire except constructed of Vermaloc wood from the nearby Wildwood. Strings of small green lanterns decorate the streets, and a variety of musical styles can be heard throughout. Most of the inhabitants are drow, but there are also bugbears, orcs, half-orcs, and tieflings. It is a vibrant, bustling social center and commercial district, with shops and carts being wheeled through the streets. The district generally has a more jovial and celebratory feel than the Lucid Bastion and the Firmaments, which are more religiously-oriented. It is considered a center for the exchange of culture and ideas within the city.


 * Dim's Inn: A large, three-story structure made of purplish brown wood with a sign hanging outside saying "The Dim's Inn" in Common, Undercommon, and Abyssal. During the day, loud chatter is audible from the outside. The interior contains the clerk's well-made and well-polished mahogany desk on the side and about seven tables. Most of its patrons are ordinary workers. The owner, Gaben, is a well-groomed male dark elf with a pencil-thin white mustache, light yellow-orange eyes, and short white hair parted on one side and pulled over.
 * Hammered Call: A small but well-built smithy owned by Wursh, a half-orc.
 * Turmin's Tinctures and Tonics: A long building, full of strong-smelling herbs and oils. The owner is a duergar man named Besh Turmin.
 * Fadden's Gems: A jewelry store that has a deep purple wood interior, stained even darker than the natural hue of the Vermaloc wood and has a gold trim. The gems are displayed in long glass cases. The proprietor is an older dark elf woman named Fadden.

Coronas
The Coronas are the poor area on the western side of the city, and fewer drow live there. There are precarious, rickety stacks of goblin domiciles, and heavy mud and clay homes for ogres and other goblinoids. Exterior walls mark the barrier between the Coronas and the Ghostlands, pierced by gates for the roads leading out of the city.

The Coronas are also the site of Rosohna's above-ground farmland, which are magically maintained like the underground gardens, as well the city's factories and industry.


 * Overcrow Apothecary: A tall, narrow two-story painted structure with mismatched roofing and lengths of chain running along the edges of the roof with lanterns and knickknacks hanging from the chain. It is owned and run by the goblin Maruo, along with her often-invisible bugbear bodyguard Ben. It was also the location of a fight between the Mighty Nein against a hobgoblin and a dragonborn.

Ghostlands
The Ghostlands are the area beyond the walls of the Corona District that still fall under Rosohna's magical darkness. The district can be accessed through two gates in the obsidian city wall leading northeast and northwest. The northwest gate has outward-opening doors operated by heavy winches and chains. A 20-foot wide road of hard-packed earth leads out into the ash- and soot-covered wastelands of Xhorhas. Soot-covered towers and hooked spires peek out from a low fog that lays over the battlegrounds of the Calamity. At the edges of the road, pressed against the outside of the city wall, is a collection of tents and stick huts that house people who are either trying to move into the Coronas or who have left and are moving outward to claim land and build their homesteads on the outskirts of the city. Aurora Watch soldiers patrol the road in pairs and drive away the spirits left behind by one of the last battles of the Calamity.

Demographics
The majority of the population of Rosohna consists of drow race (66%). Goblins make up 9% of the population, duergars take a share of 7%, and the remaining 18% are other races, including orcs, the occasional giants, and a significant population of tieflings. The total population in the year 835 PD is 113,190, making it the largest city in Eastern Wynandir.

History
When the exiled Betrayer Gods were freed from their prisons by the mage Vespin Chloras, they founded a kingdom of their own on the far end of the world from Vasselheim. It was called "Ghor Dranas" (which means "gathering of shadows" in Draconic), and was located in the region which would later become Xhorhas in Wildemount. Eventually, the dark forces gathering there launched a twenty-day assault on Vasselheim. They were beaten back, but this battle led to the militarization of magic and the creation of powerful artifacts and weapons for use in the coming conflict. This conflict would become known as the Calamity.

The final battles of the Calamity were waged around Ghor Dranas, which was razed in the conflict; the Betrayer Gods who once ruled it were sealed away behind the Divine Gate in an event known as the Divergence.

The house of Kryn was among a group of drow who had rejected Lolth and turned to the Luxon. They survived, deep beneath the ruins of the Ghor Dranas in the depths of the Underdark. Following the Calamity, they ascended to the surface as part of their worship of the Luxon, and set about building a new city atop the ruins of the old. This city became knonw as Rosohna, but outside of the Kryn Dynasty, many people still refer to it as Ghor Dranas.

Rosohna is a walled city, surrounded by the Ghostlands, the haunted remnants of Ghor Dranas destroyed in the Calamity. The outer walls have only been extended once, around the year 755 PD.