Asarius

Asarius, also known as the "City of Beasts", is a mid-sized city near the western side of Xhorhas. (See map below.) It is part of the domains of the Kryn Dynasty, which has its headquarters on the other (eastern) side of Xhorhas in Rosohna.

Description
Asarius is surrounded by a tall, fort-like perimeter wall built of purple vermaloc wood planks sharpened into points ten feet from the ground, with watchtowers scattered along the outskirts. One spire is loosely central to the entire shape of the city's skyline. Batches of mud fields surround the eastern end of the city where crews of hobgoblins and bugbears harvest roots and tubers and other strange and hardy produce from the unexpectedly cultivable land. The western side outside the walls is dense with wheeled carts, armored orcs, gnolls, and other goblinoid soldiers checking and cleaning equipment and occasionally bickering. The southeast gates are each about ten feet wide and fifteen feet tall, higher than the surrounding wall and with a slight arch. To either side are very large and armored ogres, both holding heavy clubs with an axe blade on each side.

Within the city, the winding dirt roads are pungent with the smells of animal hair, wet earth, and dung. Droves of waste folk wander the streets, including ogres, orcs, gnolls, goblins and goblinkin. A massive dormant horizonback tortoise occupies one lot, and atop its back is a goblin neighborhood of dense shacks and dwellings, clustered, built, and strapped onto its back.

In roughly the center of the city is the single three-story spire of gray stone called the Aurora Hold, part stone and part dark tinted glass like a cathedral spire, with distinctly elven elements to its design and structure. It looms over the rest of the city, which doesn't have a lot of variation in its height. Most of the buildings are built close to the ground, whether it be from limitations on the people who constructed it or a cultural indifference to trying to make things with multiple floors.

Demographics
Asarius is very diverse with populations of bugbears, kobolds, gnolls, goblins, orcs, minotaurs, drow, and few humans. 41% of the population are goblinoids, 32% are gnolls, 10% are dark elves, and 17% are other races. In 835 PD, the total population of the city is 48,025.

Religion
Kryn Dynasty soldiers and members, as well as some inhabitants of Asarius, worship the Luxon.

Points of Interest

 * The Four Corners Tavern
 * The Aurora Hold
 * Scowl Square

Background
Asarius is a cultural and military hub established by the Kryn Dynasty as a home for the waste folk of northern Xhorhasian. Prior to the founding of the city, the land was fought over by various factions of waste folk. The Kryn persuaded these folk to join their civilization by promising protection, resources, and religious enlightenment. While the establishment of Asarius was initially rocky, the city eventually became a symbol of unity and community for northern Xhorhasians.

War of Ash and Light
During the war, the Kryn Dynasty capitalized on Asarius' strategic location and turned the city into a major military hub. Many Asarians were enlisted into the Kryn army, and military tents littered the western outskirts of the city.

When the Mighty Nein stopped in Asarius, they discovered two abyssal rifts beneath the city. One rift was in an underground moorbounder breeding pit owned by a goblin named Zorth, and the other was in a cavern adjoining a well in the middle of the city. The source of these rifts was an Abyssal Anchor, which had been deliberately placed by agents of the Angel of Irons cult.

Trivia

 * Nott referred to Asarius as "Monster Land".
 * The city was misspelled "Assarius" in and.