Kravask

Kravask is a city located in the continent of Bigboy.

Overview
Soot hangs heavy in the air around Kravask, the sole provider in the Freeholds of metals. Most of it is mined in the nearby Rykveit Fault and then transported to Kravask for refinement and production into goods or preparation for shipment. The area around Kravask is hot and craggy to begin with, but for those unused to it, the additional heat of so many hundreds of furnaces lit around the clock makes the area in and around the city unbearable.

Even if they can stand the heat, visitors to Kravask are advised to wear a facemask, as the soot and smoke stick to the lungs of most who enter the city’s gates. Most of the locals, being dwarves or gnomes, tend to walk around uncovered, however, as their short stature leaves them below the almost-tangible line in the air where the smoke doesn’t quite sink to. Still, even the shorter races may experience some ill effects from the quality of even the ‘clean’ air in Kravask if they take no precautions to keep themselves safe.

There are a huge number of metalsmiths and factories in Kravask, and if you’re looking for fine weapons and armor, there’s no better place to go. Now, even in a time of peace, hammers clang and blacksmiths are still hard at work supplying enough weaponry to outfit an entire continent of people interested in expanding into the wild unknown and enough farm tools to make the expansion stick. A Kravaskan blacksmith is widely recognized to be the best at what they do, Kravaskan steel recognized to be some of the strongest and purest. Aside from the more practical smithies in Kravask, though, there are still numerous gold- and silversmiths in town, as everything from copper to diamonds are pulled out of the Rykveit Fault with regularity. Jewelry, fine silverware, anything that metal can be twisted into the shape of is crafted in Kravask, and even if it doesn’t turn over as quickly on the shelves as a handy axe it still turns a pretty profit.

However, as there’s a lot of high-dollar items like gems trading hands in Kravask and weapons are very readily available, it can be an expensive place to live, one quite conducive to pickpocketing or mugging. If one isn’t practiced in looking out for themselves, it’s recommended to find or hire a guide or bodyguard— in particular if they’ve got something to lose.

Kravask is run as a republic, the city split into voting districts that each elect a local representative whose voice gets heard in the Parliament of Kravask. These representatives then vote upon policies the best way they see fit for their constituents. As an incorporated town, Rykveit does have several members of its own sitting on the Parliament, but, perhaps by design, they’ll never have enough power to have total sway over the policies. While this is a functional form of government, there isn’t a head of the Parliament, so oftentimes it devolves into a lot of arguing that no one feels the need to break up, and it would help an awful lot if representatives stopped being murdered with such alarming frequency.