Obsidian Bay, CY 591
Overview
- Country: Domain of Obsidian Bay
- Leader: Gabriel Longriver
- Population: 30,001-50,000
History
The Pomarj has long been a wild, brutal land that called out for heroes.
The citizens of Obsidian Bay answered that call.
The Free City was established by the Griffin's Guild -- a band of good-aligned adventurers from Onwal -- Coldeven 27, CY 513 as a frontier village. The goals of those intrepid adventurers were threefold:
- Drive back the humanoid hordes
- Establish a bastion of good on the Pomarj
- Acquire great wealth and magical power
They succeeded.
Obsidian Bay today is one of the shining cities of the Flanaess. Like its much more famous neighbor to the north, the Obsidian Bay is a center of power, wealth and learning.
The city-state is ruled by a hereditary Lord Mayor who must answer to three elected Councils -- the Council of Holders, the Council of Guilds and the Council of Citizens.
Wealth from the Pomarjian interior constantly flows into the city as its many adventuring guilds return from lost ruins, abandoned mines, and the peninsula's immense underdark. Its guilds dominate everyday life, from the entertainment provided by the Artisan's Guild to the essential services provided by the Sewer Guild, but other citizens and landholders have a voice in their lives via their own Councils. While not as rich or powerful as the Free City of Greyhawk, or even the Free City of Irongate, Obsidian Bay is a force to be reckoned with. Its adventurers are some of the most respected (in the case of the Griffin's Guild) and the most infamous (in the case of the Blackrazor Guild). Obsidian Bay has not been immune to the troubles plaguing the Flanaess, and in many ways it has suffered more than any of the other free cities. It has fought two brief wars with the united humanoids under Turrosh Mak and has fallen twice, once to the Scarlet Brotherhood and once to demons from the Abyss' Plains of Chaos.
The recent wars have deeply scarred the once-tolerant masses. Vigilante groups now roam the streets looking for lawbreakers and guilds like the Orcslayers are no longer restrained from launching raids against the humanoid masses. Tough new laws have been put into place that harshly punish common criminals and threaten the less-common ones with life-sentences or worse.
And in CY 588, the city's Councils decided to follow Greyhawk's lead in establishing The Domain of Obsidian Bay, a realm that stretches from its black sand shores north to the Drachensgrabs and then east to Blue. Its adventurers have been invigorated by the proclamation and the Lord Mayor's promise that any land held by an individual or guild for more than five years would become theirs permanently.
A great land grab is underway, filling the peninsula with excitement. War. Power. Treasure. Rewards almost beyond imagination. All these and more are possible in Obsidian Bay ... or so its government would have its citizens believe.
Can Obsidian Bay truely hold its domain? Can its citizens, nearly exhausted from years of war, keep repealing off the humanoids? And will the Blackrazor Guild some how refrain from burning down the city?
Only time will tell.
