Excerpt from the Field Guide: The Court of Kalidahr Irongrip

This is from some new work in the Field Guide to the Lowlands, in a section on Courts and Intrigue.

Very possible this was all influenced by too many games of this:

The Court of Thane Kalidahr Irongrip of Zolna

Kalidahr is the ageless Boradun ruler of the city, a despot who rose to power in the aftermath of the Great War and rebuilt the city as an independent citystate in the process. His court is a vast palace on the lone high point of the sprawling city, overlooking the Herod River as it spills into the Valek. Although he rarely sits in it, the throne is a huge stone affair imitating the obsidian throne of Ebizhan in Roardun. Each corner of the Great Hall has a pillar representing one of the Four Makers of Boradun mythology (Qajal, Jolival, Thenkragen, Virn Thakloth).

Full of music, alcohol and round-the-clock debauchery, Kalidahr uses the court to distract and pit his rivals against each other. There are envoys from across the eastern Valek: Katmesha, Varboris, Ildobar, Caberton, Gorgmir, Khitagan, and inland from Akanhara, Moraz, and Ghent. Guildmasters of the Slaving League and the Whalers (despised by the Boradun), priests of Seht and other dark religions mixed with religious leaders of Valek, Bel, Luna, Safan, and Sylas. There are royalists in exile who support the deposed king of Akanhara, along with members of the Akanharan peasant revolt called the Adangan Front. All that in the sounds of a dozen languages and cultures.

A few colorful people you might see are members of House Ateyas, the ancient royal line of the city, ship captains of the Scarlet Brotherhood, and emissaries from the hidden city of Selvyrsa.

Like many courts Zolna is home to its own Day Court of the Faie: it comes with a dark squall off the Valek sea, and includes Esren Gahn and his entourage of shadows, Walkers from the Wolf Brotherhoods, the Three Children who draw pictures of the future, the "silent woman" Sendrahal who weaves dreams into the minds of the weak, and even the occasional visit by the ghostly Ghandrinelle people say is from the Court of Queen Marbialla.

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