Rosohna

Rosohna
Fan art of Rosohna, by Son of Joxer.
General Information
Full name	Rosohna
Also known as	Ghor Dranas (formerly)
Leader	Bright Queen
Current leader	Bright Queen Leylas Kryn
Guard unit	Aurora Watch
Location Information
Plane	Material Plane (Exandria)
Continent	Wildemount
Region	Xhorhas
Districts	The Coronas The Firmaments The Gallimaufry The Ghostlands The Shadowshire
Points of interest	Dungeon of Penance Lucid Bastion Marble Tomes Conservatory The Xhorhaus
Societal Information
Population	113,190 (in 835 PD)
Races	66% Drow 9% Goblin 7% Duergar 18% Other
Affiliation	Kryn Dynasty

Rosohna is the capital city of the Kryn Dynasty, built on the ruins of Ghor Dranas.

Description

Rosohna, meaning "Rebirth" in the language of the drow, is a vast metropolis in almost perpetual night, alight with thousands of small, green, sparkling arcane lanterns. Bonfires are lit in some streets, creating orange glows that break up the green lights. The city's buildings, some of which are repurposed ruins that have been built upon and refurbished, are made of stone, metal, and dark clay. Others, especially closer to the center of the city, appear to be similar to an "elvish domicile design that is familiar yet unfamiliar, in some ways slender and jagged, but beautiful and sleek." The extended wards of the city are more patchwork and scattered, and they extend from the city center in an "onion-layer type layout, circular in the center and more oblong", becoming progressively wider in shape and more diverse in population as one travels outward. 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

Fan art of the Lucid Bastion, by Son of Joxer.

In the center of the city, on a large hill, stands the Lucid Bastion, the court of the three ruling dens of the Kryn Dynasty and home of Bright Queen Leylas Kryn. It is surrounded by a wall made of dull gray quartz with a purplish-tint. Across its crest, there are lanterns alight with a soft green glow. The Bastion serves not only as a court but also as the site of many religious ceremonies, and the first discovered Luxon beacon is kept within.

Firmaments

The Firmaments district is the luxurious city center and a place of higher learning. From a distance, the architecture of the Firmaments appears to be made up of broken spires of curved metal. The geometry of the design resembles that around the Lucid Bastion but less religious in nature; though, the district does contain some chapels dedicated to the Luxon. Throughout the district, there are small, lightless grassy gardens, beautiful little reading nooks, graceful sculptures, and spire-like pointed towers that curve towards the top. There is little shopping to be found in the Firmaments; other than the Marble Tomes Conservatory, the area is mostly residential and religious.

The Firmaments also houses the towering 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 Marble Tomes Conservatory consists of a beautiful series of structures bookended by medium-sized towers on each side. The domed halls and central building of the conservatory are connected to each other by adjoining hallways with rounded roofs. These structures have tall glass windows, also with semi-circular tops, through which warm, yellow-and-orange flickering glows can be seen.

Fan art of Essek viewing the Xhorhaus, by Son of Joxer.

• 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.

Shadowshire

Under the city is the Shadowshire, accessed from the Firmaments by a very large stairway spiraling around one of three pillars, opening into a grandiose, subterranean cavern about a quarter mile across in every direction. The tunnels have rough-hewn ceilings that rise a couple hundred feet and glow with a blue moss that fills in the nooks and crannies. The walls contain protruding bits of rough rock, crystals, and an exposed metal ore that glimmers when the light hits it. The base of the cavern is a "bustling neighborhood of stone and glass, lit with green lantern light." Most of the denizens of the Shadowshire are drow.

Luminescent crops line the floor and the ceiling of the central cavern, a "massive underground farmland maintained through magical means, bearing unique sunless vegetables", such as yuyo and kor'run.

The Shadowshire contains the second entrance to the Dungeon of Penance, the first being in the Nimbus Keep. 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.

• Dungeon of Penance: The Dungeon is an iron structure with a spiked, metallic railing. Burning braziers flank the large front doors. Inside, a subtle dunamantic gravity distortion makes it difficult to trace one's path. The paths are lit by perpetually crackling small, magically lit flames, and the prisoners are kept within small iron cages with reinforced bars.

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 are little changed from when Ghor Dranas was ruled by the Betrayer Gods. The temperature within the prison is cold, and many guards and jailors supervise those locked within.

Gallimaufry

Fan art of Rosohna, by Sakyora.

Fan art of a market in Rosohna, by Cristina Anaya.

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; others appear closer to the architecture of the Dwendalian Empire, but constructed of Vermaloc wood from the nearby Wildwood. There are strings of small green lanterns strung edge-to-edge, as decoration. The district is full of music of different styles, including goblin. 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 more stoic and religiously-oriented Lucid Bastion and Firmaments. It is considered a center for the exchange of culture and ideas within the city.

• Dim's Inn: The Dim's Inn is 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: The Hammered Call is a small but well-built smithy owned by Wursh, a half-orc.
• Turmin's Tinctures and Tonics: Turmin's Tinctures and Tonics is housed in a long building, full of strong-smelling herbs and oils. The owner is a duergar man named Besh Turmin.
• Fadden's Gems: Fadden's Gems has a deep purple wood interior, stained even darker than the natural hue of the Vermaloc wood with 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 of 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, maintained via magical means, as well as where the city's factories and industry are located.

• Overcrow Apothecary: The Overcrow Apothecary is 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

Fan art of Rosohna, from the Ghostlands, by CT Chen.

The Ghostlands are the area beyond the walls of the Corona District but still under Rosohna’s cloak of darkness. The district is 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 solid, hard-packed earth road, 20-feet across from side to side, leads to an endless horizon of broken and charred ruins with twisted bits of metal, mostly covered by ash and soot. The crumbling towers and hooked spires are also covered in this same soot, and a low fog forming shifting shapes surrounds the ancient war ground. At the edges of the road, pressed against the outside of the city wall, is a collection of tents and stick huts, housing 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 keep at bay the spirits from one of the final battles of the Calamity.

Map

Official map of Rosohna, by Deven Rue from the Explorer's Guide to Wildemount, p. 143.

Society

Demographics

The majority of the population of Rosohna consists of drow (66%). Goblins make up 9% of the population, duergar 7%, and the remaining 18% are other races: orcs, the occasional giant, 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.

Notable people

Name	Type	Description
Leylas Kryn	NPC	The Empress of the Kryn Dynasty.
Essek Thelyss	NPC	Shadowhand in the Kryn Dynasty.
Tuss Waccoh	NPC	Orcish professor at the Marble Tomes Conservatory.
Wursh	NPC	Half-orc blacksmith.
Maruo	NPC	Goblin apothecary shop owner.
Besh Turmin	NPC	Duergar tonic shop owner.
Enchanter Yun	NPC	Very young drow woman at the Marble Tomes Conservatory.

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 Rosohna

Outside of the Kryn Dynasty, many people still refer to Rosohna 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.

References

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