Renvin

RENVIN

While not part of the Wolfen Empire, this city of Elves does have a treaty with the Wolfen. Officially a member of the island nation of Phi, this is the last Elven city in the Northern Wilderness.

Karma travels through here on her way to meet CrIsis in Credia.

“From a distance the grandeur of the city of Renvin cannot be denied. Its tall, thin architecture boasts the ancient Elven origins of this city. The dull finish which coats all the buildings may not be quite as “golden” as the fabled city of Baalgor was, but it still manages to create an inciting gleam in the light which brightens the city considerably.

The city integrates itself into the bay in such a way as to suggest that the bay itself may have been created for this city, and not the other way around. Thick forest and tall trees hug the city on all other sides – this makes the city nearly impossible to see from land and provides privacy from the sea. From the bay Renvin can only be seen when approached by certain angles, and by land one is more likely to walk right into the city before ever seeing it.

From within the city details begin to emerge which weren’t apparent from a distance. The finish which covers the buildings has long since lost its luster due to various states of tarnish and corrosion. Most of the original buildings are still standing but many are in some state of disrepair. Attempts to patch and shore them up, though obviously done competently, stand out against the unique architecture like a Dwarf in an Elven market.

Leaving the busy city center and heading towards the outskirts reveals the slow takeover of the city by the forest. Underbrush begins to creep up through cracks in the stones and eventually the streets themselves begin sporting larger and thicker packets of growth. Buildings go from being merely covered in vines to being overtaken by vines. Travel more than a block or two further and the area begins to become more forest than city.

Near the edge of the city it becomes increasingly difficult to recognize anything of Renvin. By the time the original boundary of the city is reached it’s impossible to still call it part of the city in any meaningful way. The incursion of the Northern Wilderness there is so thick that what’s left of the city is completely indiscernible. Any buildings on this edge have long since fallen into rubble, became buried underneath the lush foliage, and turned into little more than hills or mounds which house forest creatures.

Renvin is a city of Elves. They maintain themselves as a settlement of the island nation of Phi rather than an independent state – much to the chagrin of their Wolfen neighbors. They have maintained the city as best they could while lacking the knowledge and materials their ancestors had available millennia ago. It is unknown if the incursion of the woods into the city is a deliberate act by the Elves to let the wilderness in, or a battle against nature being fought and lost to keep the wilderness out.

The Elven make up the majority of the residents of Renvin; after that it is Humans, followed by Wolfen, then small percentages of other races. The Wolven typically respect and revere the Elves and this city of theirs, with the Wolfen Empire going so far as to periodically send delegates to entice them into joining the Wolfen Empire as a full member state! For the most part the Elves seem to haughtily dismiss the Wolfen; some however take advantage of their devotion by making vague statements which seem to promise a positive outcome for the Wolfen, but require some sort of service or task. Once completed, the Elf will dismiss the terms, citing some imaginary slight or informing the Wolven that some unknown term was not adhered to faithfully.

Of course, that was before the Wolfen/Eastern war. I heard they closed the city to all outsiders when the war began, and I do not know if they have allowed visitors now that there is a cease fire, and the two nations are working towards peace."

Update: With the rise of the Elven Kingdom this island has reverted to the Elves.

During Ra 114 CrIsis visits this city, and meets with Lictalon.

Elven City Image Credit: Philip Straub.

 

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