Libero

The city-state of Libero has a long and rich history spanning several nations and empires. Located in Aquanius along the shore of the Serpente Sea, the city has long been a center of trade.

• Country: Theodova
• Founded: Y568 AE
• Government: Council Aldermen
• Area:
• Population: 27,000
• Demonym(s): Libonese

Decades before the founding of the city, Lycenean traders would wait out storms behind a small peninsula. As more ships stopped a small village grew to service those ships. Woodwrights, Ropemakers, sailmakers, and several taverns grew along the shore. After being pillages in Y593 AE the villagers built a walled tower atop the tallest hill that overlooked the docks. By Y601 the village held 600 people.

The village grew slowly until Y776 when the Dragon Queen stopped at the village. In her honor the village elders built a large marble temple next to the Foulmouth River. People from days around visited the temple to bask in the glory of the Queen. The village constructed a walled town atop the eastern hill as the population swelled to over two-thousand (2000) people.

Only a few months after the Dragon Queen was killed the town was sacked and everybody put to the sword. The town lay in ruins, every piece of the temple was cast into the sea. The Dragon Kings cursed the land.

The land lay fallow until Y1357 AE when Zah'habeb, a Zentirovan raider, sheltered his ships from a storm. The ruins allowed his sailors to ride out the storm. For the next few years he continued to shelter his ships as the few Dragon Ships that still plied the sea would not come near the peninsula. Zah'habeb constructed a dock and hired workmen to settle on the land. A port safe from both storms and Dragon Ships became a haven for Zenti captains.

By Y1500 the people had outgrown the small village and moved into the ruins of the town one the eastern hill. The stone wall was reconstructed and a mayor elected by the craftsmen. Several Zenti captains resented the mayor's authority and attacked the town in Y1503 and Y1504, both times unsuccessful. To discourage any attacks in the future the mayor had a walled shell keep constructed on the western hill.

As the God-Kings debauchery grew many people fled the islands with their families. They settled along the coast, including Libero. The town swelled in number to over five-thousand (5000) people. A jetty was constructed of marble found at the bottom of the inlet. At the tip of the jetty was a small stone tower that would guard the docks and warn of incoming ships.

In Y1690 the Escarian volcano erupted on the Zenti home island sending a cloud of fiery ash into the sky. The ash blotted out the sun, withered the crops, and set straw rooftops alight. Panic, Retribution, and Murder took a hold of the inhabitants. As the jetty glowed with a eerie light the people of the town attacked their neighbors.

Some fled, but most died. When the ash cloud disappeared in Y1918 less than a hundred (< 100) people remained on this land. Traders and Raiders alike shunned these cursed lands.

Time passed and the land recovered. When Morosino Erasmus anchored his ships in the inlet in Y2150 nearly five-hundred (500) people lived along the shore. Morosino had brought with him his entire family and every worldly possession. The reputation of this land would shelter him from those who sought his death. His family, retainers, and slaves razed the ruins of the town and rebuilt it.

In Y2218 Zusto Erasmus razed and rebuilt the keep on the western hill. He purchased a pair of dwarven heavy ballistas to mount atop the keep. They had the range to hit anyone attacking the town from the west or north. In Y2231 a stone watchtower from built along the Foulmouth River river upstream (south) of the city. By 2300 the town had grown to three-thousand people.

Y2423 - 2438 the town was hit by multiple raiders each year. The Erasmus family was involved in several wars with other families. The docks were burned on a yearly basis as fireboats were rammed into the narrow inlet. To stop these attacks the town widened and extended the jetty and built a stout stone keep on the end. This keep could cover the entire mouth of the inlet.

A dwarven engineering team arrived in Y2614 and built a long chain that could covered the mouth of the inlet when raised. The windlass in the keep at the end of the jetty could be operated by four men.

In Y2700 ten-thousand (10,000) people lived in the town. The town and outgrown its original walls requiring another full ring to be built - plus a wing that stretched to the south.

By the end of the Age of Empires the city had grown to over twenty-thousand people. The city had expanded across the river and encircled both hills. The Erasmus family estates took up most of the eastern hill, while the keep on the western hill had become a full castle.

In Y193 AH Libero had joined the ranks of the great city-states of Theodova with the construction of a Arakhova University. Over the years the university become well known for rhetoric and the self-centric philosophical movement.

The land is dominated by two large hills and the river valley that runs between. The western hill can only be approached form the east as the other sides have become a seven meter (22 foot) high bluff. The eastern hill does not rise as much and the slope is far more gentle.

The land to the south is rich and fertile soil, well suited for agriculture and herding. Goats and sheep are the most common herd animals found on these lands. The land is capable of handling large herd of cattle, but beef is not considered a delicacy among the Libonese.

The Foulmouth River is named for the red-silt that flows along the river. Rich in iron the silt empties into the Serpente Sea in a wide delta. The many rivers that join with the Foulmouth to the south of the city keep the surrounding lands rich and fertile.

Libero is a diverse and cosmopolitan city with traders from across the sea making port. Only those with direct blood ties to the founding Erasums family can own land within the city walls, but so much of the city has sprawled beyond the walls that the restriction is pointless. Outside the walls anyone can purchase or sell land, businesses, goods or services.

Wars between the Theodovan city-states is always an on-going concern. Although the city is unlikely to fall during these brief skirmishes, their ships and warehouses suffer during this time.

The Zentirovan are always a concern. Ships from each port raid and plunder each other should they be caught along in dangerous waters. They also remain the second most important trading partner.

• List of Cities in Theodova