Brekon (city)
| Brekon | |
| Other Names: | City of Glory |
| Society: | |
| Nation/Territorial Area: | Brekon |
| Population: | 1.1 Million |
| Languages: | Common, Orcish, Goblin, Giant-kin languages |
| Deities Worshipped: | Valok, Maleki |
| General Alignment: | Lawful Evil |
| Head of City Government: | High Cleric Mukhar Zhakhir |
| Races: | |
| 40% Orc, 20% Goblin, 20% Giant-kin, 20% Other | |
The city of Brekon lies directly on the coast and it is no more than a few days journey from the city of Red Gate, which belongs to the Confederation of The Seven Cities to the southwest of the nation of Brekon. The southern gate of the city, which faces Red Gate, is constantly bustling with traffic and rarely ever closes at night. Brekon is known for its shipbuilding and a few other more illicit activities, the least of which is the cultivation of dire animals for manufacturing blood fury crystals, a potent narcotic. There are also vast natural resources within the nation's borders, most of which are in the form of ores which are crafted into weapons and armor that are exported to anyone who will buy them. The Seven Cities buy up much of the ore, for they have little of their own, and the Kurathene Empire generally buys the finished products.
History
Early Period (Pre-Orcish Destruction - P.O.D.)
The earliest inhabitants of the land now occupied by Brekon were goblinoid creatures directly descended from the first of their race created by Maleki. A small city by the name of Yurshnut was ruled jointly by an advanced goblin tribe and its related larger hobgoblin cousins. Though there were other settlements of much smaller size, Yurshnut shined as an example of perfectly tuned chaos holding a civilization together for several continuous centuries. No other goblinoid city on the surface has ever since achieved that level of success.
Historians speculate that this small city might have grown in size to rival even some of the nearby human cities in the remnants of The Kurathene Empire to the north, but subsequent events prevented this. During the peak of Yurshnut's growth, The Great War rapidly approached its climax, and put the inhabitants of Yurshnut on a collision course with fleeing orcs. The destruction of the orcish nation of Dobrekan forced the entire bulk of the race across the continent in blind retreat. At a pivotal point, it looked as if the orcs would be pushed into the sea, but in time they pulled together and streamed into the area of Yurshnut to begin the decline of that city and the rise of a new one.
The Orcish Destruction was most remembered for its extraordinary decimation of life and its effects on the entire landmass of Negaria. Less remembered are its local effects. The terrified remnants of Dobrekan's citizenry moved quickly to enslave the local goblin population in order to fortify the area so they could defend against what they thought was an impending attack from literally every other civilization on the continent united against them. Though the war drew to a close before that due to the intervention of Mikon and the creation of good-aligned dragons, the damage done to the civilization of Yurshnut was permanent.
The new city was renamed Brekon by the orcs, derived from their words for "final place" and insinuating in the vernacular of the time the idea of a coffin or tomb. It grew in size and scope until it controlled much of the land around it. Aside from the other orcish nation of Dubunat which was also in its infancy at the time, this place became a haven for the displaced orcs.
The Goblin Uprising of 517 A.O.D.
For a little more than five centuries, the city of Brekon flourished and began to trade with its surrounding neighbors, Dubunat, The Kurathene Empire, and Toran Shaarda. The society's economy revolved around slave labor and trade, and to some extent this would always be the case well into the future. During the first centuries since the founding of the city, however, the slave population was exclusively comprised of goblins and hobgoblins descended from the subjugated tribes encountered during the orcs' flight from Dobrekan.
The plight of the slave population was of no concern to the orcs, and their laws, both civil and religious codified the institution of slavery and regulated it. From the goblinoid perspective, however, the situation was not so rosy. Slow anger simmered beneath the surface of their population for centuries, and over time a leader named Tarak Abu-Ni began to emerge as a quiet motivator and director of insurrection. Tarak's methods were slow and patient, but ruthless, performing seemingly random assassinations of orc trademasters and politicians but not too many to arouse suspicion. For his work and adoration by the goblinoid citizenry, Maleki granted him immortality and the powers that go along with it, and he used them to gather even more followers to him.
One such follower was a hobgoblin cleric of Maleki named Haruk Kav. Through constant prayer, meditation, and training, Haruk lent his help to Tarak Abu-Ni and soon began a large clandestine operation to summon and contain significant numbers of demons from The Abyss in the catacombs and sewers beneath the city.
As a society, Brekon is a theocracy, giving all homage to Valok. Valok and his Church rule the city. They control all military and daily aspects of life and trade, as well as diplomacy. The clerics in the city are mainly concerned with getting an upper hand on their political rivals and jockeying for an ever so slightly higher position. For this, they are not considered dangerous by the other nations; however, sometimes the Church as a whole will have confrontations with those around it.
Secondarily, there is a strong following of Maleki within the city of Brekon, and this is mainly a staple of the giant-kin and goblins who live there. Here, these folk are often considered second class citizens; however, they are always awarded full rights under the law, as are any outsiders. "The Law" is usually loose enough for the Church to handle any matter it needs to.
Because of the huge conglomerate of races living in Brekon, there are many different scales represented. Most buildings are slightly larger than normal medium size. They are made to cater to those of orc size, but also ogre and slightly larger sized creatures. Other buildings even have smaller accommodations for goblins. Every detail is multi-scaled, right down to the concentric doorways in buildings made to accommodate more than one size.