The City of Andrassos: Region Maps of the City

The City of Andrassos has the physical infrastructure to contain over 100,000 people comfortably, which it did in its heyday. But since the fall of mighty Vanor, the city has dwindled considerably while still being able to hold the core functions of the various neighborhoods in the city together. The images below are close up maps of each Andrassan Regio, with a short narrative description and several keyed locations.

Next time: The Character Creation Rules and Hacks for the Magisterium Campaign

The City of Andrassos: Maps, Demographics, and State Bureaucracy

The Government and Bureaucracy of the Exarchate

Andrassos as a political entity has been in continuous existence for hundreds of years, dating back well into the heyday of mighty Vanor. As a Vanoran exarchate that survived the fall, it has inherited many institutions, habits, and methods from ancient Vanoran practice, but has also, in the four hundred years since Vanor’s end, begun to develop its own approaches and traditions. Thus, the state apparatus is a curious mixture of old and new.

The Exarch
*An appointed position voted on by the Curia of State, held usually for life or retirement
*Has overall control over the policy and direction of the Andrassan polity, in matters foreign and domestic
*There is no inherent or legislated hereditary principle for succession, but increasingly exarchs are able to influence and even at times dictate the selection of a successor

The Curia of State
*Developed out of the old Vanoran town council for the city of Andrassos itself
*Manages the day-to-day activities of the Andrassan polity through the various administrative Sekreton (bureaus) of State
*Provides advice and counsel to the Exarch on all matters
*Positions appointed by the Exarch and are at-will offices; members of the Curia can be removed from office at the whim of the Exarch

The Legacy of State (The Legates)
*Consists of those appointed offices connected to the Andrassan military and the regional Thematic system
*Officers serve at the will of the Exarch

Church of the Unconquered Sun
*While not an official entity of the state, the Church bureaucracy has become increasingly intertwined with that of the Andrassan state, often sharing personnel
*The Tetrarch of the Great Humanitarium serves as a non-voting member of the Curia of State

The Honors List
*Prestigious titles and awards given out by the Exarch, part of the complex system of hierarchy and ranking that has been developing in Andrassos since the fall of Vanor
*Usually results in higher monetary bonuses during the Roga Donative Ceremony every year

The Exarch’s Household
*Offices that manage the day-to-day affairs of the Exarch and the activities of the Grand Magnaura Palace
*Paid by the state and vetted by the Curia, although exarchs do have decision-making authority over who holds these offices

*Notable Offices: High Chamberlain (Parakoimomenos), Grand Master of Ceremonies, Comes Domesticorum (head of the Domestici, aka the Palace Guard), First Master of the Wardrobe (Protovestiarios)

Key State Offices (Dignities by Proclamation, in order of prestige)

The Grand Logothete	Curia; chancellor in charge of diplomacy, high admin, and postal
The Genikon of the Public Chest	Curia; collects taxes and manages state enterprises
The Stratikon of the Military Chest	Curia; military pay and supply, manages military arsenals
The Eparch	Curia; home affairs, police, fire, regulates trade guilds and foreign merchants
The Quaestor	Curia; justice, appeals courts, wills and testaments
The Sakellarios	Curia; chief financial officer, budgeting, audits
The Magister Officiorum	Curia; head of the Magisterium, spymaster
The Grand Domestic of the Army	Legacy; top ranking general of the standing army
The Grand Duke of the Navy	Legacy; top ranking admiral of the standing navy
The Four Strategoi of the Themes	Legacy; military and administrative commanders in the Themes
The Akolouthos of the Varangoi Guard	Legacy; head of the Varangoi Guard

Honors List (Dignities by Award, in order of prestige)

President (Proedros) of the Curia	Singular honor; presides over all meetings of the Curia of State
Magister (Magistros)	Old Vanoran title for Master
Vestarches	Old Vanoran title for Master of the Wardrobe
Vestes	Originally a lesser Vanoran wardrobe office title
Proconsul (Anthypatos)	Old Vanoran office
Patrician (Patriklos)	Old Vanoran distinction
First Sword Bearer (Protospatharios)	Andrassan noble household title
Sword Bearer (Spatharios)	Andrassan noble household title
Consul (Hypatos)	Old Vanoran office
Groom (Strator)	Andrassan noble household title

Exarchate of Andrassos Demographic Information

Total Population: 235,000
Total Urban Population: 47,000
Andrassos City Population: 24,500

Other Urban Centers
Berutos, Pop: 3,220
Bourla, Pop: 3,250
Eruks, Pop: 3,130
Marash, Pop: 3,125
Philea, Pop: 3,263
Rusion, Pop: 3,262
Skopelos, Pop: 3,250

State Governmental Structure: 1 Exarchate, 4 Themes, 16 Prefectures, 64 Kastra

City of Andrassos Demographic Information

Andrassans - 49% - 12,005
Lemurians - 14% - 3,430
Iotar/Varangians - 10% - 2,450
Atlanteans - 8% - 1,960
Stygians - 7% - 1,715
Acherians - 6% - 1,568

Others (Vanoran, Rothari, Ughor, Kalingoi, etc) - 5% - 1,225

Next Time: Close-up and labeled maps of all eight regiones in the city.

Vanoran Sites: The Portico of Borea

The tiled floor mosaic map of the world in the Portico of Borea.

In Regio.IX.Overlook about four hundred feet east of the Via Lata, in a semi-ruined neighborhood called the Campus Tullius, stands the Portico of Borea. Recently discovered again by delvers operating under the auspices of the Diggers College, this ruined double columned portico was supposedly built as a monument to the world-striding power of the Sixth Vanoran Witch-King, Sextus Tullius Incantator, known chiefly as the Servator ("To be loved or feared is immaterial; one only needs to be obeyed.")

Although much of the Portico has fallen or been looted for building stone through the years, its crown jewel remains somewhat intact: a 75x50 foot tiled floor mosaic that displays an ancient but complete map of the continent of Borea. Despite being outdated in its details, the great floor map remains an astounding work of art that will perhaps again serve as a focal point for Overlook regio once delvers have reclaimed the area from ruin.

Mapping Vanor: The City

The following post contains the neighborhood capsule descriptions I sent to my players before the Ruins of Vanor campaign started properly. All neighborhoods (or regios, as the Vanorans call them) refer to locations on the Big Board map to the left, which is mounted on a piece of poster board 3ft x 2ft in size. At this early stage of the campaign, some areas are more defined than others, hence the abundant white space for most of the map. We'll add more to the Big Board as the campaign goes on. 

Oh, and three guess which historical city I have based Vanor on...

***

The ruined city within the outer Marcian Walls consists of ten districts. Of these ten, only four have settled habitation; the remaining six are in ruins and teeming with beasts, kalingoi goblins, and undead. As residents of Vanor, you know much about the settled districts and significantly less about the ruined ones.

The Settled Districts

Regio I. Campus Marcianus
This district (the "Fields of Marcian") is the second most populous area of the ruined city. Originally a marshy plain outside the walls of the original city, the Fourth Witch-King, Marcian the Reclaimer, had the marsh drained and used as a staging area for his wars of expansion and conquest. Eventually, the fields became a built up area of grand public buildings, temples, and theaters; refined boulevards and columned porticoes; and dense urban apartments clustered in between. Bordered by the Basana River in the west and the Via Lata (aka The Broadway) in the east, the current district is anchored by the great and still functioning Baths of Tullius and the massive but crumbling Stadium of Marcian. Retaining walls along the Basana have fallen into disrepair, and repeated flooding has turned part of the district into ruined marsh, which now serves as a den for thieves and criminals. Closeness to the neighboring Regio IX. Overlook district has meant repeated monster, undead, and vermin incursions, threatening the stability of the Marcian Fields. It has seen better days.

Regio II. Campus Vaticanus
This district ("Vatican Fields") is the smallest, newest, and most orderly of the ancient ruined city's districts. Anchored in the west by Vatican Hill and the massive Solarium of the Unconquered Sun at its base and in the east by the looming Barbican fortress, Vatican Fields is a planned district of detached villas, domus residences, marble porticoes, and religious statuary. Isolated from the ruin sprawl by the Basana River, Vatican Fields suffers little of the monstrous incursions that trouble the Regio I. Campus Marcianus district directly across the river. Silver and gold-clad sun priests stroll along the Via Cornelia on sunny days. Country gentry visiting their urban villas move through the streets on covered litters. Street vendors hawk their wares from tabernacle shops. And at night, the streets are lit by the soft blue glow of lumin lamps. Life in Vatican Fields is truly touched by the Sun.

Regio III. Transbasana
This district is the largest and most densely populated of the ruined city's districts. When access and services fell away from other districts as the city collapsed, Transbasana across the river retained key water and infrastructure services, so people poured in. Today it is a teeming slum and manufacturing district that completely covers the summit and slopes of the Janiculum Hill. It is home to the great basilica known as the Hall of Work, headquarters of the powerful Labor Collegium; the looming and twisted Tower of Mysteries, holding the secrets of the Arcanum Collegium; and the Naumachian Pits, a former artificial lake that's been converted into gladiatorial arenas.

Regio IV. Aventinus
This district was once the key port of entry into Vanor for river trade and commercial traffic, with its river banks converted into long, porticoed quays fronting row upon row of storage warehouses that reached all the way back to the slopes of the Aventine Hill. Today, commercial traffic is fairly limited, and most of the quays and warehouses have been converted for other purposes or left to ruin. Instead, due to its direct border with the ruined Regio V. Via Interius district, Aventinus is the key staging area for explorations into the city's ruins, centered on the Delver's Porch, a portico along the river serving as the key mercenary market; the Emporium, the largest quay and chief docks; and Northmen's Landing, the quay and warehouse compound taken over as a Varangian holdfast. And adding to the district's dangerous character are the two witch king tombs squatting on the Aventine's twin summits.

The Ruined Districts

Regio V. Via Interius
Sparsely built and serving as the chief overland entrance from the ports of the Inner Sea, this district is dominated by ruined caravan posts, religious shrines, and a large bath complex overrun with kalingoi goblins.

Regio VI. Celian Heights
In its heyday, this was a fashionable residential district, dotted with wealthy homes and villas, recreational baths, and opulent basilicas. Today, delvers target the family crypts dug deep into the Celian Hill's north slopes and beneath the ruined villas as sources of lost wealth.

One small section of the Imperial Necropolis on the Esquiline Hill

Regio VII. Esquillae
Largely made up of the Esquiline Hill and the upper greenbelt ridge that divides the eastern Marcian Walls with the summits of the Quirinal, Viminal, and Cispian Hills, Esquillae is a dangerous regio dominated  by the tomb of the evil Third Witch-King (remembered only as the Anti-Pater) and the imperial necropolis contained behind it, which serves as the chief source of all the undead in the ruined city.

Regio VIII. Alta Semita
Containing the Quirinal, Viminal, and Cispian Hills and the upper summit behind the hills, Alta Semita was a rich and sumptuous district of villas, basilicas, schools, and temples affording excellent views of the lower regios of the city. Today, it is perhaps the most dangerous and overrun ruin in the city, due to the presence of two witch king tombs on the lower summits of two hills and one witch king tomb built beneath a massive and ruined bath complex on the upper summit.

The old Temple of Sol Invictus

Regio IX. Overlook
Dominated by the long ridge of the Pincian Hill, Overlook was known as the Hill of Gardens due to the overabundance of pleasures gardens and recreational complexes. Bordering with the Regio I. Campus Marcianus district, this densely built district is a key focus for exploration delves and holds the ruins of the first Temple of Sol Invictus, rumored to be filled with great wealth in its hidden lower vaults.

Regio X. Velabrum
Once the political heart of the mighty city centered on the Capitoline and Palatine Hills, today the Velabrum is littered with ruined forums, crumbling market porticoes, overgrown horse tracks and amphitheaters, and, at the heart of it all, the dangerous and deadly tomb of the First Witch King, Sol Invictus, the Unconquered Sun, perched atop the Palatine Hill.

***
Image Credits:

Images #1-#5: Map by author, working from the public domain image "Plan of the Hills of Ancient Rome," engraved by C. Smith, Strand (link).

Image #6: Roman Graveyard Image from Lapham's Quarterly (link).

Image #7: "Model Temple of Aphaia Glyptothek Munich" (link).

Play Report #1: Beer Wisdom in the Ruins of Vanor

Scene: A quiet evening of drink and talk in the Laughing Goat, a salty tavern built on a pier jutting out into the Basana River from the Transbasana regio, is this very night concerned with the recent workings of the Diggers College.

"Heard the Diggers are makin' a push into the Overlook."

"Really? Thought they did most of their delvin' in old villas outside the walls?"

"Well, the head man, John of Tharsensis--"

"Oh, shame how he died...."

"Certe, certe, seems like the wolves are gettin' worse every season. Anyway, ole John set his best Diggers to task on it before he met the Sun. Even rounded up some burly, mute Northmen and a gobbo turncoat to fill the delve out. It's the talk of the Fields, or so I hear."

"Mute Northmen?!? Gobbo turncoats? Was John tryin' to kill it before it started?"

"Don't be talkin' ill o' the dead. The Diggers seem like alright people. And they care about this city a whole heap more than some others I could name."

"Hey, ab imo pectore, friend, didn't mean nothin' by it. Just surprising is all. How's the push going?"

"Well, friend of mine who frequents the Digger flea market heard talk they made their first delves into the old Temple of Sol Invictus."

"The one on the Palatine?"

"Certe non, I said Overlook. This one is apparently on the lower slopes of the Quirinal."

"Huh, didn't know there was one there. What'd they find?"

"Slime, skeletons, stinkin' gobbos, and some death to finish it off. One of the Northmen drank poison."

"Drank poison?!? Just swilled it down? He lose a bet or something?"

"Who knows. You know Varangians. They'll drink anythin' if it's in a horn or looks like bee juice."

"Certe, friend, certe."

***
Image Sources:

Image #1: "Mead" by Eldoras (link).

Campaign Call: The Ruins of Vanor

The following is the campaign call that went out to the players in my gaming group (with a few edits along the way), announcing the first campaign to run in Hrimgate: the Ruins of Vanor.

***

Vanor was once a mighty city, capital of a vast empire that stretched across the continent of Boreas. Built up and glorified by witch-kings of old, the teeming metropolis held close to 500,000 people within its indestructible walls. No land or people throughout Boreas were untouched by the Imperial yoke or the light of the Unconquered Sun.

And then the end came, in fire, blood, and iron. With the humbling of the last Vanoran witch-king, Celsus the Proud, the Empire shattered into pieces. Conquered peoples tossed off the yoke, provinces broke away or collapsed, and the flow of tribute and treasure ceased. The rump heartland of the Vanoran Empire fell into decay and ruin, its location only vaguely and infrequently remarked upon as it was swallowed by the mists of time and almost forgotten.

But deep within the Beast Lands of Arborea stretching along the northern coasts of the great Inner Sea of Boreas, the derelict corpse of the Vanoran metropolis and its rump population of 35,000 people remains. And it is your home.

You are born, live, and die in the decaying shadows of imperial greatness.

Vanor is a dead city of shattered glories and crumbling colonnades, of broken and defaced statues littering old causeways and decrepit porticoes on the Campus Marcianus, of collapsed basilicas to the Unconquered Sun looming over the city from forlorn hilltops in the Celian Heights, of inscrutable monuments to past imperial progress squatting amid the empty shells of the rat-warren apartment buildings of the long-ago mob in the Via Interius.

Vanor is a living city of hardy survivors struggling to endure amidst the ruinous blight, of wonder-workers and prophets preaching the miraculous and the Liturgy of the Unconquered Sun while cultists and witches practice and perfect more ancient mysteries, of Slezan Knights of the Sacrosanct Militant Order of the Holy Dungeoneer proclaiming the Great Reclaimation to scourge the city of its diseased ruins, of brave hunters who range out into the surrounding countryside to stalk the chimeric monsters of the Beast Range or battle the horse lords of the Centaur Wood.

Vanor teems with forgotten treasuries, lost libraries, saints tombs, and ossuary crypts, all waiting to be plundered for their relics and rewards. Gargoyles leer down from the weathered cornices of imperial triumphal arches in the Velabrum. The living dead crawl out from the great imperial necropolis on the Esquiline Heights and shamble through the ruins in search of flesh at the behest of the King-In-Bones. The Sabine Sisters stalk the Overlook, searching for the blood of the innocent or the unwary. Collapsed aqueducts and breached walls define and dissect the urban landscape and speak to the majesty of its past.

And over this dead and living city of old looms the Seven Tombs on the Seven Hills of the Seven Witch-Kings of Vanor.

***

You are a member in good standing of the Collegium Fossoribus (aka the Digger's College) in the ruined city of Vanor. As a group, the Diggers are dedicated to the exploration, reclamation, and renovation of the ancient city's ruin sprawl. The College has grown quickly from its origins in the recent past, and has in the last few months taken over a ruined temple along the Broadway in the Campus Marcianus district as its main headquarters (the Diggers Hall), putting it squarely on the front lines against the beasts, rotters, and lawless gangs that bleed over from the nearby ruined Overlook district.

Recently, the head of the College, John of Tharsensis, has asked you to take part in the most important Digger operation yet. To date, the Diggers have mostly focused their energies on targeted delves into the ruins, avoiding the hill-tops with their witch-king tombs while searching the low areas in between for treasure and information. This has been helpful and profitable for the group overall, but now is the time to push further.

Your mission then is to establish a Digger outpost in one of the ruined city districts, a foothold from which deeper delves into the ruins can be launched and reclamation efforts can begin.

Vanor is an old school dungeon crawl through a living, urban megadungeon in a cultural and social milieu that is roughly late antique/early medieval Europe. This means the vagaries of faction politics will be just as important as dungeon crawling skills in navigating this campaign. We will be using ACKS as the core rule system, absent some of the more persnickety domain management aspects (instead we will be using a modified version of Kevin Crawford's An Echo Resounding to manage such matters when we need them).

The campaign is designed to be rather open-ended, in that you are free to take the campaign in any number of directions as you progress through it (your initial mission is just the start; where you go after that is up to you all). Time will pass on a monthly basis during the campaign (just like the Rainy City structure), so there will be plenty of long-term scope for you to plan for and play with. The city, its environs, its people, and its factions will all develop, change, and act as you interact with the city over this time frame, and you will have a lot of leeway to reshape the city in your attempts to rebuild this ancient and fallen capital.

***
Image Sources:

Image #1: Kenilworth Castle, England (link).

Image #2: Fantasy View with the Pantheon and Other Monuments of Ancient Rome, Giovanni Panini, 1737 (link).

Image #3: Fantasy Church Ruins (link).

Image #4: Dark Ruin Wallpaper (link).

Image #5: Guild Wars 2 Concept Art by Levi Hopkins (link).

Image #6: Fantasy Dark Wallpaper (link).