Maratrina

Maratrina is famous across the world as the City Of Spices. Although every city has a market, Maratrina is less a city and more of a massive center of trade. Its markets take up most of the city, with the rest being an enormous port. Only Westport in the south is said to have the same level of commerce as Maratrina. It’s a common saying that if something can’t be bought in Maratrina, it can’t be bought anywhere. Fabrics, alcohol, gold, jewels and, yes, spices are just a few of the many things offered by the merchants of Maratrina. This bounty of trade has made Maratrina obscenely wealthy and its current Lady, Reagan Ashebourne is not shy about it. She lives in absolute luxury and is famous for her frivolous indulgence and taste for all things expensive. In her palace that overlooks the markets from the cities central hill, she throws lavish parties with rich guests from across the world. She forbids violence in her city and demands all guests leave even the bitterest of feuds at the door. It is not unlikely to see enemy warlords sharing a casual glass of spirits in one of the hundreds of rooms that make up her home.

The one other notable location in Maratrina is the Mirrored Library, so named for its outer walls which are coated in mirrors and silver designs depicting various gods, historical figures and symbols of arcane meaning. For centuries, the Mirrored Library has been seen as the best source of knowledge for scholars outside of the university of mage craft in Elenti. Where the elves will often bar outsiders from seeing many of their more valuable manuscripts, the Mirrored Library is happy to allow any who ask complete access to every book or record they possess. The library was founded by a cleric of Oghma who sought to give knowledge to the world as an example of his faith. His name has been lost to history but his legacy has inspired an order of librarians to continue his work, growing and expanding the library into its form today. The order is open to any who wish to join although few prove to have the dedication to stay with it. The library is under the jurisdiction of the lord or lady of Maratrina and throughout history, they have often had a close relationship with the library. Maratrina has been saved by the knowledge of the library on many occasions, be it famine, plague or foreign invaders.

The Ashebourne family were formerly servants to the Verdari family. The Verdari family were infamous for dabbling in hellish magic and many of them were rumoured Warlocks. They ruled over Maratrina until a particularly infamous lord named Iruen Verdari attempted to declare war on Darkwater to the west and Freeport to the north 80 years ago. Upon hearing the news, Rala, his current maid, lured him to her chambers with the promise of… well… *insert porn music*. Rather than that however, she locked him in the room and set it on fire. The fire consumed half the current palace and, coupled with the smoke, killed everyone inside. Rumours swirled that Rala was some sort of avenging angel, being the only survivor of the inferno. She happily played into the persona and quickly rose to the lordship, with most of any potential candidate’s dead from the fire. Rala chose the name Ashebourne for her newly founded lordly family. The family has garnered a reputation for destructive solutions to problems. They are said to have the blood of the phoenix in their veins and fire has often been synonymous with their family. Despite this, their bold nature has often been the reason Maratrina has thrived and grown in the years since the Tyrants Fire, as the incident came to be known.