Zarvedi: the Imperial Summer Capital was nothing but a small town until the times of Rayvin I, which moved there to ensure a better defence against his many enemies. Zarvedi is therefore the most "modern" city of the DwarvenWorld, as most of it was built in a few years, at the epitome of technology. Zarvedi sprawls on the most elevated point of the omonimous island, in the middle of fertile fields; from outside one sees only its plastered walls, which stem out at impossible angles, like they were the petals of a withered flower, so that an attacker would either face an edge, or be under fire from two sides.
This odd geometry seems to have been suggested to its architect, M. Plinius Edificator, by the shape of a spiny clam he once found on the lake, and that has then become the symbol of the city.
Inside, Zarvedi still looks strange: the imperial palace and the houses of the loyalist families are bundled together on the western side in an elevated area which is girt by a second layer of walls, and looks like a town in the town; a single, ample road leads to it from the main gate, and this passes over the streets of the town, being elevated too, with a mighty work of arches.
Everything else within Zarvedi is narrow, sloped winding streets and towers connected by overpasses. In these mazy conditions, even a few men could fight for months a mighty army before the city is taken, or so Plinius thought.
Ironically enough, Zarvedi has never been involved in any war, or even in any riot, and all these ingenious military preparations have proven themselves quite pointless so forth. Zarvedi, however, being inhabited mostly by people connected somehow to the court, is famous for being expensive and refined; here live the best troubadours in the empire, and a number of ragged artists of any sort, here one can find the best jewels, wines, musical instruments and --quite naturally-- the very best thieves.
To a stranger, Zarvedi is extremely confusing: the curling alleys and the fact all buildings are similar in shape, texture and colour put even the best direction sense to the test; the only identifiable parts of town are its acropolis and the small old Old Town. The latter is the part of Zarvedi that already existed before Rayvin I, and it looks like many small villages of the empire, with low houses all gathered around the only square in the city. Pennyless troubadours, painters, sculptors and other bohemian types live in this area, which is thought of as "unsafe" and therefore shunned by the paranoid courtiers.
Government: Zarvedi is supposedly administered directly by the emperor. In his absence, the army has quite free rein, and keeps a perfect order by reacting swiftly and violently to every source of trouble. It is lead by general C. Calpurnius, a stern but righteous man in his mid fifties.
Selen: the oldest city of the Empire, its first foundation actually long predates it, and is lost in legends; it is surrounded by motley but extremely high and strong walls and sprawls on the only hill of an otherwise completely flat landscape. A Selenian legend links this hillock, and city's name, to a "small moon" that in ancient times would have "fallen on the ground"; the material that composed this moon would be "mostly true silver", which would harbour good luck by opposing the ominous presence of arcane circles. The amazing history of the city, confirms, in a sense, this goofy tale: Selen was completely destroyed five times, first in some obscure war occurred before the Himli were known to exist, then by Dargavs, and then by the Gumrach, then by the Empire, and then by Gumrach again. Each time, it rose more powerful and rich than before: first Dargavs came to dread its name, and their chieftains started the tradition of sending their sons to the Selenian court as hostages: this lasts up to today, albeit there is no hostility anymore, for a time, Dargav princes live in Selen, and learn the way of the town, and teach theirs.
Then the Empire gave up on conquering the city, and struck an alliance with it, so that the Prince of Selen, and his vassals are the only Arvarian nobles in the former Empire, still today. At last, the Gumrach fell, and Selen was still as prosperous as ever. Now slowly, the proximity of the Western Dragon is consuming the fibre of this immortal town: only a few notice it, but trade is not quite as good as it was, administration not quite as honest, he army not quite as powerful, and even the symbol of the town, an ice-cold spring the water of which, channelled through a magnificent fountain in front of the prince's palace, heals many aches and pains does not spurt as vigorously as it used to.
As far as looks go, Selen is quite picturesque, with its winding streets, small, round and pointy towers and winding, sloping roads that open in small squares, all built in the ashen-coloured stone of the Grey boulders, and then decorated with oak wood.
Government: prince Aulus Seleucus, apparently from the same family the founded Selen, rules it through a host of exceedingly armed and armoured guards. His regime of enlightened tyranny keeps the streets perfectly safe and peaceful; even plot tend to happen in a bloodless way, through slander, exile and imprisonment rather than murder or direct fighting.
