City of Muristar
World Connections Type LOCATION Sub‑Type CITY Status UNEXPLORED Time Period The War of the Enlightened Regions The Cartas Empire Campaigns The War of the Enlightened World Period Dilatatio et Bellum
Titles: The City of Knowledge, Forge of Minds, Beacon of the North
Region: Center‑North Cartesia — nestled where the winding Muras River meets the foothills of the Silvercap Range, the mountain wall dividing west from east
Size: Large
Origin: Old‑Age City (pre‑Unification gnome enclave)
Population: ~803 000
A skyline of copper‑spired observatories and red‑brick lecture halls crowns cobblestone avenues that echo with bell chimes every hour. Autumn paints the riverbanks crimson and gold, while gliding canal‑ferries shuttle scholars between rival colleges. In Muristar, invention is a civic virtue: steam‑lift trams share lanes with arcane‑charged stagecoaches, and café debates over the latest rune‑logic engines can erupt into noon‑hour dueling demonstrations on the Scholars Commons. Birthplace of the Gnome Royal Family and cradle of Cartesia’s most prestigious universities, Muristar prizes curiosity above pedigree—though fierce inter‑collegiate rivalries test that ideal.
History
- 41 A.U. — Founding of Beacon College, the first post‑Unification university, in renovated dwarven granaries along Beacon Spire.
- 173 A.U. — The Treatise Revolt: student artificers dumped crates of faulty “tax‑caps” into the Muras River to protest imperial tuition hikes—an act immortalized by the annual Cap‑Float Festival.
- 299 A.U. — Completion of the Rivervault Causeway, a chain of waterwheels powering campus laboratories, sparking a golden age of rune‑machinery.
- 471 A.U. — The secretive Tenfold Herald known as the Steel Alchemist establishes an underground forge beneath Cogwheel University; few know their identity.
Politics & Government
Government: Bicameral City Assembly—Council of Chancellors (heads of seven universities) & Civic House (elected district delegates)
Monarch: Queen Inventrix Talina Cogwizzle (Gnome Royal Family)
Dominant Parties: Cambiare 57 % | Modicus 43 %
Current First Chancellor: Arch‑Provost Aldric Vellum
Defense: Ivory Quills (scholar‑guard) & Steel Sentinels (clockwork golems)
Academic grants and patent royalties fund public works, while the monarch’s court—housed in the Glimmer‑Hall Palace—focuses on cross‑empire knowledge exchange. Patents are debated in weekly open‑air forums, where fiery rhetoric can sway laws overnight.
Society & Demographics
| Race | % |
|---|---|
| Gnomes | 35 % |
| Humans | 30 % |
| Dwarves | 12 % |
| Elves | 10 % |
| Tieflings | 8 % |
| Halflings | 3 % |
| Other | < 2 % |
Twice‑yearly Scholars’ Regatta races enchanted skiffs along the Muras; winning crews earn free tuition for a term. A thriving café culture nurtures invention gossip and student‑run newspapers—Saoirse once edited the radical Muras Murmur while studying wizardry here, and Comfrey’s distant Dewgold kin pioneered field‑alchemy labs for herb research on campus greenhouses.
Religion & Belief
Chapels to Oghma (knowledge), Mystra (arcana), and Gond (craft) dominate the Triune Plaza. An austere shrine to Torm oversees the historic Freedom Walk, commemorating the Treatise Revolt. Festivals often blur academic and spiritual pursuits; exam week prayers merge with tinkering blessings.
Commerce & Industry
Major Exports: Rune‑logic engines, precision chronometers, scholar’s journals, arcane prosthetics
Core Industries: Higher education, artificer workshops, manuscript printing, brewery science, river‑wheel power engineering
The Rivervault Causeway powers dozens of subterranean laboratories. Brewers at Fen‑Barrel District collaborate with wizards to craft spell‑infused ales—a local favorite among stressed students and visiting adventurers alike.
Key City Locations
Beacon College
Oldest university; its Granite Library houses planar charts and the desk where Saoirse drafted her first teleportation thesis.
Cogwheel University
Artifice powerhouse famous for golem competitions. Rumor places the hidden Forge Prime—lair of the Steel Alchemist—under the central quad.
The Scholars Commons
Parkland modeled after ancient elven conclaves, complete with leaf‑latticed lecture pavilions. Revolutionary speeches, magic fairs, and midnight lyre concerts keep the lawns lively.
Innovaria Hall
Glass‑roofed convention center where the annual Cartesian Invention Expo draws inventors (and the party) to unveil prototypes, debate ethics, and occasionally trigger small explosions.
Rivervault Causeway
Interlocking bridges and waterwheels spanning the Muras‑Delta. Lanterns trace a glowing arc at dusk, guiding ferry‑golems ferrying commuters.
The Cognitum Archives
Multi‑level repository of peer‑reviewed scrolls, refused patents, and pre‑Unification blueprints. Restricted sub‑stacks contain writings by Aisha—the legendary artificer and ancestor of the Steel Alchemist—and her elusive sister, the Tinkerer.
The Wandering Barrel Inn
A once‑proud riverside tavern now on the brink of closure. Owner Phineas Merridew swears a dungeon entrance lies beneath his cellar—offering the party managerial rights (and a cut of profits) if they can prove it.
Notable Factions & Defenses
- Ivory Quills — elite scholar‑guard wielding quill‑pikes that dispel hostile illusions.
- Tinkerers Guild (Northern Chapter) — partners with universities; rumored schism over ethics of sentient constructs.
- Half‑Cog Society — student collective campaigning for free enchantment education and transparent patent laws.
Prominent Figures
| Name | Role | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Queen Talina Cogwizzle | Gnome Monarch | Visionary patron of open‑source spellcraft; sports a gear‑crown that ticks at public events. |
| Arch‑Provost Aldric Vellum | First Chancellor | Human bureaucrat famed for memorizing 12,000 bylaws; deeply opposed to patent piracy. |
| “Steel Alchemist” (alias) | Tenfold Herald | Secret master of alchemical metallurgy sought by the party for rescue. |
| Professor Keyla Brightforge | Chair, Cogwheel U. | Saoirse’s former spell‑engineering advisor; guilt‑ridden over past experiment fallout. |
| “The Tinkerer” | Legendary Inventor | Sister to Aisha; enigma whose clockwork notes appear in Menagerie quests. |
| Phineas Merridew | Innkeeper | Desperate entrepreneur hoping dungeon tourism will revive The Wandering Barrel. |
Campaign Notes
Additional Information
City bylaws mandate every public clock tower synchronize at dawn via uni‑directional temporal ping. The yearly Cap‑Float Festival commemorates the Treatise Revolt by releasing enchanted graduation caps to drift upriver; catching one is said to guarantee academic success—or at least a free drink in Fen‑Barrel.
“Ideas, like rivers, carve the future stone by stone.” — Muristaran proverb
Hidden Information
- Forge Prime’s entrance lies behind a kinetic mural in Cogwheel’s Steam Hall; its combination changes with each lunar phase.
- Phineas’s “mysterious dungeon” rumor stems from half‑decoded schematics that actually map to Aisha’s abandoned prototype lab—now occupied by faulty automata.
- Main Arc — The party must locate and liberate the Steel Alchemist from rival factions vying to control their mythic forge.
- Menagerie Arc — Clues in the Cognitum Archives and Innovaria Hall point to The Tinkerer, revealing family ties to Aisha and the Steel Alchemist.
- Side Threads —
- Attend and perhaps headline the Cartesian Invention Expo at Innovaria Hall.
- Manage The Wandering Barrel while investigating the rumored dungeon; turn the inn into the hottest scholar hangout.
- Aid gnome historians tracing Comfrey’s Dewgold lineage in Gnometown archives.