The People

Prior to the revolution, Lerona Mere could have been called a city divided by coin and blood. With the hereditary rich banished from the city at steel or sail, Legend City has become a city divided by loyalty and legend. The time of the revolution will not be forgotten and still exists fresh in the culture and mindset of the city's people.

The average citizen of Lerona Mere (sometimes called Mere-ites or simply Lerona Mere) is cocky, witty and confident. They carry themselves with the confidence of a street fighter or sea captain, each and every person who is anyone in Legend City earned that position, either by their steel and grit at the barricade line, trading deaths with the family guard of rich nobility. Or perhaps they earned it through silver tongues, trading weapons for loyalty and loyalty or change. All are dangerous and all are firm believers in the future of the city, even if they disagree on what that might be.

The city's people tend to be bloodthirsty and loyal, if tribal and paranoid. The bonds of conflict and camaraderie are important beyond all things, but in the growing reality of a metropolis finding its new place in the world, reputation is as good as gold and steel.

Life in Lerona Mere in the first year of The Concord is a wild time. The pedestrian life has been quick to return to normalcy, one would not struggle to find fresh seafood or a seamstress on the streets of Legend City. But it is more complicated than that. As the only port in The Concord, the city is overwhelmed with sailors from across the Realms, with new political systems being entrenched the city is abuzz with new declarations, repealments and the latest political ideologies abandoned as soon as they are embraced. Rebel’s Markets appear on every corner, with patriots-turned-peddlers selling the plundered goods of the obscenely wealthy dead. All the while those who were actually able to grasp real power with bloodstained-hands move behind the scenes to see a new order entrenched.

Names

Lerona Mere names tend towards early renaissance Italy much like a lot of their aesthetics, but Portuguese and French names from the same period are equally as valid, especially if you craft a strange combination of the three. Joining terms such as ‘Van’ ‘Di’ ‘De’ ‘Of’ or ‘El are common, linking first names to surnames.

Place in the World

Lerona Mere sits at the head of the Bay of Promised Gold, a metropolis of more than 200,000. Previously the trading hub laid claim to all the lands on the internal crescent of the bay and to many smaller settlements dotted across the islands of the bay. These private fiefdoms supported the city with food and goods, but the real meat of Lerona Meres prosperity is in trade. A massive port, the city is capable of docking heavy ships and loading them swifty with all manner of artisan and arcane goods. Even if The Concord is a new world, deeply rooted trade agreements with Legend City have been commonplace for many of the realms of the southern regions of Esterra.

However, this is a dream lost. The longships of the Illsevir and their silent crew undisputedly control the Bay of Promised Gold, their quarries and mines tearing up the earth under what used to be Lerona settlements. Escaping their grasp is possible for fast ships and daring captains, but not for overloaded trading vessels. All that could be called the lands of the Lerona Mere is the city itself and a region around that grows ever more poorly defined. Even the first Concordian fleet rests at anchor, waiting for the Senate to name its first Admiral.

Economic Concerns

A city of trade, Lerona Mere survives by the strength of its bond with other realms and the speed of its trade routes. The buy and sell of merchants, the profit of port fees and the loose pockets of sea crews give the city its base. Upon this foundation, industries of shipbuilding, art, and skill have grown. As such, Legend City has fine theatres, artisans and craftsfolk who compete well with the rest of the Concord. However all of this is in flux, with loyalty, patronage and even taxation in a rare circumstance of anarchy. What remains true is that Lerona Mere is a city with decent artisans and hospitality, but amazing trade routes and maritime industry.

The Relazione - Embassy

The most well appointed building on the dock front of Lerona Mere sits empty. Originally, The Relazione housed the harbourmaster, customs officials and offices for any visiting dignitaries. Given the city's distance from Artebazzan proper, it was the officials here that represented the whole empire, thus a full Relazione. But with the revolution complete, the building sits empty. There Concord has yet to meet in order to assign new staff to the building and for now it looms over the dockside district.

The Relazione is an Embassy held by the Concord.

Military Concerns

It should be unsurprising that a powerful navy is at the forefront of Lerona Mere concerns. The power of the Illsevir at sea oppresses the city and the fear of a naval assault against its harbour is forefront in all the minds of the city, regardless of prosperity. Beyond this danger, there is hope to reclaim the lands of the bay be they coastal settlements or islands. This endeavour would require more than ships and marines, but also the armies that only a combined Concord could provide.

Cultures and Customs

Revolutionaries of Lies

It wasn’t long ago that the city streets ran with the blood and rich and poor alike. In many places it hasn’t even been properly cleaned, and these ‘Redbrick Neighbourhoods’ are equal parts marked for poverty and brutality. But these memories will haunt the people of Legend City for generations to come. Few wish to remember in vivid detail the things they did with their own desperate hands or witnessed with their own rebellious eyes. This has caused a most peculiar culture to arise.

No tale publicly told about the actions of the revolution is true. Not one. Every tale of heroic glory, cartoonish villainy or explosive action is a falsification that has only grown with time. This is common knowledge among those who tell the stories, a method of cultural self-preservation. The truth is something kept for the dark nights where the candles grow short and the whiskey shallow. Tales for the dearest of comrades and the truest of times.

Political Loyalty

As the city of Legends shifts and changes, its direction can be difficult to ascertain. But it is a journey for all its constituents. A revolution does a lot to increase personal political engagement and this has led to a culture where people band together around what they want to see in the future. These ‘Parties’ are common across neighbourhoods, livelihoods and ancestry. People in Lerona Mere more often identify with a political dream, or charismatic figurehead more than a family bloodline or guild, even if those organisations do tend to grow from these ideologies.

Archetypes

A list of the Lerona Mere archetypes can be found here.

Religious Beliefs

The Church has always been a place of refuge for the people of Lerona Mere. It was the Priests of Cervitas that stopped the worst of the pre-uprising gluttony from becoming complete slavery, it was Panoply aligned priests that organised the efforts to reclaim the wealth of the city, such as it was, after the violence had ended, and it was Anarch priests that marched the streets and took the fight. With this history in mind, it is not surprising that the power of the Church remains forefront within the City of Legends.

Rebellious Piety

The seat and home of the Church of Divine Spheres is also the capital of the Artebazzani Empire far and away on the far side of the world. However it was against Artebazzani citizens that the Lerona Mere raised their fists, and it was Artebazzani citizenship that they threw to the ground. This poses a unique problem for the priests of The Concord. It is from this position that many Lerona Mere priests agitate for the Concordian Church to split from the Artebazzani church, naming their own high priests and defining their own beliefs going forward, rather than being shackled to a distant empire.

Religion of the Streets

More than most Realms, the Church in Lerona Mere is driven to prove itself an ally of its common folk. For there were still some personal priests or powerful archons that were enemies of the revolution all the same. With the revolution victorious, those that remain must show that they are a part of the new people of Lerona Mere. Therefore, Lerona Mere priests tend towards practicality, towards displays of loyalty and politics far more than others. Panoply Priests in particular are under scrutiny, being the Priests of Wealth.

Priests of the Needle

Born out of the youthful fervour of revolution, the traditions of prisoners or the rampaging berserkers that the most wild revolutionaries acted like (depending on who you ask), tattoos have grown to have a strong significance among the heroes of Legend City. This significance has become a religious one as well. For many Lerona Mere, getting a new tattoo is a process starting with the advice of a priest into style and meaning and ending with a priest's needle. These Priests of the Needle are well liked and a new tradition that has caught on within the city.

Arcane Traditions of Lerona Mere

Arcane Magic is a skill that is very difficult to take from someone. It is often a skill held in their mind (much like arithmetic or navigation) but also draws from the inherent arcane power held in the mortal sphere or even within the mage. As such, the people of Legend City always saw the arcane as a form of rebellion or liberation. The poor could hold this arcane power in them as much as any oligarch could. As is to be expected, schooling for the poor was rare, and the noble scions of Lerona Mere’s trading houses were far more varied and powerful in their magic. But the knacks for arcane trickery developed by the Lerona Mere commonfolk were wiley and used to such precision that they were masterful.

In the wake of the revolution, arcane schools are springing up all over Legend City. A hundred new disciplines, a hundred new ideas. By and large, most Lerona Mere mages are flashing and stylish, continuing the tradition of arcane magic as rebellion. They often refuse classification and use magic as a form of personal expression, mixing it as art, music or fashion. Many mages will draw upon their own skill or spirit when casting, where others might also draw from the sea, the cobblestones of the street or the concepts of chance and luck.

While Lerona Mere Mountebanks have a monopoly on the use of dice and cards as arcane implements, you might see other Lerona Mere mages using compasses, bandannas, lanterns and coins as arcane tools to channel their magic.

Lerona Mere Artisans are varied. Some scavenge and repair the items of the lost oligarchs, returning damaged loot to its previous majesty or breaking up gaudy magical items into many usable parts. Commonfolk artisans were skilled at driving down the cost of their components in an attempt to produce items that could be sold to the poor of the city. Regardless, Lerona Mere artisans are known for their ability to produce items of great utility, items such as Dawns Pestle, Eves Mortar, and Arcane Shears are fine examples.