Alderaan

Alderaan is the capital city of The Province of Alder.

Location and description
Located roughly in the middle of The Province of Alder, Alderaan is the center of everything in the whole of the province. While several small farming villages litter the landscape in the coastal and plain region, the incredibly high monstrous activity of the province led from the very start to the creation of a easily defensible city. Expanded countless times since its creation, Alderaan today is the home of well over 25000 souls of many different cultures and races living in harmony and focusing their resources in surviving and pushing back the various monstrous attacks in the region.

Defending the metropolis stand a huge rock wall, product of master masonery techniques jealously guarded by the mountain dwarves. Using an unique dry wall technique and big ashlar blocks, the wall is mortar-less and polished to greatly hinder climbing attempts. The dry wall technique was especially useful in the early days of the walled city as every section could simply be dismantled and reassembled or expanded further away, greatly reducing time and cost of every successive projects as well as saving space for future buildings. The mastery of the building dwarves is so great that even today nobody short of people old enough to prove as living witnesses or history scholars would be able to tell you readily where the old walls stood in the previous stages of city expansion. Many of the dwarven inhabitants are direct descendants of the original dwarven workers who initiated the project and take great pride in this accomplishement.

Town composition
Alderaan is roughly divided into four sections, each subdivided into several suburbs depending on the section usage.

The main gate area
The biggest section is the main gate area, consisting mainly of open streets sporting a few commerce of which The Bearded Knight Tavern is the most visible and well known. This area stretch down to the middle of town and connect every other suburb in a way or another. Important buildings like the prison, the guard's barrack and the healing house are located in this section for easy access from any part of town.

The residential area
This area located to the west of town is subdivided into three different suburbs: the elven suburb at the top with far spaced wooden houses and trees growing everywhere, the dwarven suburb consisting of finely knitted, practically overlapping round rock houses and the human suburb consisting of a multitude of closely spaced brick and mortar houses of greatly different size and shape.

Various public buildings exist within those suburbs. Among those widely known and of high repute are the Great Pelor Temple and the Mage Academy, both located in the human suburb, as well as the Great Forge standing right between the human and dwarven suburb.

The commercial area
This area located to the east of town is also subdivided into three different suburbs: the caravaneers preparation area in the middle, near the main gate area, the commercial suburb filled with shops of all kind at the bottom and the free market at the top, sitting right in front of the secondary gate. Farmers and sellers of all kind enter thru the secondary gate every morning to gather at the free market area, mainly to sell food or perishable products. More refined, specialized goods are more commonly found at the commercial area in their respective shops and, finally, the caravaneers area is where the caravans prepare themselves every morning in the hope to be able to export or import products of all around the province.

Houses and apartments of all kind are also commonly found in the commercial area, many shopkeepers greatly preferring to sleep near or above their goods and avoid long travel time every morning and evening.

The royal and noble area
To the top north of town is located a castle, home of the human King whom very few of the common folk will ever see in their whole life. To the east, right next to the free market and the secondary gate, is the noble suburb. Consisting of extremely well built houses and estates, its main vocation is to provide cozy housing to the nobles of the court and the more fortunate members of society who can simply afford such a luxury.

Little details are known about this area, the King and the nobles preferring to live in quiet and peace. The guards seldom allow someone who doesn't have business in this area to stay there for long.

Origin
According to elven lore, the walled city of Alderaan was founded a few dizains years after the great cleansing, under the guidance and suppervision of the elven envoys sent to help and stabilize the human community of the time. Before finally succeeding at settling on its current location, the humans first tried to settle far further south-east near the eastern forest in the hope of escaping the monstrous army wrath at least long enough to be able to build decent wodden fortifications. The town of Alder falling yet again to the monstrous hordes, the elven envoys finally decided to guide the survivors near the south shore of the river so they could beneficiate from at least one safe front. Refusing to use the same name again for two different locations, the elven envoys altered it slightly to the new form 'Alderaan' which in common translate roughly as 'in memorium of Alder'.

Well known locations

 * The Bearded Knight Tavern
 * The Healing House
 * The Caravaneers Inn
 * Pelor Great Temple
 * The Mage Academy
 * Alderaan Great Forge
 * The King Castle

Known Proeminent figures

 * The Human King