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Message: <blockquote data-quote="med stud" data-source="post: 3927923" data-attributes="member: 1211">Not very good in the ethical sense but a place of law and order where weak people can exist without being randomly taken advantage of.The CrossroadThe place named the Crossroad has a fitting name. It's not only placed in the intersection between a river and a trading route from East to West, it's also placed in the middle of two flows of magic creating a node of immense potential. The magic node provides for lots of possibilities for magical expirements and ease of access to other plans of existance while the amounts of trade passing through the city makes it possible to get in lots of food and luxury items for the citizens.The first ones to the place where the traders who made their homes there. They couldn't protect themselves from the savage tribes of the West and South and the settlement got burned and rebuilt numerous times before the order of the Golden Wyvern (I couldn't resist <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f609.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=";)" title="Wink    ;)"  data-smilie="2"data-shortname=";)" /> ) found the magical nature of the place. The wizards offered the citizens their protection in exchange for food and living and under the protection of the wizards the settlement bloomed into a city in short time.The city is divided between two main fractions; the "martial" branch responsible for protection, that is the Golden Wyverns, and the fiscal branch, the merchants. The borders between their duties has blurred somewhat over time and there is some infighting between the factions but both the merchants and the wizards know that they need each other.The laws of Crossroad are made to facilitate trade; you pay customs for your wares, you don't make trouble (no violence (unless both parts consent), no political agendas) but otherwise you can do whatever you want. Gambling, prostitution and drug use are allowed. The tolerance for religious infighting is very low. There is virtually no racism in Crossroads, the important thing is how rich you are, the rest is not important.The upper classes of Crossroad are the Golden Wyverns and the old merchant families. They have privileges when it comes to chosing where to live and they pay lower customs. The middle classes are the ones who are citizens; despite the decadent and cynical nature of the city it is still safer than the rural areas around it where raiders and monsters makes life dangerous. A citizenship in Crossroad can be bought, earned or be gained by marriage. The lower classes are the ones without citizenship who are either seasonal workers or those who lives in the slums outside the walls.The Wizards' Tower i placed in it's own block with a safe zone around it to limit damages to the town when an experiment or summoning ritual goes wrong. From time to time something escapes the Tower and the most common solution to this problem is that one of the councils hire mercenaries to take care of it.Crossroad is a good place to be if you are rich or strong or a combination. The wizards often need people to collect ingridients for their experiments, the merchants need capable swordsmen/swordswomen to protect their caravans or their persons. For the cloak and dagger people there are lots of ways to make yourself useful in the intrigues between the merchant houses and/or wizards. Crossroad is also a good place to sell things without getting questions asked about it.---That's what I will use to start up a 4e campaign anyway.EDIT 1: Why is this golden when everything else is dark? Well, as stated in the text, in this city you can't kill or plunder someone just because you feel like it. When you see a bunch of armored men in the outside, you better hide your stuff and run to the hills. In Crossroad you can just walk by them. It is also a place that develops and grows, where things get built and people can afford to specialize, even in "improductive" things like entertainment and making of luxuries.EDIT 2: It would be nice if more people contributed; with enough contributions you would have 90% of a setting here. Just make a map of wilderness, add these locations and some ruins etc and you are good to go!</blockquote>

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