¶ Overview
The vast flood lands to the south and east of Khazad Ungart, known as Old Summerville in ancient times, had for centuries been claimed by the Great Wyrm Queen, L'Vreth the Black. The mighty dragon ruled her blackscale lizardfolk from beneath the brackish waters of ruined Old Benevolence: it was only fear of Pyroclandaxan and the tenacity of the Ungarts that kept her northward expansion in check. That changed during the Second Eidolon War, when she became emboldened by an abyssal alliance which sent a foul, creeping, ochre into Reclamation territory, and any who touched the corrupting blight quickly lost themselves to an emergent fiendish possession.
Even before the ochre, the hostile and poisonous swamps of L’Vreth had long been written off as uninhabitable by the fairer races of Quinternia, so there was no hesitation from Reclamation command when Radiant Aegis’ requested title to the Old Summerville territory in exchange for the lucrative production rights to a revolutionary anti-ochre potion, Rolade, created by the mercenaries’ Isthalian priest, Rolen Glynhorn.
Months later, the financial gambit paid off when Radiant Aegis’ troops routed the blackscales at the Battle of Shipwreck Grotto while its champions simultaneously coordinated with the Scales of Vengeance to slay L’Vreth after luring her away from her lair. Upon the dragon’s death, the ochre retreated along with much of the dragon-induced swampland, leaving wide swaths of fertile fields along the banks of the Benevolence River – land that was now under the mercenaries' control.
Subsequently, Radiant Aegis poured both gold and manpower into achieving one of the primary goals of the Reclamation: resettling the starving masses of Cinderton's Canvas Fields. They named their state New Radiance, promising ownership of a generous farmstead to any willing to travel south and work the land. Over the following years, an agrarian community quickly sprung up around a handful of well-defended settlements, and at the conclusion of the Second Eidolon War, trade even began to flourish under the auspices of renewed Hajii caravans.
As a government took shape, Radiant Aegis ceded most of its land to a civilian authority, seemingly content to sustain itself with favorable contracts as the region’s de facto defenders. The experiences of the earliest settlers – those from Cinderton and Shadowfell – along with the insistence of the free company's leaders, led to the formation of a fledgling republic which proclaimed that all its people would be equal under the law of Ahasitari: in both letter and in practice.
Today, New Radiance’s citizens tend to respect ability over wealth or purity of bloodline, though there still exist many resource-driven tensions within its borders. Fishermen, farmers, tradesmen, warriors, and entrepreneurs of all stripes look upon the virgin land with ambition, their interests often at odds with each other, or with those of the native lizardfolk and resurgent fey. Above all, New Radiance remains a rugged frontier of promise unrealized, and it calls out to those with imagination and grand dreams, challenging each arriving settler to stake an inspired claim on its future.
¶ Solstice
Formerly the ruined site of Old Summerville, New Radiance's walled capital city and largest population center, houses its citizens upon the southern bank of the Benevolence River. Its culture is diverse, with strong influences from Cinderton's merchant and lower classes, as well as the Hajii, many of whom formerly lived in exile within the Shadowfell.
Solstice serves as the seat of the governing High Council and also the major courts of Ahasitari which interpret its law. It is the home of the Republic's military command structure, with both government offices and Radiant Aegis' headquarters behind its walls. Isthalian influence is also strong: a massive cathedral to the goddess dominates the central square, beckoning those of various martial traditions to enter and partake of her three virtues.
Although it possesses a river port, making the city a bustling trade nexus, Solstice’s true value can be found in its surrounding agrarian community. Blessed with warm summers, mild winters, and silt deposits from spring flooding, the many farms surrounding the city benefit from what may be the most fertile land in all of Quinternia.
¶ Notable Places
- High Council Chamber: The place where the laws of New Radiance are drafted and its policies executed. Contains the offices of the Chancellor, spaces for scribes that serve that office, and the Council chamber itself, where issues are debated and voted upon.
- Radiant Keep: A strong fortification in the city's northwestern district. The keep overlooks the Benevolence River and docks. It functions as the headquarters of the Republic's elite division, Radiant Aegis, while also serving as the offices of the full military command.
- Temple of Isthalia: Abutting the Kairon Proving Grounds opposite The Red Lady’s Inn & Out sits a one hundred twenty foot tall, three-story temple serving as the center of worship for the many followers of Isthalia who promote Solstice’s festive spirit and warrior tradition.
- The Forum: A bustling merchant quarter where citizens seek the latest news, seek work, or debate politics.
- Docktown: A warehouse district known as a rougher area of the city. The docks oversee the constant flow of goods being loaded for transport down the Belevolence River for trade in Old Benevolence, Ryotai, or the Bright Empire.
- Kairon Ranch: a sprawling plot of rolling grasslands a short ride from the eastern gate. The area includes the villas of the Kairon family and a barracks, but primarily functions to raise both warhorses for the New Radiance cavalry and draft beasts suited to long trade routes. Hajii tent cities are often found there, as the nomads graze livestock nearby or stock up on goods in Solstice for their next journey.
¶ Twilight's Crossing
Twilight’s Crossing is many things to Republic of New Radiance: principle location of magical education, a choke-point to control trade on the river, center of airship construction, and the only crossing of the Benevolence River for foot traffic.
The heart of the city lies in a massive dwarven built bridge crossing the Benevolence River anchored to a small island, Tranquil Island, located at the center of the river. The small city not only utilizes the bridge for crossing but, due to its massive size, hosts almost the entire population. Farms and orchards spread out north and south of the city providing fresh produce to the growing city.
¶ Notable Places
- Tower of the Arcanum: A thirty story tower of massive size towers over the town and the river. Attached to the tower is a series of buildings hosting the newly founded Academy of Magic, its attending living quarters, laboratories, and a large growing library.
- New Radiant Shipyards: Restricted to those who work there, members or Radiant Aegis, and the Republic Navy the shipyards produce the airships that the newly found republic are known for.
- Magic Row: A small street not far from the Tower of the Arcanum that has grown to have a collection of magical practitioners selling magical wares, ingredients, and goods not typically found outside Cinderton or Thunder Run.
¶ Fort Waldan
Not the first settlement in New Radiance – that honor belongs to Fort Hope – but Fort Waldan was the intended first large settlement as nexus for settlement of the region and as a point for further expansion down the Benevolence River. As New Radiance has expanded, Fort Waldan is still one of the largest settlements. A center of agriculture and overland trade to Khazad Ungart, the Mistvales, and other populated areas reclaimed by the Reclamation.
Nestled at the end of the Jagr Hills along the Benevolence River, Fort Waldan is the central administration point for the region, and often the first destination for settlers arriving from the Mistvales.
¶ Notable Places
- Waldan’s Distillery: While not found in Fort Waldan itself, the High Ranger’s whiskey distillery is located nearby and has been growing in popularity amongst the locals and as a trade item.
- The Statue: One of the first statues created by the High Mage. A slightly oversized statue of Waldan was molded out of stone as a commemoration to the slaying of L’vreth the Black.
- Hightower: What started as a waystation on the journey to Fort Waldan has become a small village whose signature is a 5 story stone tower. Run by the Hightower family, the tower functions as a lookout and has a small garrison for Radiant Aegis troops. Adjacent buildings also have an inn, tavern, and general good store that caters to travelers and would be adventurers. Closer to the Benevolence River is the Hightower family homestead and farm. Hightower is now also the junction with the road to Twilight's Crossing. This is also the base of operations of the Windwalkers, a group dedicated to helping families from the North find a home in New Radiance. There are many small groupings of homes in the surrounding area that work together to farm plots of land. After the fall harvest, the locals host a festival in the hopes that Waldan will bless their lands for the coming year.
]
¶ Current Events
Over sixty years since its founding during the Second Eidolon War, New Radiance struggles to define itself in the new age, as its visionary founders and the original veterans of Radiant Aegis pass on. Sixty years of peace have let the city of Solstice and its surrounding settlements prosper, but as the outlying settlements grow, many have begun to question the need to pay taxes to the capital when the roads are safe and the monsters few. River Rambling, one of the farthest East established settlements along the Benevolence River, has recently foregone its tax payments, instead levying a tariff on river travel to pay for internal costs and daring Solstice to send in the Dawnguard to collect it. After years of plenty and a long-standing policy encouraging immigrants from the Mistvales, they’re now starting to see their first refugees from the civil war in Thunder Run. Indeed, the mostly human and dragonborn civilians, after reported harsh treatment by the Scaled Bailiffs in Cinderton, have further begun fleeing South through Khazad Ungart, whose merchant council is only happy to give them a hot meal and bed for the night before cheerfully sending them on their way in the morning farther South out of the mountains into New Radiance lands. As rumors of violent infiltrators amongst the refugees spread, largely unfounded, some in New Radiance, forgetting their grandparents also fled from Cinderton in search of a new life, have begun calling for tougher security measures on new immigrants.
Now, Solstice, the most diverse and cosmopolitan city in the world, has homeless in the streets and citizens calling for their removal, with some outlying settlements threatening to declare independence if forced by Solstice to take in any unvetted refugees. Into this escalating situation, the recently elected chancellor Fleah Rodens, her own grandparents having been refugees themselves, ran against the incumbent on a policy of cracking down on the flow of migrants and won. One of her first acts was to fulfil her campaign promise of sending troops North to keep refugees from leaving Ungart lands. Radiant Aegis, technically an independent mercenary company, declined to take up the contract, forcing her to split off a contingent of Dawnguard to send North, and prompting the conscription of a newly deputized constabulary to help keep the peace at home, leading to a new round of complaints from the citizenry about the inexperienced irregulars now keeping the peace in their streets.
Radiant Aegis, once the most elite force in the world, has weathered a dearth of recruitable elite talent over the years, a worldwide phenomenon scholars attribute to the passing of the Eidolons and decades of peace and prosperity. This, along with little need for a mercenary company in peacetime, has led to a significant scaling back of their forces and activities. The Dawnguard, once an offshoot of Radiant Aegis, has taken up policing and patrol of the roads and cities. These days, Radiant Aegis numbers less than two hundred mostly green soldiers that have never seen wartime, peppered with few grizzled retired veterans that remember the Battle of Vergence or the fall of Pyroclandaxan. Still, enough remember the songs of St. Tirsa, and continue to rub the toes of the statue of Darius Kairon for luck, enough that the brass plates added years later to avoid erosion shine with a bright finish, that they’ve declined all contracts from the new Chancellor.