Laani
An Adventurer's Town

A place of hypocrisy and pretty pictures

The City of Laani is the main port town of Laani. Mostly known for its large number of adventurers and diversity of races. Among said adventurers.

It first started out as a simple village by the coast, with the first settlers being those who later took over the land and made it into the country it is today. The first leader of the village was a human named Claude the Mighty, who eventually named the village and later the country after his wife, Laani. For the majority of history, the country's capital was in fact Laani, although after numerous wars in the west, and especially after Varenmere started her fight against the Guardians, the capital was moved to Graybliss for safety, which remains as the capital of Laani to this day. The City of Laani is the oldest still standing town in the entirety of the country.

An adventurer's dream

Laani is a place where most well known adventurers come from. The heroic, kind ones, that are always there to help those in need. The way the town works makes adventuring accessible to nearly anyone, as they even supply free weapons and armor to beginners, as well as have veterans provide free training. Since they make a profit off of people who put up rewards for quests, they rarely have to worry about losses from such donations.

Town Centre

The town centre is the place that's most visited by people of Laani. Colorful shops, music everywhere, and of course, the guild, are just some of many things you can find there. The area is simply speaking very inviting, even t0 the most skittish of people. Well, with a catch.

Laani's lies.

The town had changed significantly over the years. The things Varenmere did to bring peace and freedom to the world, turned some people very scared and against new things. Especially changing Laani. The town, once being the capital everyone wanted to visit, turned into a place where everyone expected a backstab from the other person. The reason why people are so friendly to adventurers is because they are too profitable to the guild. They aren't afraid of their neighbors, because aside from adventurers, which tend to be a very diverse group, the only people in the city are humans, rarely elves. The people in CoL are incredibly hateful of anyone who's outside the norm. There are also gremlins living in the city, however the majority of them are of the Mara Church, which is a group that's very feared by the city, as they could easily take most of the guards down, and are a vital form of protection. If someone who's not a white human wants to stay in the city, they have to either prepare for massive amounts of hate, or to become an adventurer.

The guild

The city's Adventurer's Guild has been the main attraction for a long time. As they not only provide adventurers with gear and quests, but also organize festivals and help the ones in need by giving shelter and even food.

Back in the day when the city was still the capital, the guild was used as the city hall. Nowadays the city hall is situated in the castle that got abandoned after the capital was moved to Graybliss.

The main hall

The main hall of the guild is a big, open space, with a counter in front of the wall that's facing the entrance. Behind the counter, there is space for hanging notices and quests on. The other walls are also covered by notices and keepsakes of legendary adventurers, as well as trophies. The room is full of history and any citizen that walks in could spend hours reading and looking at everything. The guildmaster, currently Jack Rievs, is also free to share more details on the adventurer's stories, being one of them himself. When not talking to citizens or tourists, he is waiting for potential adventurers that need quests. He always has something fresh and special for the ones who are seeking more emotions. Or wealth.

The training room

To the left of the main hall is the training room. The room is quite well maintained, even having plants inside. There is space both for practicing melee and ranged combat. Although it's publicly available, not every citizen will get a chance to get combat training there, as it is free only for adventurers or those who are wanting to take it up. However, anyone can pay to get it. Behind the guild is also the outdoors training ground, which is the publicly available one. There are always guards there, to ensure no one gets hurt.

The conference room

Behind the counter, is a door to the conference room. The curtains on the windows are usually covering them, to ensure safe business. In front of the back wall, there are three sofas, and a table in the middle of them, usually with some snacks and fresh flowers ready on the table. The room is used mainly by more well known adventurers or merchants, be it to discuss more dangerous quests, or so the traders can get a deal with the guild.

The canteen

Downstairs, in the basement, is where the guild canteen is situated. The breakfasts prepared there are usually of quite high quality, much higher than one would get in the military. Most likely due to the guild's wealth. The cook can even be requested to make special meals, although one would have to pay extra. There are rumors that the current cook really dislikes preparing sandwiches, however.

The rooms

Upstairs, there are the rooms that the guild provides to adventurers. There is a rather large amount of them, and they are often almost all taken by the wealthier adventurers. However, there are also rooms that simply have a lot of beds in them, for those in need of quick rest, simple travelers, or poorer adventurers. The guild pays for stays in those rooms, though the more private ones need extra payment.

Outside the guild

At the very front of the guild, is the outside notice board, for non-adventure related things, such as people needing to borrow things, or looking for nannies. The center of the town is bustling with life, with many places where musicians and other artists stay and perform for audiences, and street merchants sell their wares. Laani is still a town with a great economy, so the prices there are very affordable.

The marketplace

One of the most visited places in Laani is the marketplace. There are two kinds of shops there, one being a place where traveling merchants can set up their wagons and tents and sell more exotic things, and the other is the local shops, set up in buildings along the street.

Sundryal's Emporium

A general store ran by an elf named Sundryal Cedar. Most day to day things are being sold at his shop, from soap to rope to tools of all sorts. It's a popular shop among the citizens, as his equipment is affordable, and not targeted towards professionals.

Annie the Apothecary

A small shop that a young girl named Annie Hilation sets up every monday. She sells the herbs and potions her parents gather and make, as well as some of her own special concoctions. Her own works are usually incredibly strong poisons, which are the result of her mixing the most poisonous plants she can find together with no consideration. She normally sells them only in the evening and only to people who know the key word. To the girl, it is all a silly thing used to kill rats, not being aware that people are probably using the poisons for things other than killing rodents.

Known Taverns

Tavern

Cool tavern

Miracle Kiss

A cafe where all the servers dress as [parody of italy/france here] maids, including the male ones. Gained more popularity after two adventurers, who tried to convince the citizens of CoL that one of them is the messiah, got sentenced to work there as community service. They mostly serve teas and even coffee, as well as freshly baked cakes and other sweets.

Other establishments

The Wet Dragonfly

The biggest and only brothel in the city. It's said that the ladies working there are doing it out of their own volition, although how much of that is true will probably never be known. For a while, two succubi have been working there, although they eventually fought each other, one of them died and the other fled. The first one, Jasmine, has been killing guests for a while, with the mystery getting solved by one of the local adventuring groups. Those events brought the brothel a sudden surge in popularity, both because of the mystique aura around it, and the fact that there were succubi there, some people hoped there's still at least one around.

The Harbor

Ever since the fight against Annerkater, most of the major harbors around the world have been abandoned, visited only by the pirates and occasionally ships of quite suicidal merchants. The Laani harbor is now home to retired pirates, which make up the local mercenary group The Sons of Oceans.

The Sons of Oceans

Their leader, named Lincoln “Handcannon” Reed, used to be one of the sea monster hunters, before he decided to step off the ship to get some peace before he dies. He never forgot his ways however, forming his mercenary warband. The group is there to aid adventurers in bigger expeditions, where a small army would be needed, or to help the city in case of a conflict.

The group takes up the huts that were once used by fishermen, transforming the area to a more dangerous looking one. They hang trophies outside, for everyone to see, and are very vocal about their work. The general look of the place had been taken care of, however, the abandoned buildings being transformed to look a bit more homely and in line with the rest of the town. Some of the wooden huts are still rotting, which contrasts with the repaired ones.

Despite all the weapons and trophies around the place, the mercenaries aren't as rowdy or unpleasant as one would think and have very strict rules on how they should act. Since a lot of them have lived a life already, they make sure the younger members of the group are well behaved and don't cause trouble in the city. They also condemn tavern brawls and bothering the civilians. Whenever they find out about someone breaking their rules, the mercenaries usually punish them by making the person do social work. In rare occasions, they resort to torture, pirate style. They also have rules against drinking, with it being allowed only on holidays and days off.

The Old Castle

The Old Castle was once home to the king of Laani, before Graybliss got chosen to be the new capital. Nowadays, it is used for two things, one side is used as the city hall, and the other as a luxurious hotel.

The city hall

Something something politics

The Castle Hotel

Before the hotel was made, the empty spaces in the castle were simply used as a home for the city council, but there were still a lot of rooms that were left to waste. Because Laani is a popular tourist destination, the council thought turning it into a hotel for the rich folk would be a good profit. Thus, the Castle Hotel was created.

All of the rooms were ensured to contain the highest quality furniture. Beds with silk sheets and feather filled pillows, dressers crafted by some of the finest craftsmen in Laani, and rarest animal skins used as rugs. There's many bathrooms in the hotel, which even have running, heated water. The richest of people can allow themselves to rent their rooms with private bathrooms, but most resort to using the public ones.

The owner of the Castle Hotel is a female elf named Alissa Willow Snowdrop, who's been the owner for the past 700 years. Despite her age, she is still very hardworking and willing to help customers whenever they need. However, due to her irrational fear of sickness, she never gets in direct contact with any of them, always wearing a proto hazmat suit on her when among strangers.

Religions

There are three churches in Laani, belonging to the three main religions of it. They generally do not interact with each other, mainly due to the differences in their beliefs, but never fight, simply because the protection of the city is more important to them than their personal problems with each other.

The Mara Cathedral

The Mara Cathedral is the largest religious settlement that belongs to the Mara Church. Despite it not being as populated as other religions in Laani, the Priests of Mara are still respected, or rather feared by the populace. They are known for practicing necromancy, which is forbidden by the other two religions, but their military training is too important to the city's protection. They believe in resurrection, wishing to become unstoppable monstrosities after death, ready to forego their humanity.

The cathedral is built in a gothic style, very dark compared to the rest of the town, maybe a bit out of place. It used to be an abandoned christian church, before being reclaimed by the Mara priests, or so they say. Mara followers reclaiming churches as their own using force is not an uncommon occurrence. The bishop of the Cathedral is Kallisto.

St. Judith's Church

A Cross church. It is built with bricks and coated in now slightly yellowed paint. It is a massive building, about the same size as the Mara Cathedral. Unlike the other two churches, the stained glass windows are still intact and are beautiful depictions of biblical events. It was built later than the Mara Cathedral, but the style used on the building is very clearly one of the past. It is reminiscent of [renaissance insert default renaissance elements here]. The church tries to mimic the style of the buildings that they found on ancient paintings.

The local priest is Father Lucius, a rather short man in his late 40s, known for being a quite stubborn and harsh person. Despite that, he is not someone who would harm others for disagreeing with him. He is of the opinion that people will start believing in the Cross once they are ready and only then.

Temple of Zhiva

The Order of Zhiva is a direct opposite of Mara Followers, practicing healing magic and what they call “SoulSeeing”. The exact way Soul Seeing works is unknown to outsiders, however it is known it allows them to talk to lost souls without the use of necromancy magic. They hate necromancers, but have to stay neutral towards the Cathedral, in order to not wage a war and hurt innocents in the process. The High priestess is sister Selena Del Rosaria.

The temple itself is built in a very simple fashion, without much decoration, making it look almost otherworldly. It is covered completely in white, with the roofs being the color of blood red. Inside, aside from the main hall, there are two doors leading to other hallways on the right and left. The door on the right leads to the place where priestesses rest and prepare for their holy mass. On the left there's a nursery where they aid mothers and their children alike. Behind the altar in the middle there's a set of circular stairs, which leads to the high priestess' chamber and the bell tower.