Oversea

Oversea is the capital city of the Duchy of Zeemarch, in Bastonia. Oversea Bastion, its fortified heart, is the seat of power of the Duke of Oversea. The city is home to several schools of arcane knowledge, and the head cathedrals of the orders of San Sylvester and San Marino. It is one of only two metropolises in Bastonia, the other being the capital city, Whiterock.

The city contains both a suburban environ (the Oversea March), a walled-off Upper City, and a fortified core in Oversea Bastion. It is built atop high chalk cliffs above the Western Sea and serves as a major hub of trade in both material goods and information.

Geography

Oversea is build on a high bank of white chalk cliffs, and is somewhat radially arranged. Its high ground, Oversea Bastion, is suspended magically over the sea, with the Upper City being to its east atop the cliffs, away from the ocean, and the march beyond that, the two distinguished by the walls of the Upper City. The area is rocky and difficult to farm, but Oversea also oversees the largest foreign trade port in all of Bastonia, and a supporting settlement known as the Lower City. A grand bridge is the only connection between Oversea Bastion and the Upper City, and this floating bridgework is known locally as the Spar of San Marino.

Oversea Bastion

See Also: Oversea Bastion

The fortification at the proverbial heart of the city of Oversea is known as Oversea Bastion. In the year 95 of the Age of Bastion, a cataclysmic earthquake struck the city of Oversea and caused significant portions of the cliffs on which it stands to collapse, which by all laws of mechanics should have caused the Oversea Bastion to collapse down the cliffs into what was, at the time, the Lower City. At this critical moment, the city was being visited by the magician Sylvester the Blue, who performed a work of Great Thaumaturgy that prevented the citadel itself from collapsing along with the rocks beneath it, and redirected the rubble outward from the Lower City. This act is cited in the hagiographies as being the event that caused Sylvester to ascend to godhood as a Great Saint, and it is said that a greater relic remains at the heart of the Oversea Bastion to prevent it from collapsing.

Oversea Bastion has since come to serve as the seat of the Duke of Zeemarch and the Count of Oversea, who are often either the same person, or directly related, with the common practice being for the Duke to devolve the title of Count onto their heir. The Bastion itself therefore serves as a citadel, containing functionary offices of state along with its own defenses and the ducal and county residences. If needs must, the Spar of San Marino can be destroyed, isolating those inside the citadel but ultimately leaving them nearly unassailable.

Upper City

See Also: Upper City

The Upper City of Oversea is a relatively broad, albeit dense, urbanity atop the cliffs at Oversea, bounded in on the northwest and southwest bounds by the cliffs themselves and across its eastern belt by the broad arc of the city walls, through which there is only a single gatehouse. From the Upper City, it is possible to access the Lower City through one of three cliffside structures known as Grand Stairs, including one near the Spar of San Marino which by ASM 1450 included a mechanical lift driven by donkey-driven windlasses, which is transitioned twice an hour for moving cargo from the upper city to the lower city.

The Upper City is further subdivided into five baileys, each with their own peculiarities: the Bridgehold, the Sailor's Bailey, the Scholar's Baily, the Banker's Baily, and the Wallside. From the perspective of someone entering through the gatehouse at the wall, it is not possible to reach the Spar of San Marino without crossing three of these baileys. Though wealthy by the perspective of Bastonia as a whole (as is the case with most cities), these baileys are not egregiously wealthy places, with the possible exception of the Banker's Baily. That being said, most of the attractions of the city other than its port are to be found in Upper City.

Lower City

See Also: Lower City

The Lower City of Oversea is beneath and somewhat to the south of Oversea Bastion, and in the roughly 1400 years since the collapse of those portions of the upper city surrounding Oversea Bastion, most of the lower city has been cleared of any sign of the collapse and is entirely rebuilt. The principal attraction of the lower city is its seaport, which has been historically used for both military and merchant navies, and all the attendant warehouses, market spaces, and auction houses that go along with it. Most travellers who visit Oversea arrive in and visit no more than the Lower City. There is access to the upper city through three structures known as Great Stairs, the central of which has a cargo lift sufficient to lift six horse-carts (and their horses, and loads), which traverses the cliff every half hour.

The Lower City is largely protected by the sea next to and over which it is built. To reach the lower city by land there is only a relatively narrow road that leaves it north, hugging the cliffside, and which is only accessible during low tide for about three miles outside the city. However, natural reefs, rock formations, and sand bars have served to make Oversea a highly desirable port which has calm waters year round, making it ideal for its intended purpose.

Oversea March

See Also: Oversea March

The gently-rolling and somewhat-downhill slopes of the cliff east of the walls of the Upper City, out to a distance of about a day's riding on horseback, is known both colloquially and under law as the "Oversea March". Existing outside of the city charter, the area is incorporated with its own officials and consists of lots of farmland, ducal woodland, and clusters of suburban housing, roadworks, and so-on. In particular, many estates of minor nobles loyal to the Duke of Zeemarch are held here; while they may not be the primary residences of those nobles they are often used in courtly seasons to avoid overstressing the residences of the Oversea Bastion - the court of the Duke of Zeemarch is unsurprisingly quite large as the march is both geographically and economically disproportionate in scope.

Economy

The economy of Oversea is second to none among all the cities in the Kingdom of Bastonia, owing to its trade with the coastal city-states of the Shimmering Shores and heavy support for Ars Magica, the premier schools and laboratories of which exist within this city. Its economic importance is, however, being deminished of late (circa 1500 AB) by the increase in imported foodstuffs from the relatively new Duchy of Sudmarch and the increased direct trade between Bastonia and the Atarlie Empire at Coldwater.

Politics

The Duke of Zeemarch, often also the Count of Oversea, is third in line to the throne by tradition, behind the Dukes of Bastonia and Estmarch. Politically, Oversea is highly conservative, with the focus on remaining the dominant centre of trade with the wider world.