Heroka

Heroka is a large city in the Atarlie Empire's Atlassian Foothills, best known for its prominent temple of Camus Inakas, in the western foothills of the Three Sisters mountains. As the capital of its province, it is second only to the metropolis of Tripolis in wealth, among all settlements of the province. Heroka boasts a sizable population of humans in addition to its elvish majority, in part due to being the supposed birthplace of the teachings Ars Magica.

Like many cities of the empire it is not obviously fortified, and defended from potential enemies in chief by geographical distance - it is deeply inland, nestled near mountains, and many days travel in any direction from the enemies of the empire. The city occupies a valley in the foothills of the Little Sister, the smallest of the Three Sisters Mountains, and sits alongside a major road that links Tripolis and Corran.

Geography

The city could easily be overlooked. It is heavily traditional in its construction by elven standards and leveraged enormous amounts of arcane labour in its creation and maintenance. The trees themselves have been shaped to form and illuminate its avenues, the hills have given way to the rooms required of them, and the whole city is kept clean and clear of underbrush. Its most notable landmark is the Grand Temple of Camus Inakas (and its Repository), the Lyceum Ars Magica the lesser schools that surround it, and of course the House of The Prefect, which is considered to be the last civilized house between here and Corran.

Additionally, the city is home to a location known as the Font of the Axis, an ancient stone gateway that is used in certain rites (and somewhat routinely) to enable inter-planar travel or teleportation to other points in Ahren.

Economy

Heroka's wealth is in knowledge. The city trades heavily with Convergence Hall in divinatory knowledge and with most other points on arcane lore and goods of all kinds. Merchants of Bastonia occasionally gain permission to travel south from Sunport this far to trade directly, and artificers in the city have been known to prepare goods for export not just to Bastonia, but to the Clans of Magnus, who occasionally have need of certain very rare reagents the elves are best at preparing.

In the past the city had important wartime duties in artifice and the training of maguses and other combat spellcasters for the Imperial Legion. With the failure of the Southern Campaign the archmages of Heroka are now consumed with the questions of the Great Collapse.

Politics

Heroka's prefect remains politically aloof from Imperial matters, as the title is almost always the claim of either the Archmage of the Lyceum Ars Magica or the Pontiff of Camus Inakas, who sometimes are the same person, and often are deep colleagues with decades of cooperation between them.