Sunrain
Character: Sometimes beautiful things can be made by having everyone bringing what they personally love, and putting it all together. Variety ain’t just a spice of life, but the very essence of it.
The City of Sun and Rain (or ‘Sunrain‘ for short) sits atop many islands of different sizes that are separated by canals or straits. The climate is calm in this part of Arborea, and sunny days are often interrupted by short outbursts of pleasant rain. When these rains end, the sky becomes a beautiful sight, as many rainbows split the air. This eclectic city was built by a coalition of celestials eager to create a bastion of stability and protection in the oceans of Aquallor. As the burg grew, it turned into a place that many eladrin wished to live in or visit. It is now populated by all kinds of celestials; eladrin, aasimon, archons, petitioners and planars, who live here in relative harmony.
Sunrain began its existence in what is now the Centre City, an administrative hub of the whole burg. What a boring choice of words—don’t worry, cutter, much of this district is actually fun, if a bit pompous. Sure, some buildings here are meeting halls or offices of archons (which includes militia), but there are plenty of museums, theatres, temples and boutiques. Many firre consider having their work displayed in one of these places their goal (or most respectable achievements). This is the place that every blood with a penchant for arts wants to see in this city. There are also multiple sprawling gardens scattered throughout the city, that have become a resting place for many shieres. They are wild, full of centuries-old trees and unusual flowers. Even some animals, at least ones that are accustomed to cities, can be found here. Some gardens have marble statues or shrines of powers from across the Upper Planes. Garden-dwelling shieres are the closest thing Sunrain has to regular militia—but do you really need militia, when there are so many archons strolling around?
Right next to the Centre City are the Concordant Shipyards. The yards are why the City of Sun and Rain was built in the first place. This is a heavily fortified city district that serves as a rallying place, where ghaele groups can cooperate with archons and aasimon. Erlar (most closely resembles ghaele eladrin [he/they] / CG) is a famous engineer, whose passion is building ships—both regular ships for traders and travellers and flying machines of war for celestial armies. His prized creation, the Golden Galleon, was made for Faerinaal and still graces the waters around Sunrain with its presence. There are plenty of weapon shops and even mercenary guilds here as well.
But while Sunrain may have initially been little more than a military encampment, many different creatures have since been building and living in the city, it is very diverse and can be separated into multiple districts. Such as the Novieres’ Island, a peculiar district, where all streets are replaced by canals. Many houses here are half-submerged — lower floors are flooded with water and accessible for aquatic races (primarily novieres), while higher ones allow for land-dwellers. The Island is famous for two things—gondolas, that are used by its non-swimming inhabitants (mainly mairnes), and Asenath and Shamika—a couple of gynosphinxes, who came from Mithardir and made their lair in Sunrain. They are much less lawful than the rest of their kin and have a great interest in literature—Shamika delights in poetry, while Asenath prefers prose. Sphinxes own a library that goes well below the sea level. The island of novieres is currently suffering from pollution—even though eladrin try not to throw their waste in the river, water in canals is still too stale and is full of algae. Those who can help in alleviating this problem, would be considered heroes of the city.
And then you have The Slums. This place used to be barracks for celestial builders, but shortly after the Concordant Shipyards were finished, the burg was attacked by a horde of tanar’ri. Of course, fiends were quickly vanquished, but no one was keen on rebuilding barracks polluted by the Abyssal influence. That’s when a commune of goethi took notice of that place and was enamoured by its gloomy atmosphere. They purged the Slums of corruption and then set about turning them into a thing of art—a place that evokes memories of dangerous and polluted hive-burgs, but is strangely warm and welcoming at the same time. Goethi here form a new sub-Aestetica of ‘city goethi’, drawing graffiti on the walls and playing music unusual by any other standard. The Slums are a single artistic marvel that sprawls through the entire district.
You may also want to visit this place to shop at Sunrain’s biggest Bazaar. This market can’t compare to Yeoman or Sigil, but it is still among the best places in Arborea to trade goods. And of course, when you’re dealing with eladrin, you shouldn’t expect anything to be mundane. Eladrin artisans in their stalls always try to outdo each other, each having their own brand of unique food, clothing or magical trinkets. Even if you don’t have any jink on hand, you might want to visit this bazaar—oftentimes eladrin will gift you something for free or as a reward for some service.
Stele of Endless Horizons is visible from any part of the city. This beautiful half-a-mile-high spire built of metal, glass and crystal by the visionary mage Zorrian (planar litriti eladrin [they/them] / CG). They are an enthusiastic eladrin, who got the idea for building the Stele when they heard the chant regarding yugoloths building three grand towers on Lower Planes. The Stele is a great pointy tower that serves as a place for magical research and recreation. There are hundreds of floors in it, though many are still unclaimed and aren’t occupied by anything yet. The tower is also important in the defence of the city, being a watchtower second to none, and it is equipped with a selection of arcane weapons. All eladrin and their trusted allies can use the Stele’s arcane libraries, laboratories and testing grounds for free, but outsiders have to pay a small fee. The Stele of Endless Horizons is surrounded by smaller buildings owned or created by like-minded litriti. Zorrian had previously planned to build two additional steles on Celestia and Elysium respectively, perhaps in an attempt to mirror the towers of yugoloths. However, archons and guardinals declined their offer, stating that this project would be far too complicated to undertake. So now Zorrian is searching for new ideas to spend their time on—maybe create a great ever-burning monument in the desert of Mithardir?
And finally, if you sail or swim forth from the docks of Sunrain, you’ll find the Gates of the Sea—perhaps the most important place in the City of Sun and Rain. These golden gates stand in the sea, far, but still visible from the city, and they’re large enough for a huge ship to pass through. These gates are connected to other planes—the Silver Sea of Celestia and Thalasia of Elysium. The chant goes that celestial sages are currently working to expand the power of the gate in hopes of it being useful to launch massive Upper Planar fleets to the oceans of Abyss and Carceri.
Source: Margarita