Sipani (Dominaria Supplement)
|
 | |
| Size | |
| Metropolis | |
| Power Center | |
| Unconventional/Magical, Noble's Council, Tier 4 | |
| Alignment | |
| Lawful Evil | |
| Adult Population | |
| 300,000 | |
| Gold Limit | |
| 50,000 gp limit in Chitagazzi; 700,000 gp limit in Sipani | |
| Language & Diversity | |
| Beldroni, Homogenous (85% Lower Beldroni, 10% Human Other, 5% Other) | |
| Beldron Menu |
|---|
| Lower Beldron |
| Upper Beldron |
| Other |
Return to Geography-Beldron |
When the Tallini Rebellion broke the Puranti Hegemony some 30 years ago, the merchants of the city overthrew Queen Mary and all of House Dunning. The survivors of the broken House ran across the Sea. The powerful traitors that now controlled Puranti formed the pompously named Noble's Council and took over running one of the largest cities in Beldron. Infighting was almost instantaneous and 6 months after the bloody coup, the Royal Court of Puranti burned along with a third of the Noble's Council. The seat of power shifted to the Fontezza Adamanta on Isla San Gabriell, and the Council renamed the city Sipani to signify the shift in power. Effective control of the city and all of its functions had been lost during the bloody struggles for power; the Nobles' Council began selling power and buying services to keep the city functioning. The disaster that evolved over the next few decades is the city Beldron now calls "La Chietta de Gazzi" or Chitagazzi: the City of Magpies...
Sipani at its heart is the ancient twin cities of Sipani and Puranti. These ancient Mantaeri cities grew together during the 2nd Age and merged over the course of time. These walled cities are the last remnants of the city Puranti was: eastern capital of the Sapphire Kingdom and Ostria's staunchest ally for an Age. Here the Nobles' Council live in splendor with powerful merchants and wizards; all protected by walls, the services they offer and maintain, an elite cadre of knights, two Mages' Guilds, and enormous piles of money. Spreading beyond the twin walls of Sipani and Puranti however are their shield, their greatest resource, and their greatest fear: Chitagazzi.
This vast sprawl sprang up with shocking rapidity after the coup. The meat of the city has always been the streets and buildings that spread beyond the walls, but ever since the Nobles' Council took over it has become a warren. Buildings, roads, and side streets spread in all directions like a cancer slowly growing down the highways leading into Sipani. In thirty years, the population has ballooned two or three fold, and the city is not consummately larger. The smoke of industry, the stink of a city, and cries of every possible description make the music of the city by day. By night the smoke disappears to give way for a doubling of smell and sound. The Nobles' Council gladly feeds off of this massive rabble of humanity. They buy enormous amounts of food and goods to sell to their "citizens", purchased of course from farming or trade guilds that they have a finger in, and use the gold to artificially animate Sipani's power in Beldron and abroad. The city produces very little of its own, or at least nothing on a scale for export or to improve the city. Between the Nobles' Council and the wizards of the Torre delli Angeli however, Sipani buys and steals its way to a position of power.
The Torre delli Angeli is as old as the twin cities. This venerable Guildhall weathered three Ages of the ebb and flow of history and was forever a symbol of stability. The "Tower of the Angels" is the massive lighthouse that guides ships into the river mouth Sipani straddles. The tower and its grounds were once home to the Puranti Royal Mages, a Conclave Order loyal to House Dunning, but the order was forced to give up their home, their library, and their reliquary during the coup. In their place the Noble's Council assembled the Order of the Unseen Way, a frankenstein's monster of fringe Orders and powerful wizards who'd found no home elsewhere. After a few years of maneuvering and infighting themselves, the Order of the Unseen Way coalesced into the beast it is today. The mages of today's Torre delli Angeli are expert wizards and artificers with no brakes and a single goal: power. They serve as the unseen left hand to the Noble Council's ironclad right hook.
The Nobles' Council have outlandish sums of money. They looted the treasury of House Dunning, they profit greatly from a trade empire, and they are parasites draining a population strung out on just enough. But to the clever eye, the money is simply a smoke screen; and there is another reason why this city, with no use to speak of, matters. There are things that money can't buy, can't reach, or maybe the Council just doesn't know to buy it. The real secrets worth knowing, the discoveries and ideas that keep a city or kingdom going, these can rarely be bought. So while the Nobles' Council buys a new ship design or a way to clean out their strained sewers, the mages of the ancient Torre delli Angelli find and take the true secrets.
This then is the source of the nickname, not the pejorative slur on the poor citizens that most suppose it to be. The City of Magpies is the realm of powerful merchants and wizards who've sunk their claws into the city and steal their way to power. But in this city of carrion birds, it is not the merchants who are the true power, despite their public face. No one knows what they've stolen or copied of course, but the city of Sipani has been artificially powerful since the Tallini Rebellion. None but the mages of the secretive Guild know for sure, but the vaults of the Torre delli Angelli and the surrounding Collegio Angelli may well contain more secrets and ideas than all but the vaults of mighty Saleria.
Government: The Nobles' Council ostensibly rules Sipani.
Guilds and Orders: The Torre delli Angeli, or Tower of the Angels, in Sipani is home to a reclusive Guild of wizards called the Order of the Unseen Way. The Council created one further Guild, the Signum Oculus, to police all of the magic in the city. They help the Noble's Council Keep control, train as battle casters for war, and punish any who cast in the city without paying their fees. The Puranti Royal Mages still exist, and have maintained themselves as just powerful enough to be too costly to eradicate. They recruit from the poor of Chitagazzi and from the few noble lines not destroyed or in bed with the Council. Their open defiance is a constant source of tension, and word is that when the sitting archmages die the Order may be pushed out of the city for good. The Wardens are another vestige of Puranti. The oldest cadre of the Wardens were all young men when House Dunning fell, knighted by Queen Mary, but since then the Council has taken control. The Order of Wardens are now "knights" that the Nobles' Council fund. They are used to keep the peace in the inner city, put down the larger issues in Chitagazzi, and to "take care" of guilds or buisnesses that get "out of line".
Military: Sipani has 1000 Knights of the Wardens, plus some some 3,000 well paid City Watch in peacetime. The Watch patrol the walls of Sipani and patrol the main streets in and out of the inner city in force. Occasional excursions occur outside these bounds, but usually in response to major violence or riots, and always in overwhelming force. In time of war, Sipani could theoretically muster an immense force, but the last time they tried 15 years ago, their 50,000 man army devastated the countryside on the road to Tallins to such a degree that the fighting ended before it began and a short-term treaty was signed. The Nobles' Court has learned since, and maintains gold reserves to call 10,000 mercenaries in time of need. These men would form the core of their force, and presumably whip "recruits" from the city into shape.
Judicial System: The word of the Nobles' Council is law, and after that anyone who can enforce their will. Suburbs and areas may have their own "constables" who do try to keep the peace, but this is always subject to their ability to enforce it. The city is always violent, but a predatory violence that merely sharpens the lower rungs of the ladder.
City Relations: Sipani and Ostria are bound by treaty, and the Nobles' Council has given the Iron Duke gifts of money each year he fights Tallins (not to continue the fighting, but as a gift). Word is that the Iron Duke has no love for the Council. Sipani then trades extensively down the Beldroni coast and with the mainland.
Travel: Three days comfortable ride to Ostria, five comfortable days ride to Tallins, thirteen days comfortable ride to Caprille.
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