Welcome to the city of Hollin, capital of industry in a time of iron, great port in an age of sail, and home to a million souls. Here our heroes meet the macabre, and sometimes the whimsical, while unraveling the mysteries of the wider world, Balaal.
Before time: souls from the restful plane Hereward and the sea creature Aachen settled near High Hill, a power source on the mouth of the Dusa River on the north tip of the continent Anhault.
Five thousand years ago: the nomadic Kirsi (fairies) settled near High Hill to commune with the Hereward souls and Aachen, and established their god Boreas there.
Two thousand years ago: humans led by the god Gradska drove the Kirsi from High Hill, and established a settlement there, Hollin. At the northern tip of Anhault and the mouth of the Dusa, Hollin was perfectly positioned to control the trade between Anhault and the other great cities on the Bellem Sea, and grew quickly.
Two hundred years ago: the city-state Naumkaeg chartered the Anhault Charter Company to trade in Anhault. The Company eventually grew to be the de facto government of Anhault and Hollin, and to rival Naumkaeg itself.
Here is a more verbose history of Hollin until the Kirsi exodus, told by the Kirsi king Aurelien.
The heart of Hollin is the borough of Braddock, the area between the now-forgotten High Hill and the Dusa river. A second interesting area is the City of the Dead, an ancient necropolis outside the old city walls that is now home to Hollin's most poor.
Here is a map of Hollin.
The heart of Hollin is Braddock, and the heart of Braddock is the riverside market. Hollin locals and foreign sailors crowd the market buying fruit and vegetables from costermongers, clothes at the rag fair, and live animals at the meat market, called the Shambles. The market is lined by ancient Gradskan buildings like the Mooncalf merchant hostel, known to sailors worldwide for its basement labyrinth of opium dens.
Two avenues meet at the market. Market Street runs south from the market to High Hill, now the financial district, through the city wall, then to the City of the Dead. Going north from the market, Market Street crosses the Dusa on the Thoroughkill Bridge and ends at the abandoned Lofton Castle on the north bank.
The second avenue, Quay Street, runs east and west from the market along the Dusa's south bank. East of the market, commercial docks and salt and fish markets dominate the shore. The Stiles and the Intractable, asylum and prison hulks respectively, have been berthed here since before memory. West of the market, the Company's Admiralty shipyards and administration command the shore.
The City of the Dead was a sprawling cemetery outside the city wall, but as Hollin grew beyond the wall, some of the city's most poor made their homes there. Now, their modest homes alternate with the ancient monuments and graveyards. A hundred thousand souls live in the City of the Dead, and it is as bustling as any borough in Hollin.
Many families in the City of the Dead live by gleaning from Hollin's garbage. Some raise pigs on the garbage and sell them in the Shambles.
Gregor is the hub of a community of doctors and scientists in Braddock. He seeks out cures and specimens from foreigners at the docks and catalogs them at his lab. One recent treasure is a coelacanth that Company fishermen brought him, but giant squid are his real obsession. No one has ever seen one alive, but last year whalers brought him a giant squid's tentacle still wriggling on their hook, and he's keeping it alive in a salt bath while trying to make it move again.
Gregor's circle includes Herndon, an anatomist who studies bodies by dissection; Brunn, who studies electricity and magnetism; and Werner, who runs a secretive sanctuary for untouchables.
Chambers the apothecary supplies the party with a non-magical tincture equivalent to the Potion of Healing and treacle, which works against venom. Besides these, he sells mundane items like antidotes and aphrodisiacs and more curious items like mandrake. While Chambers is expert, he's elderly and forgetful, so it could be profitable to get his formulary and see what forgotten gems it includes.
Gould is an herbalist. He supplies cooking herbs and spices, but also more exotic items like lotus flower, which causes dreamy indolence for those seeking oblivion. He will pay for wormwood, which he wants to make absinthe, a tapeworm cure.
The Anhault Charter Company Admiralty protects the Company's trade on the high seas and wars with other trading cities in the no man's land Hilde. But in Braddock, Admiralty press gangs prowl the streets coercing able men into service. So, some residents of Hollin still see the Admiralty as a foreign power to be resisted.
Captain Burns is captain of the Hedgepeth, a captured Blackwells sloop-of-war he uses to privateer off Hilde. He recruits sailors in the Braddock market and docks, so he is an easy-to-find contact with the Admiralty.
The Hobnail mob dominates organized crime in Braddock. They extort protection money from the merchants there and hunt smaller gangs like the Cooper's Union and the Renderers. The Hobnails are run from inside Hobnail Prison by the prisoner Horst, who originally grew the gang from a small nucleus there. Horst is revered by Hobnails outside the prison.
The Hobnails are violent, but they also protect some who can't go to the law for help. In particular, they resist the admiralty press gangs, which has created an escalating nightly war in which the street gangs and press gangs hunt each other. Some in Braddock support the Hobnails believing that the admiralty are foreign oppressors.
Illicit bare-knuckle boxing and betting on boxing are popular in Braddock, and three taverns have underground rings: the Whipsaw, the Stuck Pig, and the Kill-Courtesy.
The Hollin Oracle is a secret order practiced in summoning and communicating with spirits. They summon at the Hollin Grimoire, their massive library near the old High Hill in the financial district. Aliester and Mari are current Oracle adepts, and will help those in need despite the Oracle's secrecy.
In contrast, the Volker brothers -- Alaric, Gerholt, and Harlan -- are Oracle renegades combining necromancy with Hollin's emerging science. Their powers of necromancy are growing quickly, and they have already created grotesque devices to augment themselves and their victims with shocking abilities.
A chorus of witches appeared to the party several times. The witches answered the party's metaphysical questions, but also disparaged the party and second-guessed their decisions -- with glee. When Ord asked them who they were, they explained that they were spectators, watching the campaign but outside the campaign's scope.
Six of the witches -- Alissa, Anneli, Hilja, Irja, Kaisa, and Lahja -- are girlish and wear fine black dresses. In contrast, Kanna is a bent crone who wears a shut-in's rags.
