Baska
Description: Baska is a lively location, loud and boisterous in its day-to-day activities as citizens barter for their goods, and warriors test their mettle to prepare for the annual tournament. Located along a backdrop of mountains, the merchant city is home to around 15,000 people, around 500 being permanently stationed Rune Knights and another 1,000 being residing mercenaries. Baska has a robust history that goes back several centuries to the very beginnings of the nation of Fiore and still hosts some of the oldest ruins in the land including the Baska Rock, the Giant's Tear Ducts, and the ever terrifying Burial Catacombs.
Currently, the city serves as an important training and trading location due to its rather modest size and location in west Fiore. While Oak City definitely dominates the region as the major city, Baska serves as an entrance into the region being located relatively near the Sieghart mountain range and being the first city travelers pass through on the way to Oak. As such the city is a booming market that also hosts an annual flea market for many travelers to buy and sell their gems and junk. Being a minor city, it lacks a Lord and Lady but instead has a council.
Localization: Nestled in between the Sieghart Mountains to the north and east, and the plains to the south and west, Baska is primarily placed along the Colt River the Marteen Railway to provide a comfortable locale for the natives of the city. With a humid continental climate, the city enjoys a warm growing season that it uses to provide food for the city's inhabitants. Being nestled between the mountains and the plains, the city avoids the rain shadow the Mountains cast towards the north and instead enjoys abundant rain and snow all year long. There are no obvious natural protections for the city, so it instead employs a permanent force of Rune Knights to police and protect the city instead.
Politics: Being a smaller city, there is no Lord or Lady, however, the city does instead have a small council that oversees all disputes and events. Since Baska is an interesting trading hub for traveling merchants, there is a Captain-Commander stationed here with his platoon to ensure its safety. Despite being so small, Baska does provide quite a bit of jewels that go to the kingdom in the form of taxes. The Captain-Commander is in charge of the law enforcement and works alongside the council most of the time.
The Captain-Commander may also place certain districts under the control of his Captains if he feels that region does not require his oversight. This leads to these areas often being patrolled by squads of Pages and Apprentices accompanied by Seated Rune Knights. Outside of policing, the minor politics of the city mainly remains between the larger merchants who often times bribe the local Captain overseeing their district. Large-scale merchants will often also employ mercenaries that reside in the city or pass through to shake down smaller merchants or guard their shipments through or out of the city.
Economy: Being a merchant city, Baska’s entire economy relies on its trading sector, as such larger merchants often have unchecked power within the city. Farming, textiles, and blacksmithing also play a minor role in providing goods to travelers. Due to being located in between the Sieghart Mountains and Oak City, the city also employs a growing hospitality sector that brings in a modest amount of money every year. Due to the Marteen Railway recently being built through the city, goods and services are more easily transported to their destinations than they had been before.
Culture: Baska is a rather rowdy city, being a major market before Oak and after Sieghart, the city literally resonates with the nearby mountains to create a sort of rumbling roar that can be heard for miles around even though the city is relatively small. Being of humble beginnings, many of the denizens still maintain the traditions of the city such as an annual growth and harvest festival, and the annual flea market. However the largest and biggest attraction would be the Baska tournament, often pulling in warriors from all around Fiore, the Baska tournament is hosted atop Baska Rock.
Another annual tradition is the Homecoming Festival; hosted just after the harvest festival, the Homecoming Festival takes place within the Burial Catacombs where individuals will attempt to navigate the dark maze within and collect an artifact before safely making it back outside of the maze. The festival often claims lives due to the magical wards within preventing any light source and the various winding routes that lead to dead ends or pitfalls. Children are often told folk stories about naughty children being led into the Catacombs as punishment and forced to find a way out as atonement for the crimes.
Locations
 | City Center: Most of the citizens stay here. Located within this area is also the City Hall where the council discusses the issues regarding City matters. The Captain-Commanders quarter's and the Rune Knight barracks are also located here. Besides that there is a lively marketplace where merchants sell there wears in stalls. |
 | Baskan Farmlands: Farms make up a great deal of Baska, so it isn't uncommon to find meadows with windmills out in the open. The farms, both stretched out yet very closely knit together, are located along the roads. The farmers in this rural section maintain their crops and live peaceful lives. The merchants at the square come here at dawn to purchase milk and eggs for a cheap price, which they sell later during the day to the locals for a higher price but saving them the trouble of coming down here. |
 | Baska Railways: The Baska Railways is a developing train station that is fairly new to the area. It however has had insane popularity despite its barebones appearance, due to a heavy amount of traffic from merchants and mages. It contains a small station building and a couple of benches, but other than that the station has little to no other features. |
 | Great Baska Rock: Baska's Great Rock is located right next to the houses of the city as it sits on the same hill as the city does. The top of the rock is flat and often used to spar, battle or hold small tournaments. The locals don't mind and actually love it as the battles attract visitors and allows them to sell their wares faster. |
 | Baskan Church: On a cliff in Baska, lies the church. Its appearance is not similar to other churches, being actually a three-story building. The reason for this is because it is actually an orphanage and place which houses refugees. The first floor serves as the church, the second floor serves as housing for the orphans and refugees, and the third one is where priests reside. There is a forest to the east of the church and a trail that leads down to the city. |
NPCs
 | Fernando Milano: Fernano is a fashion designer in Baska who has his own clothing shop. His style of clothing is considered quite eccentric and flamboyant. Since he tends to use fine and rare fabrics, his works are often purchased by the more wealthy. He truly desires to get hired as the personal designer of a noble family. |
 | Mattoro: Former foreman, he and his crew would go into the mines for the city's needs. During a cold winter, they were promised great wealth that would allow them to retire if they kept on mining. In the end, the additional money was never paid, while Mattoro lost many good men when the mine crashed. Enraged, Mattoro and the rest of the miners rebelled and formed the Cold Colliers. |
 | Godfrey Might: Godfrey is a smith, towering over many with his height and muscles, who crafts swords and armors. He is bit younger than Berthold, but still considers him a good friend. While Godfrey originally only made armors, Berthold noticed his talent and encouraged him to make both weapons and armor. He often rewards one of his pieces at the tournament. |
 | Gallant Might: Gallent is the younger brother of Godrey and dreams to become a great smith like his brother. Against the pleas of his brother to not venture too far away, Gallent keeps searching for great ores. These expeditions often turn out into crazy adventures that seem almost unbelievable, but he keeps them a secret from his brother to not get grounded. |
 | Gerard: A doctor in Baska who is having a tough time taking care of all his patients. The recent influx of patients is the work of the Cold Colliers according to Gerard. He believes that they've poisoned the river for starters. Gerard feels bad for what happened to Mattoro since he tried to rescue some of his friends and saw what the frostbite did to them, but can not accept innocent citizens getting caught up in it. |
 | Moe: Frequent visitor of the Boar Hat's Pub, often considered to be part of the decoration there. With a cheerful smile, he greets the guests from his table and is a good friend of Mimi. He has won the tournament six times when he was younger and still has some moves from those days. While his stories might seem as banter, they often lead to interesting quests. |
 | Mimi: A sweet neko waitress at the Boar Hat's Pub in Baska. She was born and raised in Nekomatana but decided to venture in the world when she got older. While she may have a nice smile, she is known for being able to take down anyone who causes trouble inside the bar. She sometimes purrs unknowingly while thinking deeply. Moe is a good friend of hers. |
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