Lothern

Lothern is the greatest city of Ulthuan. The current Phoenix King is from Eataine, making Lothern the current political capital city. Human merchants are allowed to trade here and the city has been and is a busy centre of international trade since the beginning of Finubar's reign in 2163 IC. Home to several thousand High Elves the fortress city is guarded by the 10,000 strong Lothern Sea Guard besides sporting mighty walls and numerous defences.

Overview
As the source of Eataine's prosperity, Lothern has long been the traditional seat of the Phoenix King — Caledor the Conqueror kept court here, and few of his successors chose to break with that tradition.

The Lothern Sea Guard, meanwhile, are the finest of Eataine's warriors. Skilled in both spear and bow, these veteran soldiers fight the Phoenix King's battles both on land and at sea. Should the armies of Ulthuan make war in a distant land, it is invariably the ships of Lothern that bear them hence, and the disciplined advance of the Lothern Sea Guard that will seize the beachheads.

The city is also home to the Temple of the Phoenix Kings — the only site beyond the Isle of Flame which is protected by the Phoenix Guard. It also holds the largest library in all Eataine, as well as mansions owned by famous magi such as Inglorion Starweaver and Khaladris.

Beyond the inner walls, lampposts lit with incandescent magic keep the night at bay. Long streets wind up tree-clad hills. Many flights of stairs run up the steeper slopes. There are palaces with towers and spiked minarets. Palm trees, roof gardens. Seemingly endless streets full of echoing, half-empty palaces, and there are fountains everywhere. All seems like a legion of sculptors had been kept busy for many ages of the world beautifying the city with statues of mages and warriors and kings, as well as lawmakers, orators and poets. The stone is worked to look life-like, auras of glamour and ancient warding sorceries protecting the work from the ravages of time and weather. Most of these, however, were made for political reasons, to represent the power and wealth of the people who commissioned them. As the White Lion Korhien Ironglaive once told it: "They praise the ancestors of those people, or in many cases the living elves themselves".

Farther away from the gates, the crowds thin out and the streets seem much emptier. Some of the houses, not too far from the main thoroughfare, have patched and crumbling roofs. People gaze out of half-shuttered windows with a lean and hungry look to them, although as far as some elves know there is no hunger or famine in Ulthuan.

Unfortunately, the elves of Lothern are looked down upon by the inhabitants of the other elven lands. They are seen as money-grubbing merchants, not proud warriors or noble wizards, all in spite of Finubar being the first Phoenix King to have been born in Lothern, let alone Eataine.

Defences
Approaching Lothern, the first thing a mariner sees is the Glittering Tower — a great lighthouse filled with thousands of lamps, situated on a rocky isle in the mouth of the treacherous straits of Lothern. This titanic fortress guards the approach to the Emerald Gate, the first of Lotherns three sea gates. Anyone approaching the Emerald Gate can easily be caught in a crossfire between the massive war engines in the Glittering Tower and those on the Gate itself. The sight of these imposing bastions is enough to turn all but the most insane attackers away.

The Emerald Gate
A great fortified arch filled with war machines and the cloaked spearmen and archers of the Lothern Sea Guard, the Emerald Gate holds two gigantic valves of carved bronze set with monstrous emeralds to bar the way. For those ships permitted, however, they smoothly swing back through the churning waters to reveal the Straits of Lothern.

Any who are allowed through the Emerald Gate pass through the wide channel of the Straits, sheer cliff faces lined with castles, ramparts and defences all constantly garrisoned by the well-armed and alert warriors of the Sea Guard.

The Sapphire Gate
A second portal bars the way for shining silver set with sapphires the size of a man's head, beyond which lies a huge lagoon where thousands of vessels of every conceivable size and shape, from tiny pleasure craft to the mighty warships of the High Elf fleet, lie at anchor. The walls shelter the city from the worst of weather, as well as all incoming marauders. The city itself is not simply built around the lagoon; at some points artificial islands have been built within its waters. On these rest great palaces, temples, and storehouses forming an intricate network of canals.

In the centre of the harbour, upon a plinth as large as a small island, the gigantic statue of Aenarion stands two-hundred feet tall. The huge stone warrior is depicted leaning on the great sword Sunfang, around which flames seem to writhe. He gazes outward, the line of his vision passing far over the heads of passing viewers as if he were looking into the distance and seeing things further and higher than any mere mortal might view. It is said that this statue was made from drawings and paintings saved from before his fall. Those who knew him say it was accurate. Even Morathi remarked it was a likeness to the life, or so the historian Aergeon claims. When he came to Lothern at the age of sixteen, Teclis noted how the statue's brow was furrowed in thought, and there was a haunted look about his eyes that the sculptors had somehow caught. He did not look merely bold or complacently self-confident or simply brave. He looked lonely and a little lost and burdened by the weight of an awesome responsibility.

Meanwhile, towering an equal two hundred foot-high statues of the Phoenix King Finubar (on the western edge) and the Everqueen face each other across the mouth of the bay. Around the edges of the harbour are other great statues of the Elven Gods: Asuryan, Lileath, Kurnous, Isha, and many others. As dusk falls, the statues blaze briefly with white flame: all save that of Khaine, whose eyes and hands glow blood-red.

Around this lagoon sits Lothern itself, and this is as far as any non-Elf may travel — outsiders are forbidden to pass through the third Gate of Ruby and Gold and into the Inner Sea. In these days of dwindling, Lothern is as much a foreign city as an Elven one, for the many merchants who bustle through its streets now seem as numerous as the High Elves with whom they trade.

Foreigners' Quarter
By the 10th year of the Seafarer, the Foreigner's Quarter contained almost as many humans as the entire city did elves. Here outsiders are allowed to wander without escort or special permission from the King. Merchants from as far away as Cathay can be found here, trading in goods the High Elves do not have easy access to such as gold, silver, gems, and Dwarf-made clockworks (the dawi refusing to trade directly with the Elves). They sell tobacco, ores, wool, bring preserved meats and grains and books of lore. Asur from the old kingdoms of Ulthuan would scoff at ever needing something from outsiders. Not so the elves of Lothern.

Heraldry
The banners and shields of Lothern bear the image of the Sea Dragon Amanar, ancient protector of Lothern. Legend tells that Amanar sleeps fitfully beneath the Emerald Gate, and that he will rise up to defend Lothern in its hour of greatest need.

The Sea Lords of Lothern have borne the same heraldry for over four thousand years.