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Balic, the Two-Seas City
The richest city on Aerun, and it got that way by trading, not fighting.
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Balic is built right into the great rock dam at the foot of the Balic Saddle, the one place the highland comes down low enough to cross. The ocean is on one side, a sea of gray dust is on the other, and the city does very nicely out of standing in between.
At a glance
- Population: about 24,000. The wealthiest of the seven cities.
- Run by: House Wavir. Balic pays wages, which the other six cities have never forgiven.
- Government: a Chamber of Patricians writes the laws, the praetors stand for ten-year elections, and the guilds vote. Cynics ask who counts the votes. Optimists point out that they get counted at all.
- Trade: everything, because everything has to cross here: grain, salt, olives, wine, livestock, leather, and marble. The tolls are the real harvest.
- Water: five public wells plus the cisterns, rationed in dry years.
What you'll see
A city climbing the face of the dam in tiers, precinct above precinct, linked by switchback ramps and tunnels. At the bottom is the ocean harbor with its breakwater lighthouses. At the top are the silt quays, where ships float on dust above the rooftops.
Everything in between moves on foot. Files of porters work the Stair of Sails up the outside of the rock, and the Cochlea, a giant spiral stair bored straight down through the dam, turns past a market landing at every level, lit day and night. The up-line and the down-line never stop. It's the best free show in town.
The Arena Precinct
The best paid show in town. Like every city on Aerun, Balic has an arena, and it gets a whole precinct to itself. This is where the houses settle the arguments their ledgers can't: each side sends a champion, and the winning house takes the stakes. On bout days the streets empty, the stands fill, and the betting windows do brisk business. House Wavir was founded by gladiators, and the city has never quite gotten over it.
- Place your bets. Betting is open to everyone. Ask who owns each fighter and what the bout is really settling before you pick a side.
- Watch, don't join. Aerun has no jails. A sentence here is served in the pits or on the arena sand, so the quickest way onto the program is to break the law. Read the house rules in Arriving in Balic and enjoy the show from the stands.
Good to know
- Know your turn. Balicans ask which turn of the Cochlea you live off; it's how they size each other up. Play along.
- See a show. The theaters are the city's pride and joy: dozens of them, from ramshackle stagehouses to grand amphitheaters. A hit playwright here is as famous as a champion gladiator.
- Tip your innkeeper. Every free citizen serves three years in the legions, so the person pouring your wine has probably held a wall against giants.
Where to stay
- The Olive Tree, on the Road of Legions: a cheap, safe bed.
- The Furled Sail, on the docks: for a livelier evening.
Outland guilds
Visitors from abroad, good news: Balic is where the world's guilds keep their doors on Aerun, because Balic is where guilds get a vote. You'll find them in the Guilders' Precinct.
- The Gleaners' chapter hall: seed stores, soil maps, well surveys, and a standing offer to teach any grower on the Ring Road, free.
- The G4CE office, next door. It honors a G4CE medallion from anywhere in the world, and it always has work going.
- The Academy of the Fettered Mind, two streets over. Locals call it the Fettered Mind, since "the Academy" on Aerun means the Navigators'. It's the only chartered school of arcane magic on the continent: a colonnaded court, lecture halls, a library worth the climb, and guest rooms for visiting scholars. Balic licenses it because its creed is restraint, and it keeps every component under seal to prove it. Its masters wear their chains of mastery openly, a link for each discipline.
What's new
Late this summer, after six tendays of a porters' go-slow on the stair, the factors hired the Salt View Principal Troupe to stage the Fall of Yaramuke at the foot of the Cochlea. All five Great Schools walked the turns during the play, and seven porters left the stair that night in School cloaks. The porters' gangs called off the go-slow the next morning, and the city announced a water increase and called it "seasonal." Balic is still talking about it.
Leaving Balic
- East on the Ring Road: Altaruk at 35 miles, then Amber Valley, then Gulg at 140.
- West on the Ring Road: Urik, 150 miles along the southern run.
- Across the silt: the Guild's Long Reach sails from the quays at the top of the city to Raam, five or six days away.