Current Lore

◆Akoros

Akoros is the largest and most industrialized land in the Imperium, and is home to the capital city as well as Doskvol itself. They’re known as a diverse conglomeration of cultures that have grown together in close proximity for centuries. A land of dark, petrified forests and rocky hills. The rich coastal cities get their wealth from leviathan hunting and from mining colonies deep inland.

◆Skovlan

A ragged land of cold mountains and rough tundra. Skovlan was the last holdout against Imperial control, and fell during the 36-year-long Unity War (which ended only a few years ago). Many Skovlander refugees who lost their homes and jobs in the destruction of the war have come to Doskvol seeking new opportunities.

◆Severos

A land of windswept plains, covered in dark scrub and thorny growths. Outside the Imperial cities on the coast, some native Serverosi still live as scavengers, roving the death-lands on ghost-hunting mounts. Outside the few Imperial settlements, most Severosi live in small communities scattered across the blasted deathlands, surviving within the ruins of ancient arcane fortresses which still repel spirits.

◆Tycheros

A far off land, disconnected from the Empire. People say the Tycherosi (rudely called “Strangers”) have demon blood in their lineage. It’s a semi-mythical place, far away beyond the northern Void Sea.

◆Iruvia

A land of black deserts, obsidian mountains, and raging volcanoes. Some say that positions of power are openly held by demons in Iruvia. Their wealth is in large part due to the vast array of artisans that make their homes within Iruvia’s sprawling cities.

◆The Dagger Isles

A tropical archipelago covered in dense jungle growth; now turned dark and twisted from the strange magic of the cataclysm. People there often grow up on ships and travel a lot before settling down. Some say that the people there live without lightning barriers. How do they manage that?

▲Six Towers

This once prestigious district has faded over the centuries into a pale shadow itself. The eponymous six towers were originally the grand residences of Doskvol’s first noble families. All but two (Bowmore House and Rowan House) have been sold off and converted into cheap apartments or fallen into ruin and abandoned. The district has an empty, haunted feel, with many sprawling old buildings dark without power, broad stone streets cracked and buckled, and the fires of squatters crackling from overgrown lots.

▲Charterhall

Charterhall is the site of the first major construction in the city, in the days before the Cataclysm. The old wall upon which was built the first lightning barrier in the Empire still stands in partial ruin around the district. The area is now home to the civic offices of the government including the courts, licensing and taxation offices, banks, and records archives. City officials and students at Charterhall University live here, along with the captains of Imperial industry who prefer to reside within sight of their fortunes.

▲Whitecrown

Whitecrown sits atop a grand peak on the island across North Hook channel from the city proper. From this lofty height, the Lord Governor’s stronghold oversees all, flanked by the grand estates of the most powerful nobility and the extravagantly appointed campus of Doskvol Academy. Whitecrown is a rich and rarefied world unto itself – most of Doskvol’s citizens live out their entire lives in the city without ever once crossing the bridge to the glittering spires of wealth and power there.

▲Nightmarket

Nightmarket is a district dominated by commerce. Situated near Gaddoc Rail Station, Nightmarket receives the bulk of salable goods from the cargo trains that travel across the Imperium, bringing the exotic and rare to Duskwall. The citizens that call Nightmarket home constitute a new class of “elites”: wealthy people who are not of noble descent but nevertheless claim land, status, and power without titles. The district has been taken over by new construction, introducing lavish private townhouses with all of the modern advances for those that can afford them.

▲Silkshore

Criss-crossed by dozens of narrow canals, Silkshore is a district best navigated by gondola, as most visitors to this “red lamp district” do. The brothels, vice dens, food stalls, and exotic shops all perch at the waterside, ready to satisfy the appetites of their clientele, no questions asked. Silkshore is a place of public indulgence and private indelicacy, catering to every pleasure imaginable – as well as some that strain the bounds of fantasy.

▲Coalridge

Coalridge is home to most of the machinists, industrial laborers, and factories of the city. It’s cramped, soot-choked, and loud—spewing dense clouds of black smoke, showers of sparks, and burning cinders. The old elevated train lines that once hauled coal now carry heavy equipment and raw materials to and from Gaddoc Station, though many of the ancient tracks and cars have been abandoned to squatters who’ve converted them into makeshift homes.

▲Crow's Foot

Crow’s Foot is a crossroads, merging many qualities of its neighboring districts: the illicit vices of Silkshore, the labor and trade of the Docks, the poverty of Charhollow, and the classic architecture of Charterhall. The district is a patchwork, both held together and threatened to be torn apart by the menagerie of competing street gangs and Bluecoat squads that claim every avenue and corner as territory in an endless turf war.

▲Dunslough

Dunslough is the site of Ironhook Prison and its labor camp. The ghetto surrounding it was originally a neighborhood for families of prisoners, but over the years, extreme poverty and neglect have worn it down into a sodden ruin. A vicious cycle plays out here: crime driven by desperation, then arrest, incarceration, and release back to Dunslough – giving Ironhook an endless supply of laborers to exploit.

▲Barrowcleft

Barrowcleft is the home to the laborers and overseers of the Ministry of Preservation who attend the radiant energy farms of Doskvol. It is a dusty, rural district, with simple wooden buildings of only one or two stories and wide dirt roads to accommodate large cargo wagons. The farmers of Barrowcleft are organized into tight-knit family-based clans that are proud of their vital role in the city’s welfare and hold themselves apart from the “city folk” across the river. Outsiders are welcome here for honest trade, but are met with a cold suspicion otherwise.

▲The Docks

The docks of Doskvol are ancient, going back to the days before the cataclysm, when the area was a colony town of the old Skov kingdom. Today, some commerce has shifted to the new electro-rail lines of the Imperium, but the docks are still bustling with cargo haulers, fishing boats, and the prestigious leviathan hunter ships that provide the raw material that keeps the city running.

▲Brightstone

Brightstone is home to many of the wealthiest and most influential citizens of Doskvol. Its streets are broad and paved, under bright electric lights; its canals are sparkling and clean, with perfumed water; its houses are all of fine, pale marble blocks, rich timbers, and intricate ironworks. There are cultivated parks, lavish restaurants and cafes, and luxury shops. Street-side vendors are forbidden here, resulting in a serene, spacious atmosphere, punctuated by the occasional carriage or marching Bluecoat patrol.

▲Charhollow

This crowded district is home to the bulk of the workforce of the city: servants, dockers, sailors, stockyard and eelery workers, cabbies, and so on. It’s cheap, noisy, cramped, and sweltering from cookfires and hissing steam-pipes, but there’s a familial camaraderie among its residents that you won’t find anywhere else. The people of Charhollow are a true community, brought together by circumstance, but bound by ties of mutual support and care in stark contrast to the cutthroat ruthlessness that constitutes business as usual in the rest of the city.