The Black City
Sarnath is the capital of the Southern Provinces, where the wealth of mines, farms and workshops supports Tidefall’s only standing professional army. Behind its blackstone walls, merchants bargain, guilds compete and soldiers enforce the rule of the Black Keep.
A City on the Sarn
The River Sarn divides the city, with Rivenshear’s fortified barracks on the southern bank and four crowded quarters rising towards the Black Keep on the north. Cranes and brewery buildings line the riverfront, while smoke from the western forges drifts over streets of dark stone and timber. Along the High Street, coloured leather bunting hangs between shop signs, and hawkers compete with wagon wheels and the voices of town criers.
Sarnath draws its food from the valley and its building stone from Ebstone, bringing the work of the provinces into its markets and workshops. Humans and dwarves make up much of its population, including Dothloden exiles who have left their mountain halls for a life among the city’s trades. Skilled hands can find work here, though established merchants and guildmasters have a firm hold on who gets to prosper.
From Trading Post to Stronghold
Sarnath began as a river trading post, growing with each discovery of gold and gems in the Southern Provinces. Prospectors brought workers, merchants and craftspeople south, and the guildmasters who built the city’s wealth governed it through the Halls of Order.
That changed when the King granted Baleron Quince lordship over Sarnath. His soldiers brought the provinces under his authority, and most of the old guilds were dissolved. Over generations, the Quinces replaced palisades with massive stone walls and built the forts that extended their rule across the south. The Halls of Order survived within the growing Black Keep, where the city’s old powers still defend their interests beneath the authority of its hereditary lords.
The Sarnath Army
Sarnath’s army began as Baleron Quince’s household guard, drawing mercenaries and wandering warriors into service with the promise of pay, equipment and standing. Today its soldiers fight in trained formations, with formal ranks and standard weapons that give them a strength few forces on Tidefall can match. Under General Saban Derath, they hold the gates, patrol provincial roads and defend settlements against Goruks, bandits and monsters. Their protection comes with searches, tolls and punishments enforced in Lord Quince’s name.
The Iron Ring forts once carried that authority far into the valley, but the Palemen’s capture of Globurn and Shivenmolt has broken its reach into the Shivefrost Plain. An army meant to keep the roads open is now pinned before Globurn’s walls, while other posts have fallen silent or been abandoned. In Sarnath, soldiers must maintain order behind closed gates as the war outside demands more men and supplies.
Rivenshear
Travellers approaching from the valley enter Rivenshear before crossing the Triumphal Bridge into the northern quarters. Sergeants’ shouts carry across a sunken yard of sand and grit known as the Bruisebowl, where recruits learn to march, hold a line and endure blows in full view of passing traffic. Soldiers return after dark to settle grudges in the same yard.
Rivenshear Fort controls the crossing and guards the grain Sarnath depends on through winter. Officers manage equipment, supplies and movement through its gates, giving the people who hold its keys considerable influence. Among the ranks are veterans returned from failed postings, ambitious recruits and men comfortable with the favours that keep a garrison running.
A bounty board beside the stables carries the faces of deserters wanted across the provinces. Along another stretch of wall, families stranded by lockdown have built shelters from tents and spare timber. Their homes in Flodden lie beyond the sealed Valley Gate, close enough to reach if the soldiers would let them leave.
Marshall Square
Sarnath’s four quarters meet at Marshall Square, where merchants weigh goods, criers announce orders and soldiers drill before crowds gathered for business or spectacle. Above them stands the great Statue of Mercy, a blindfolded warrior-saint whose outstretched hand holds the hangman’s noose. Public executions share the square with parades and trade, keeping the Black Keep’s punishments in sight of everyday life.
Herry Biskin’s travelling menagerie is stranded here by lockdown, its caged creatures drawing paying crowds while their handlers struggle to keep them fed and contained. Across the square, the Crimson Star welcomes travellers into a tavern older than the city walls. Its windows look onto the crowds outside, and conversations at its tables bring together merchants, soldiers and people with work they would rather discuss over a drink.