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General Description

Starhaven is the capital city of the Starhaven Region. History tells that the city was founded at a point of power, while others suggest it was built on the weakest point between the planes, in order to secure the Material Plane from harm. Regardless of the truth, it has grown into a sprawling city of wonder, a home for knowledge of all kinds, and the perfect place to exchange your goods or practice a trade. The markets are large and sprawling, and the libraries even moreso. The Evenstars keep order within and around the city’s walls – though many have tried to invade, capture, raze, or plunder this shining jewel, nothing has ever managed to strike the Shining Star of the North down.

Starhaven is composed of four quarters, each representing a portion of the city’s purpose and populace. The city walls hold a circular shape, and a main road creates a cross between the four points of entrance that are the city’s gates. Each quarter is protected by another set of walls, which line the main roads and extend off of the outer walls. In the center lies a small, circular plaza with a large ornate fountain where locals and travellers alike gather to share stories and enjoy the unmatched view of the stars in the evening.

Starhaven’s Quarters

The Peoples’ Quarter

The Peoples quarter holds the largest concentration of residential area in the city. Though many people, in the latest years, have had to begin to build homes upon the outskirts of the city, the majority of the populace resides in the homes that pack the Peoples’ Quarter. There’s a broad range of housing options as well, strictly controlled by the Starhaven Territorial Acquisitions Regulation, which manage the purchase, rental and sale of all properties within the city. A court where noble houses gather occupies one section, and upon the other side, countless slums and shanty-like houses pack themselves into small areas that squatters have taken up and found shelter in. The Starhaven Guild of Thieves operates in this area, and while they hold an agreement for legitimate business with The Evenstars, there are rumours that they sometimes take on the less legally acceptable jobs as well. A number of inns, taverns, and general stores dot the roads and streets of the Peoples’ quarter, so much so that many people are able to live their lives entirely within this walled in portion of the city.

The Traders’ Quarter

The hub of commerce and craft in the region, The Trader’s Quarter offers a massive selection of wares and services. A court is devoted to travelling merchants, allowing them to set up small market stalls (For a fee) and peddle their wares to the curious or unwitting. Rows of streets are filled with all kinds of shops and minor guilds, the sounds of hammers hitting metal and saws chewing through wood creating a chorus of creation to anyone who walks their paths. A number of large warehouses offer storage for material and trade goods. Many of the businesses belong to a group known as the Nightsky Consortium, who represents the Merchants’ interests at Star’s Hold Keep. The Consortium also purchased most of the available land from the Starhaven Territorial Acquisitions Regulation, which allows them to control most of the merchants within the marketplaces. It’s often said that you can find anything you’re looking for in the Traders’ Quarter – and if you can’t find someone who has it, you can definitely find someone who will make it.

The Scholars’ Quarter

A repository for spirituality and knowledge, the largest this world has ever seen. Many great philosophers and scholars call this place home, and it contains one of the world’s largest libraries and some of the world’s oldest archives. As such, people who trade in knowledge often either live here or own an office, a study, a laboratory, or sometimes even a mercantile establishment. Notably, the Mages’ Guild of Starhaven, The Cathedral of the All-Faiths, and the Starhaven Historical Preservation Society operate out of this quarter. Many Wizards and Alchemists also run shops here, selling magical potions, scrolls, and trinkets. Many higher-learning related services tend to operate from here, such as a letter-sending service, which carries messages to each of the towns and forts serviced in the Starhaven Region. If you are someone who thirsts for knowledge, be it personal, spiritual, or magical, this is your destination.

Star’s Hold Quarter

Star’s Hold quarter is the original foundation for the city. Star’s Hold, a keep that was rumoured to have sprung up around some weak point in reality (Or so ancient texts dictate) stands as the ruling structure of the city. It serves as a barracks for the Evenstars, a place of law and order, a prison, and a debate hall. Many of the city’s offices find homes within or around the keep. In addition, many of the structures here are administrative in some capacity – many of the organizations that have come to call Starhaven their home, such as the Kinship of the Mountain, the Outlander’s Call, and the Emberleaf Alliance have halls devoted to their members and their continuing operations. The FIghters’ Guild of Starhaven operates from this quarter. The homes here tend to be reserved for officials and administrators, but some more influential nobles have found a place among the elite. If you’re on official business, or looking to form your own sanctioned organization, you will find yourself drawn to do business here.

Important Locations

The Peoples’ Quarter

Skyreach Plaza
A gathering place for the nobles, societal elite and wealthy visitors of Starhaven. Features a lovely garden filled with exquisite blue roses. The area is gated, and many of the expensive manors within Starhaven open directly into the court. Every visitor is documented that comes through that gate, their names recorded and then reported to the nobles on a regular basis. Visitors have limited access to some of the benefits the nobles receive within the plaza, such as free fine foods and drinks, a pond devoted just for swimming, and access to meetings in the center hall with the Court of the Blue Rose, which is based out of this plaza.

The Gilded Pegasus
An upperclass inn, often sought by rich merchants, noble travellers and the like. The rooms cost more, but the food tastes better and the drink goes down much easier. They also offer bathing chambers, something not available in the less classy inns available in the city.

The Drunken Eagle
An inn for the common traveller. They offer hard drinks and harder beds. They’re cheap, have lots of room, and tend to look the other way if there are any questionable contracts being negotiated. The Evenstars get called to this establishment far more often than they’d like.

Chaol’s Venoms and Poisons
Though not heavily advertised, this shop, tucked away in the slums of the Peoples’ Quarter, offers a variety of poisons and venoms to aid a would-be assassin, or even a noble out to forcibly remove a rival. The proprietor has had to move the shop a number of times over the years, so it has a reputation for simply.. disappearing when guards get suspicious.

Thieves Guild of Starhaven
The Thieves guild has become a legitimate organization in recent years – though they once had to hide out in abandoned warehouses and old, run-down shacks, they now have their own guild hall and receive sanctioned jobs from the citizenry. Most of the work that comes in involves security, retrieval of lost or missing property, fencing of goods, and part-time adventuring, it’s rumoured that a number of thieves discontented with a traditional way of life also take under-the-table contracts for more traditional rogue-like jobs. Regardless, the organization retains a representative in the Court of Stars.

Haven’s Hearth
The headquarters of the People of the Haven, the organization composed of concerned citizens ensuring that the needs of the common folk are met by the ruling class of Starhaven. Meetings are held at this hall on a regular basis, and citizens are encouraged to bring their concerns and hang them upon the walls, where they are discussed, then brought before the Court of Stars.

The Traders’ Quarter

Traveller’s Fortune Plaza
This large, open area has many locations marked off for mercantile stalls. A number of stationary but generic displays and market stalls circle the outside, as well as dotting the middle area. This is the place to go to find exotic, travelling merchants with very specific and distinct rarities. People come from far and wide to trade in the plaza, and while you tend to have to pay a little extra for the item you find, it’s much more likely you’ll encounter that rare, specific something you’ve been after.

Golden Horizon Exchange
This district encompasses many streets, ways, and roads full of shops, stores, emporiums and agencies. You can find almost any industrial or economic service here – weapons shops, armor outfitters, coin traders, jewellers, trinket sellers – you name it, it’s likely here. While they likely won’t have every rarity found out in the wilderness or made by powerful wizards in far off lands, they generally offer far better prices and have better stock available on the items that do matter.

The Artificer’s Way
These streets hold the homes of the artisans – the crafters, the creators, the inventors. You’re likely to find someone who is happy to take on a job and produce something special – whether it be a piece of art or a magical item – and it won’t be nearly as expensive in gold as it would be from a travelling merchant. However, it will cost you in something else – time, and often special components. When crafting certain magical items, the artificer might send you to locate a piece needed to craft the object for you. Even then, sometimes it may take months for the item to be ready. If you’re willing to go in on the investment, it’s almost always worth it.

Nightsky Consortium Head Offices
The Nightsky Consortium runs, accounts for, and protects the interests of most of the regulated merchants in the Trader’s Quarter. They own most of the land in the quarter, and keep and maintain a number of the buildings, renting or leasing them out to prospective shopkeepers. Monthly, they send surveyors out to speak to each of the shopkeepers, asking them which issues they wish to have discussed at court. Because of their vast wealth, they are often able to influence certain other organizations to see things their way – making them a powerful contender in many commercial and economic issues at court. The office itself admits new members to the Consortium, handles security, insurance and protection of its member businesses, and allows the rental of empty business lots to anyone willing to pay – member or otherwise.

The Adventurers’ Guild of Starhaven
This office is mostly empty now, with the opening of the Adventurer’s Lodge outside of the city. It offers lodging to registered adventurers, providing a party is willing to record their names and take up work from the guild itself, though often, they are referred to the Lodge, as that is where most of the work is listed as available. A far more common use of this building now is for townsfolk to place requests for various jobs – and rewards, if applicable. Those jobs get sifted through, reviewed, then either accepted, where they are shipped to the Adventurers’ Lodge daily, or rejected, where they will be posted on a rejected board for requesters to see, then later taken down if nobody claims the rejected quest. They also attempt to represent the interests of adventurers at the Court of Stars, though they often have very little sway.

The Archivum
The Archivists run a very different organization when compared to the Starhaven Historical Preservation Society. The Archivists broken an exchange between collectors and treasure hunters – and will often contract adventurers to investigate ancient ruins and abandoned digsites for historical artifacts. These artifacts are then placed on display within the Archivum, a vast structure where collectors can examine them, and eventually purchase them for their own collections. The Archivists pay well for the danger they ask of people – which generally makes them more popular than the Preservation Society.

The Scholars’ Quarter

Cathedral of the All-Faiths
A massive, ornate structure that looks like a series of churches all positioned around one central, towering complex, all fused together to form the world’s largest cathedral. A safe haven for people of all religions, the central area is devoted to a message of neutrality and choice – with great arches and doorways leading into each individual church – rather than a simple shrine as found in the smaller temples throughout the world. At the very end is a large chamber where representatives from all faiths meet to discuss worldly and divine issues. All the common gods, whether good or evil, can find representation here – smaller cults and worshippers of powerful beings not rooted in divinity, however, are much less welcome. The central room also serves as a place of shelter to those in need during the harsh winters of the region.

Bikira’s Dark Elven Remedies
The most well-known and prominent Alchemist in all of Starhaven. Bikira sells all kinds of potions, and usually at a fair price. Of the more powerful ones, she tends to have less in stock, but always has a healthy sum of healing potions of all kinds. If it’s an alchemical mixture, you’re almost sure to find it here.

Parinn’s Mysterium
Parinn the Halfling Wizard devotes his powers and knowledge to creating arcane objects of varying power. From driftglobes to bags of holding, he has a lot of the typical adventurer’s magical equipment available. If he doesn’t have it, he can generally make it, and usually sells for a little less than the equivalent shops in the Trader’s Quarter.

Suppoura’s Mythic Archives
Suppoura and her apprentices tirelessly create a great number of scrolls for all to use. They have a different selection every day, and everything from divine to arcane to other lesser known magicks tend to be available. While a scroll is generally very costly, having certain spells on-hand could very well save lives at a crucial moment.

Brilna’s Arcane Augmentations
Brilna is a large woman, trained as both a blacksmith and a wizard. She does minor enchanting work on existing equipment – knowing just how to bend metal and forge arcane runes in a perfect combination to imbue weapons with various powers. From simple enchantments that increase raw power, to special elemental boons, Brilna is more than willing to empower a normal piece of equipment – for a price.

Starhaven Sending Services
The Starhaven Sending Services manage communications across the whole Starhaven region. They employee spellcasters, animals, and runners to deliver mail and messages to each of Starhaven’s forts and towns. If you need something sent – even if you can’t write, this is the place to go.

Sect of Asmodeus
Rumours state that a group of people devoted to the foul Arch-Devil-turned-God Asmodeus have been seen in this region. While nobody has located where they are operating out of, the Templars of the Radiant Star have been seen nearby with increasing number.

Starhaven Guild of Mages
The Starhaven Guild of Mages operates in two areas – firstly, it trains and educates newer spellcasters, helping them to learn their abilities in a safe and well prepared environment. The second service it offers is those registered guild mages for various jobs – contracts for adventuring parties, identification services, dispelling services, enchanting services, and various other contracts to suit the needs of the populace. The guild grants any registered magi a place to stay for an evening, as well as access to a large library of spells.

The Hall of the Astral Order
From the outside, this building appears to be nothing more than a generic stone-built home; but from within, it is certainly something different. Few people have entered and returned capable of telling of the sights they’ve seen within. Tales of an endless structure, shifting and always changing. Rumours of ancient, powerful weapons. Portals to other worlds. Very little is known about the organization itself, other than the fact that it holds a powerful yet seldom used voice at court.

Star’s Hold Quarter

Starhaven Territorial Acquisitions Regulation Main Office
This organization controls the sales and rental of most of the land in Starhaven and the surrounding area. Smaller organizations have purchased sections of land for their own sale, but for most of the city itself, the land is controlled by this office. If you’re looking to purchase land, build a building, or set up an organization within the city limits, or even shortly outside, this is the place to go.

Star’s Hold Keep
Legend says this structure was built atop a weak point in the planes – and that the keep was placed there to protect it, and to bind the world together. This is where the Evenstars keep their soldiers barracked, and there’s enough food and equipment stored within for their forces to withstand a long siege. Housed within its walls is The Court of Stars, which finds its various representatives of organizations meet on a regular basis to discuss the laws of the land. The leader of the city, known as the Starkeeper, presides over the court and has the final say in all decisions. The Eye either rules until they are no longer able to, until they willingly step down, or until the court unanimously votes them out of power – which has only ever happened once.

Outlander’s Hall
A lodge devoted to the organization of the Outlander’s Call. It’s decorated in furs, trophies, bones, and weaponry. A large portion of the hall is devoted to hunting and foraging, as well as the work involved in cleaning and cutting kills. There’s a hall reserved for drinking, and one more for organizing the group and offering assistance for members in need, who have suffered at the hands of citygoers’ racism.

Meadhall of the Mountain
This large, northern-style structure is devoted to the meetings of the Kinship of the Mountain. Halfling cuisine, Gnomish inventions, and Dwarven liquor are common sights within the long structure, which is often used for meetings between the various members. It maintains a celebratory atmosphere at all but the most dire of times.

Emberleaf Arcanium
The enigmatic Emberleaf Alliance, representing an accord between High Elves, Drow, and Tieflings, resides within this tall structure. magic is employed heavily here, and illusions are commonplace. Information is exchanged freely, and members are not judged for the sources of their power or their heritage. It’s a common home for warlocks and sorcerers of the race, but people of all kinds – provided they’re of the above listed races, are welcome.

Known Factions

Major Factions

• The Evenstars
• Court of the Blue Rose
• People of the Haven
• Nightsky Consortium
• The Astral Guard
• Church of the All-Faith
• Circle of the Shining Star

Notable Organizations:

• Starhaven Guild of Mages
• Starhaven Guild of Fighters
• Starhaven Guild of Thieves
• Starhaven Guild of Adventurers
• The Archivists
• Outlander’s Call
• Starhaven Historical Preservation Society
• Kinship of the Mountain
• Emberleaf Alliance

Minor Organizations:

• Elemental Cults
• Cult of Asmodeus
• Order of the Radiant Star
• Cult of the Withered Palm
• Shattersky Concordat
• Purity
• Feathergale Knights