Isarn

Isarn

(City)

Nation

Galt

Size

Metropolis

Population

42,700

Government

Revolutionary Council

Source: The Inner Sea World Guide, pg(s). 72–73 (1E)
World Guide, pg(s). 126 (2E)

The city of Isarn is the capital of Galt and home of its legislature, as well as of the Revolutionary Council.

Geography

Isarn is located in a bend of a tributary of the East Sellen River. Its banks are lined with innumerable yellow irises, the city's signature flower.

The city is divided into neighborhoods, such as the industrial Dustworks neighborhood, which contains warehouses, coopers, a tannery, a foundry, a gravel pit, and a debtors' prison converted for use by the city's Gray Gardeners.

History

A Gray Gardener prepares a final blade.

Isarn was once a city of art that was graced by beautiful architecture, green parks, and statuary. Isarn's public monuments and buildings, once so famed that designers from both Avistan and Garund competed for the right to add to their grandeur, fell into blood-splattered disrepair after the beginning of the Red Revolution.

Despite its dilapidated condition, the city's design hearkens back to the monumental architecture of the Age of Destiny, with engraved cobblestones, wide plazas and parks, sweeping bridges, and colorful mosaics. During the Revolution most of the statues were been toppled, the mosaics became spattered with blood, and the plazas and parks rang with the haunted wails of the homeless who flocked to the city in search of food.

Government

During the Revolution

During the Red Revolution, the seat of government was the Monolith, a blackened fortress and prison, in front of which stood the final blade known as Madame Margaery, a guillotine kept well-oiled by the Gray Gardeners. The Gray Gardeners were dissolved following the events of the Masque of the Gray Death in Litran in 4721 AR, and the current state of Isarn is unknown.

Post-Revolution

The ruling Revolutionary Council, led as of 4723 AR by Citizen Camilia Drannoch, is based in Isarn.

Foreign relations

Due to the chaos of Galtan politics, few foreign nations had diplomatic ties with the capital during the Red Revolution. One exception was the elven nation of Kyonin, which as of 4719 AR had recently established a modest presence in the city. This was likely because of the emergent threat of Tar-Baphon, which the elves had hoped to counter via regional cooperation. Tar-Baphon's invasion of the Inner Sea region was halted in 4719 AR with his defeat, but he remains an active threat to the area.

Culture

During the Revolution, many of Galt's noble families were forced from their homes. Their abandoned manor houses were often annexed by members of each new ruling government and used for various purposes, such as asylums or salons for lavish parties.

Socialites from these ruling classes often staged debates about philosophy and art, and Isarn's lower-class scholars and artists were often drawn into these debates.

Religion

Mistress Philomela, a priestess of Calistria in Isarn's House of Joy.

Isarn has a prominent temple of Calistria, the House of Joy, in a converted noble palace near the Monolith.

Academia

The Eglantine House, a center of scholarship and magical research, is located in Isarn. As of 4713 AR, the House's proprietors were Norret and Orlin Gantier.

Heraldry

The heraldic crest of the city is the iris, the flower of Isarn. Before the Revolution, irises were royal property and taking them without permission was punishable by death; this crime and sentence remained unaltered during the Revolution.

References

Paizo set the Pathfinder Quest Forged Facade and Pathfinder Society Roleplaying Guild scenario Fury of the Final Blade in Isarn, and the Pathfinder Tales web fiction stories The Perfumer's Apprentice and Thieves' Vinegar are set in part or whole in Isarn.

For additional as-yet unincorporated sources about this subject, see the Meta page.