The wealthiest of Magnimar’s communities are found upon the Summit, along with the seat of the Magnamarian government, its most prestigious centers of learning and the arts, affluent businesses, and numerous meticulously kept parks and statuelined avenues.

The Alabaster District

Formally called the Stylobate, the colloquially named Alabaster District is home to Magnimar’s richest and most affluent citizens. Segregated from the lower districts by steeply canted, marble-inlaid walls, only a few prominent avenues allow ascendance to the statuary-lined streets above by way of long, well-guarded stairs. At the northernmost point, commanding a strategic position over Maganimar’s coast, stands Fort Indros. Bristling with ballistae and trebuchets, the lofty fortress deters all but the most brazen pirate attacks. Commander Wynmerd (male dwarf) oversees a garrison of soldiers, bowmen, and siege engineers here.

The Marble District

The residents of the Marble District hold only slightly less prestige than those in the Alabaster District. Well-appointed townhouses, small villas, and even the walled estates of several old Magnimarian families — most notably the Kaddren, Scarnettis, and Vanderales — find majestic views atop the Fogwall Cliffs.

Bridgeward

Although much of Magnimar’s industry and trade takes place along the Shore, the dusty blocks that surround the Irespan ring with the noisy work of sculptors, jewelers, woodcarvers, and all manner of other artisans who work in rare mediums — even magic. One of Magnimar’s best-known local industries is the Golemworks, a series of unremarkable, crow-haunted warehouses near the north edge of the Irespan. Nearly 30 years ago, local wizard Toth Bhreacher (male human) discovered that the stone of the Irespan proved particularly useful in spellwork. Since then, his studio has grown into a sizable and prestigious workhouse, dredging fallen segments of the Giant’s Bridge from the Varisian Gulf to craft a range of constructs and simpler creations for wealthy buyers.

Nearby stands a 10-story, cylindrical monument called the Cenotaph. Created as a memorial to Magnimar’s most beloved founder, Alcaydian Indros, the monument was meant to be an empty tomb honoring the local hero. As years passed and Indros’s family members and friends passed on, an inordinate number requested to have their bones entombed near or within the monument. Begun as an honor to the great man, then a vogue, the practice has become a tradition and post-mortem status symbol for all who can afford burial beneath the stones of the surrounding Mourner’s Plaza or in the later-constructed catacombs beneath the memorial.

The Capital District

Surrounding the bustling square known as Founder’s Honor and the towering sculpture called “Indros cul Vydrarch” spread the high marble columns and ornate facades of the heart of Magnimar’s government and political arena. Here, the elaborately sculpted Usher’s Hall serves as the meeting place for the city’s Council of Ushers. Anyone who wishes to meet with a councilmember must first meet with Jacildria Quildarmo (female human), the hall’s Seneshal of Dates, a power-mongering, pinch-faced secretary who revels in her authority. Near the Usher’s Hall stands the impassive gray stone fastness of the Pediment Building. While the impressive upper halls, replete with stern-faced gargoyles and grim judges, serve as the home of the Justice Court and the Halls of Virtue (each judge’s personalized audience hall), beneath lie the sweltering halls of Magnimar’s only prison, the Hells. Only the city’s justices and most infamous criminals know how deep the prison’s claustrophobic floors run, but rumors tell of one of the deepest halls where guards no longer patrol, sealed in response to an unpublicized uprising and left to the worst of the city’s convicts.

Naos

The home to many merchants and comfortable families, the city stretch along the Avenue of Hours is disparagingly called the “New-Money District” by local nobles. Despite the disdainful comments of the elite, Naos is one of the most welcoming and well-kept parts of Magnimar. Upon Starsilver Plaza — where abalone shell inlays create a scene of thousands of stars — stands the Triodea, the most renowned playhouse and concert hall in Magnimar. This one building houses three performance halls: the Grand Stage for operas and plays, an acoustically perfect concert hall called the Stonewall, and the Aerie — a raised, rooftop stage for soloists. Durstin Versade (male human) currently owns the performance hall, but the Triodea’s true master is Kassiel Iylmrain (male elf), a masterful dancer and alto, with a history of extraordinary fits of anger, jealousy, and promiscuity (especially when it aids his career).

Naos is also the home of two of the city’s most eccentric citizens, esteemed hunters, explorers, and Pathfinders Sir Canayven Heidmarch (male human) and his wife Sheila Heidmarch (female human). The world-traveling adventurers have recently retired to Magnimar, but have not been content to settle into the quiet life, opening their sizable manor to their society. The first Pathfinder chapter house in Varisia (just north of the Triodea) welcomes all members eager to explore the still relatively unknown land.

Visiting members of the Pathfinder Society are welcomed to the manor by comfortable lodgings, a well-stocked library of far-flung lore, and its owners’ sagely advice. Currently, two Pathfinders, aside from the Heidmarchs, use the manor as a base camp: Almya Gorangal (female human), a sour Lamasi explorer seeking to map the ancient ruins of the Mushfens, and Joadric  Heimurl (male human), a bombastic man of barbaric descent bent on organizing an expedition into the Malgorian Mountains.

Aside from their home, the Heidmarchs also curate the Lord-Mayor’s Menagerie, a public park where they display many of their taxidermy trophies and live captures, most notably a blinded ruby-eyed basilisk (its eyes also on display), the viable egg of a millennia wyrm, and “Prince Mandali”—a seemingly tame 14-foot-tall ape.

Vista

High-class shops, restaurants, businesses, and the offices of globe-spanning mercantile concerns spread between the Avenue of Honors and the Seacleft. The Aspis Corporation — a conscienceless shipping, trading, and money-lending venture of Lamasi descent — keeps its bronze-faced Varisian headquarters here.

Directly upon the Seacleft stand several estates of the city’s more daring nobles, but even the most lavish of these are outshined by Defiant’s Garden, diplomatic resort and home of Lord-Mayor Haldmeer Grobaras. Although the lord-mayor has traditionally kept a simple residence among the people, Grobaras moved into the lavish city-owned estate under the pretense of wanting to be more intimate with his work — and certainly not to take advantage of the small castle’s eight fully staffed floors of sumptuous salons and comfortable lounges, usually reserved for visiting diplomats.

Grand Arch

The largest of the Summit’s districts, Grand Arch stretches from the Twins’ Gate to the heart of the upper cliff. Many of Magnimar’s middle class and simple shop owners live comfortably here, but a surprising number of the area’s homes stand unoccupied much of the time — the homes of foreign merchants and travelers whose business takes them elsewhere but who desire comfortable living upon their return. Just within Twins’ Gate stands one of the city’s larger monuments, the Guardians: 200-foot-tall colossi depicting the young heroes Cailyn and Romre Vanderale facing each other with touching weapons held high, forming a giant arch.

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