MYTH'RINAL, ZANITAR
Myth'rinal is a very large city, rivaling the greatest cities of Gaela'dra and by far the largest city in Isimiir. It was founded by the elven travellers that first discovered the planes and represents the pinnacle of their society. From here, they launched their armed campaign and subjugated what was to become known as the Known World. From Myth'rinal they ruled all the races in the continent for 5 thousand years before being overthrown and exiled from the plane.
It was taken over by their half-elven children who have ruled ever since and have established their own society that blends their magical prowess with their technological minds. This has produced a city in the middle of a Renaissance and a city of blended races, cultures, and ideas. This is the largest port city in Isimiir as well and the splendid galleons are beginning to explore the coasts of other lands and reporting the world beyond.
The city has 3 islands:
BARRIER ISLAND
- A docking port and the station for the Zanitarian Navy. The families of the naval officers live here as well as those who want the prestigious seafront property area. It is home to the best seafood and is the place to go if one want to start a seaborn lifestyle.
YOUSSUANT
This is the island of Nobility, for only nobles and their retinues are allowed here. it is a wonderland of business, beauty, and decadence, depending on where one looks. Every noble of consequence in Zanitar has property here as well as many nobles from other countries who wish to keep their iron in the fire of the white hot political oven. The shopping here is first rate and even elves are seen frolicking on the streets in gowns and suits that are of exquisite quality (read: thousands of Lazarian Gold Crowns). The security on this island is immaculate and run by both the Emperor's own Royal Guard and the Royal Guild of Wizards. In this island the rare is common and the fantastic is cliche. Magic runs the utilities and anything is possible. They are also famous for the 'Carnivale Fantasia' a month long festival of glitz, glamor, parades, magic, and sensuality where any boundary is broken and the lust is allowed to run unleashed. This is a religious festival to Eras, Elven Patroness of Love and the Arts.
EMPEROR ISLAND
- If Yuossuant is exclusive, this island is Impregnable. This is where the Heads of state arrive to negotiate. Once ruled by the Isimiirian Emperor himself, it now houses the Isimiirian Unions headquarters. Once every year or in times of crisis, the kings of Isimiir meet together to decide their Union's future. This is a relatively new practice as the union has only been around for 50 years. Even the Elven Rulers are invited to this meeting. Only direct family members ofthe rulers are allowed entrance and there is only one bridge to this island. This island is so beautiful that many rulers never wish to leave and take all of their vacations here.
The City has 6 Boroughs:
RENGREYD BOROUGH
- Also known as Barrier Island has Coastal homes, shopping for treasures from foreign lands, and the naval base. Races from other islands and lands are found here, some that never are seen by Isimiirians anywhere else.
TAMRINDA BOROUGH
- This borough is at the northernmost tip of the city. The Tamrinda Borough also has more parkland than any of the other boroughs, a renowned botanical garden, a world-renowned zoo, its own Little Xantebwe, beaches and even an island reminiscent of a upscale Ulinder fishing village.
Background and History
Tamrinda is named for Princess Tamrinda Zanitar, who died in childrborth. During its golden age, the building of the mile-long Grand Concourse was fashioned as Zanitar’s Champs-Elysees, lined with elaborate art deco buildings. They also have the massive Dorcite Stadium for sports and other activities.
Gardens
Ulzen Rouz Park covers nearly two square miles and offers boating, horseback riding, jousting, archery, and picnicking. The oldest jousting link in Isimiir, it celebrated its millennial in just 5 years prior and features excellent greens, manicured fairways, and a lakeside clubhouse.
The Zanitarian Botanical Garden spans 210 acres including specialty gardens and a prized 60-acre forest that is the largest remnant of the woodlands that once covered all of Zanitar.
The mighty Copper River and dramatic Palisades (cliffs on the west bank of the Copper River) provide the backdrop for the neighborhood of Tisben, a hilly enclave of estates. Among these is Durrin Hill, an acclaimed public garden and cultural institution.
Museums and Attractions
Tamrinda is also home to one of the city's two major dueling clubs, the Corsairs, who fight at the famed Corsair Stadium Catch a duel or take a tour behind the scenes.
The Tamarinda Zoo is the largest urban zoo in the Isimiir, with more than 4,000 animals representing more than 600 species.
There are over 60 landmarks and historic districts in the Tamarind, including the beautifully restored Simuan Dunham Wills (a famed bard) Cottage on the Grand Concourse (Tamarinda’s main thoroughfare). Here the great writer penned many of his most enduring works. The borough is also home to the stately Lord DuMaine House Museum the 18th-century plantation home of the Lord DuMaine family.
The free Tamarind Museum of the Arts exhibits contemporary art by mostly emerging and as-yet unrecognized artists.
Dining & Entertainment
The Tamarind District has its own Little Xantebwe on LaFleur and Mordenkind Avenues. With its markets of fruit and vegetables, fish and sausages, homemade teas and coffees, pastries, breads and more, the area is a veritable feast for the eyes and stomach.
Off the borough's northeast shore, Ulind Island looks and feels like a Ulind fishing village with its boatyards, sailmakers, antiques shops, art galleries and seafood restaurants. Across the way is Cherry Beach, a ribbon of white sand on the shore of The Crystal Sound.
Y'NIRRA BOROUGH -
Across the Queen's Bridge lies the city’s most populous borough. It's divided into a number of well-defined neighborhoods, including Ulashim, Sharvin Heights, Smith’s Hill, Arhsen Gardens, Genro Slope, Qunetin’s Blue, Fort Darmuid and Groutsberg, among others. Y’nirra visitors now have a great place to start a tour: the Y’nirra Tourism & Visitors Center, which opened in Borough Hall. The center showcases all the things to see and do in the borough, from the Arsen Island fair to exploring one of the world's best Xantebwean collections at the Y’nirra Museum of Art.
A fun way to get to Y’nirra is to walk across the Queen’s Bridge. Finished 2 millenia ago, this engineering milestone ranks among the world's greatest suspension bridges. Day or night, the view is spectacular. Stroll past the stately brownstones of Y’nirra Heights, the city's first designated historic district. Scores of creative people have lived in the area, including Nyshol Mirra, Gormurd Ahallu, Duke Richan Brusk, Wiles Quantin and Arconne Millerson. From here, head over to the Promenade for an even better view of Lower Tamarinda and the harbor.
The newly renovated Y’nirra Historical Society serves as a modern center for Y’nirra’s history while preserving its ancient architectural heritage. Visitors can enjoy four floors of exhibits and programs that include performances, readings, lectures and activities for children.
The Y’nirra Academy of Music (YAM) has the distinction of being Isimiirs' oldest operating performing arts center; its first performance dates 3 millienia Ago. Today, BAM presents concerts, contemporary and classical dance, performance art, theater for young people, repertory and first-run operas. It's also home to both the Y’nirra Philharmonic and the Harbor Lights Festival.
Don't miss Incara Park including the Incara Park Zoo, an interactive children's zoo. Also on the sprawling grounds are a lake with pedal boating, the DuJourzs Homestead Children's Museum, where life on a 1st-century Y’nirra farm is explored, and a beautiful carousel.
Painter's Green-Wood Cemetery offers a spectacular harbor view and 405 acres filled with trees, flowering shrubs and four lakes. Interred in Green-Wood are such luminaries as Lord Ertine Hurdo, Gafin Quol, Duke Archem Balder, Lord Camrgi, Essex Munoz and Erfin ‘Warlock’ Zarkoz.
Y’nirra Botanic Garden is an urban oasis with specialty gardens and world-class plant collections. It has more Bandglan cherry trees than the Emperor’s Garden, not to mention extensive displays of roses, lilacs and azaleas.
The permanent collection of The Y’nirra Museum of Art includes more than one and a half million objects—from ancient Elven masterpieces to contemporary art—and represents almost every culture. The museum has its own carriage stop and is one block from the Grand Mamluk Plaza, in a complex of 1st-century parks and gardens that also contains Incara Park, the Y’nirra Botanic Garden and the Wildlife Center.
Kids of all ages will love the Y’nirra Children's Museum, the world's first children's museum, and the Myth’rinal Aquarium, with 300 species and daily dolphin shows on the Arsen Island boardwalk.
Arsen Island has fair games, the annual Sea King Parade in June, the summer Maermai Festival, a beach and a lively boardwalk.
Nearby Norgen Beach is nicknamed Little Ulind for its large Ulinder population. Pick up superb caviar and other Ulinder treats at food markets, stay for a meal at the fabulous local restaurants, some with Youssuanti-style entertainment. There's also a beach and boardwalk.
Maidenguard Bay is the center of recreational fishing for Myth’rinal. Boats are moored at ten piers, ready to sail into the deep waters offshore for half- and whole-day excursions—no reservations necessary. Fishing boats go out in the morning from 16 stone (night) to 9 stone (morning) and again at 13 stone. Many boats leave again at 19 stone for night fishing. Fishing gear is provided, and you keep what you catch.
Ursa Park, Quailrun and historic Grymmberg are predominantly ethnic areas alive with their respective cultural traditions. Park Slope is a beautiful, mainly residential, neighborhood. In its heyday it was known as the Jewelled Beach because of its mansions and row houses on Incara Park. Commercial districts lie along Fifth and Seventh Avenues.
MALANEZ BOROUGH -
Malanez, across the Royal Bay from Emperor Island, has become a top cultural destination. In Malanez, you'll find The Royal Contemporary Art Center, housed in a former bard college. The center includes sculpture, a theater and an array of modern installations. Statue Park is an open-air park with free exhibits of large sculpture with the Emperor Island skyline as its backdrop. The Kami Museum, meanwhile, displays many sculptures and works of design created by the famed Earth Kai-Lin artist Koji Makuru.
Theatre fans will want to make sure that the Museum of the Spoken Word is on the itinerary. Located in Wasichi—home to a large Half-elven population and many Half-elven restaurants—the Museum of the Spoken Word educates the public about the art, history and beauty of poets, orators, and calligraphers and examines their impact on culture and society. The museum has more than 70,000 items in its permanent collection and offers more than 300 special programs a year.
From Youssuant to Guavhardiim and Beyond
Malanez is the most ethnically diverse 115 square miles on Gaela’dra. The Royal Carriage Line, dubbed the International Express, has even been designated a part of the National Millennium Trail for its representation of the immigrant experience.
In addition to Wasichi, Goyan Level has a fantastic Little Guavhardiim, with great restaurants, food markets and shopping, and Rhamierians swear this is where you can get the only decent grilled chicken outside of Rhamier. Dowring has a large Bandglan and Kai Lin population and is home to the Precataclysm Downring Town Hall, where the Dowring Council on Culture and the Arts organizes art exhibits and classical music performances throughout the year. In Moonhaven, you can spend an evening at a goblinoid theater or a hobgoblin nightclub; in Darthum, rent a Bugbear bodyguard or hear traditional music at an orcish pub. Lazarians, Kajimarians, Skraelunders, Trakaldans, Rhamierians, Guav, Dwarves and many other groups add diversity and flavor to Malanez.
The Great Outdoors
Dowring Meadow-Sublime Park's 1,255 acres was the site of two World's Fairs (Precataclysm and 50 AC), and visitors need look no further than the great steel Unity Statue to recall that era of history. Nearby is the National Unarmed Fighting Center, which hosts the Isimiirian. Open Fighting Tournament each year in the fall.
Also in the park is the Myth’rinal Hall of Science, a kid-friendly place known for its interactive, hands-on exhibits; the Malanez Museum of Art; Neshite Stadium, home of the Myth’rinal Galadiators; the Malanez Zoo; and the Malanez Botanical Garden.
Elsewhere in Malanez, nature lovers will enjoy the Zanizum Bay Wildlife Refuge, a 9,000-acre preserve with more than 325 species of birds, salt marshes, upland fields and woods, freshwater ponds and an open expanse of bay and islands. For sun lovers there's Goldenrod Beach, Isimiir's longest municipal beach. The Qualron Environmental Center, in Masicksten, boasts the only working windmill in Myth’rinal. With an extensive system of nature trails on the grounds, the center offers a wide range of educational programs related to the environment.
Historical Sites
Malanez has many historical sites, including the Malanez County Farm Museum in Pallasades Park, which offers free educational and recreational programs year-round. Nuro House, in Dowring, was built in Precataclysm times; considered the birthplace of religious freedom in Isimiir, it has since been designated a National Historic Landmark. The Isimiirian Meeting House, also in Dowring, is Myth’rinal's oldest house of worship and has been in continuous use since time immemorial. The King Manor Museum in Dontra is the former home of antislavery stalwart Sir Wilson Cut; the circa-500 year old house is surrounded by 11 acres of original farmland.
KALAHAN BOROUGH -
Visitors to Kalahan Borough will find an array of unexpected attractions, including Historic Armen Town (a old elven-like living history restoration complete with elven buildings), a general store and Isimiir's oldest elementary school.
Kalahan Borough also boasts the largest collection of Ogre Mage art outside of the Monsterlands itself, at the cliff-hanging Lord Valuez Museum of Ogre Mage Art—one of only two Q’aanite-style monastery buildings in the Western world, and the only one in the Isimiir. Similarly, the Kajimaran Scholar's Garden at the Kalahan Borough Botanical Garden is the only authentic one of its kind in the country.
Muay Loru Borough Ferry
The excursion from the tip of Emperor Island to the edge of Kalahan Borough cruises through New York Harbor past the Statue of the Eternal Emperor, Barrier Island and Noble’s Island and allows an unobstructed view of Youssuant and the Emperor’s Island. The adventure doesn't cost a thing aboard the free Kalahan Borough Ferry.
Grymm Harbor Cultural Center
A short bus ride from the ferry terminal is the Grymm Harbor Cultural Center, an 83-acre National Historic District with 32 historic buildings set among gardens and a museum/performing arts complex. Once a refuge for retired merchant seamen, Grymm Harbor's historic buildings now house art galleries, performance spaces and museums.
Included in the complex are: the Royal Maritime Collection, a museum focusing on the history of Grymm Harbor and the work of Kalahan Borough maritime artist Argunn I. Royal; the Kalahan Borough Botanical Garden, with numerous formal gardens including the internationally renowned Kajimaran Scholar's Garden and the Kalahan Secret Garden, modeled after the famous Druid’s; the Kalahan Borough Children's Museum, a museum for young people and school groups with interactive fun for the whole family; and Fort Brillon, one of the oldest military installations in the Isimiir, now a national park.
Other Great Attractions
The Kalahan Borough Zoo has a celebrated collection of reptiles, as well as an aquarium, tropical forest, Xantebwean savannah and a popular children's farmyard. Painting buffs will thrill to sweeping views of the harbor from native Kalahan Borough painter Bisshu's Victorian cottage (now the Bisshu House Museum); the museum itself displays much of her work documenting Kalahan Borough life at the turn of the Cataclysm. Diamond Beach Historical Society was the oldest community established by freed Goblinoid slaves in Isimiir. Its museum and library examine the life and history of freed Goblinoids who settled in the area before the Revolution of Races and the overthrow of the Elven Empire.
Take a Walk
This 15-by-10 mile island feels more suburban than the other boroughs. Among the hilly streets of the Storied Inlet neighborhood, with its rows of gingerbread-trimmed Victorian mansions and shingle-style homes built during the Revolution era, on the other side of the island is Knockmere Hill, at 510 feet, the highest point along the Isimiirian seaboard south of Trakaldar.
South Beach offers beautiful views of the Kaygan-Narrows Bridge. It also has a lengthy boardwalk, with playground, bocce courts, shuffleboard, ball fields and picnic areas.
Archway Beach has a beautiful swimming beach, nature trails, fishing and a marina. Griffin, an active airfield houses griffins and is now a park that includes two griffin roosts, 64 acres of athletic fields, picnic areas, a community garden and a white oak forest. Fort Brillon was a linchpin in the defense of Myth’rinal Harbor for nearly two centuries. Park rangers lead walks and tours highlighting both the history and the protected natural plant and animal communities at these sites.
The 220-acre Red Eagle Park is home to the Red Heron bird, hiking trails and picnic areas. The 260-plus-acre Gravel Ponds State Park Preserve includes hiking paths and horse trails. The Greyland, a 2,800-acre nature preserve, includes Seven Stone Park and the Lord Loer Wildlife Refuge.
HALLINDA BOROUGH -
As a center of culture and commerce, Hallinda offers an endless list of things to see and do. Both locals and visitors can take advantage of the borough's top restaurants, on-and off-Bardway theater and fantastic shopping. From Lantern Park downtown to the Temples uptown, there are diversions everywhere worth discovering. It's hard to believe so much energy and activity fits into this area.
