Maande

The capital of Anealeas tries to be the capital of all of Oenklay and almost succeeds. Maande is the largest city in all of Oenklay, a busy inland port serving the breadbasket farmlands of Anealeas, and the founding city of what later became the unified monarchy of Oenklay. Oenklay's elite send their younger children to Mybourdy for an academic education, but send their oldest to Maande for education in society and culture.

Ancient history says Maande started out as a fortified camp and it's never lost that identity. The grand city square lies roughly at the traditional heart of Maande, crossed by Crown Street, Carters Way, and Grand Street. On the east side, the walls palace-citadel of Suzerain Drani. Maande's university, city hall, and most prestigious temple also face line the square along with smaller temples and the halls of the more prestigious merchant houses. The homes of the elite spread southeastward over the hill of the High City. To the south west of the square lies the Old City and its craftspeople, screened by the clumps of temples lining southern Crown Street as it runs toward Wheat Gate. North of the grand square, the Merchant Quarter lies east of Crown Street and to the west is the flood-prone and squalor of the Low City wrapped around the crime-plagued slum known as the Jos. These neighborhoods are all surrounded by the old city wall. New walls enclose the business focused neighborhoods to the west of the old city core. The Foreign neighborhood lies closer to the Imsea with many gates connecting its warehouses to more docks along the river. Uphill and inland is the Craft & Trade district. Outside the walls and downstream along the banks, lie the malodorous workshops of the tanners and other essential but undesirable industries.

To the southwest of Maande, a sprawling slum town known as the Squats suffers the stench of the tanners and harassment of the city watch. Most of these residents are runaway serfs from Romhai's plantations and Anealeas's manors. Even though conditions are horrid and prospects bleak in the Squats, the Jos still presents a greater danger to the person who has no guild or employer to protect them. Suzerain Drani's troops relentless push the shanties back from the city walls, maintaining a clear zone to make sure an attacking army can't use the Squats for cover and to keep the frequent fires in the squats from threatening the city proper. These same troops push the shanties well back from the roads leading south and southwest so that travelers coming to and going from Maande do not have to navigate a maze of shanties and panhandlers just to get to the gates.

Bridges from the Low City and Merchant Quarter connect the Maande's south bank to the New City on the north bank of the Imsea River. The once unwalled northern bank felt the brunt of the Pestilence so walls now protect this trade district, its warehouses, and docks. The same building program turned the western suburb of Peronche into a fortress town while the approaches to the New City from north and east have strong castles to defend them and the many, many manors spreading out from the new city.