Glyrath

[devfrag]

Oh, you mean the famous "cantilevered restaurant of Kenosha", Ascension? I always like eating there - seeing the traffic pass by twenty feet below, through the glass floor, is a unique dining experience. My wife can't stand it, though - says it gives her vertigo.

This tavern is so old that it pre-dates the first city wall. When CRK first opened it's doors in the northern most part of town the owner, Josiah Horsdun, had a brilliant plan. He wanted to build a tavern that could accommodate valet stables for the horses. To that end he built the tavern on the 2nd floor with the weather sheltered stables below. No more would his tavern patrons have to get on the back of a wet horse after a fine dining experience.

During the first three years it was the place to be. Nobility would visit the tavern with some regularity. The stained glass floors were a huge hit during the 4th year. Quite the feat of engineering at the time.

Unfortunately, when the first city wall was was erected it caused an unforeseen problem. Being a small island the breeze was fairly constant and kept the stable odors "moving along". But now with the city wall up the stable odors tend to drift into the tavern with some authority. Unfortunately Josiah couldn't come up with an easy solution to the problem and went out of business. Some years later, the town planning board needed to build a road in the area. They unanimously decided to make the tavern a historic landmark, thus building the road where the stable once was.

I see devfrag has the "old man's arch-house" too - right below the "IC" of Kenoshan District. Yeah, the guild had enough votes to force connection of Rum Alley to the main road there, but nobody, and I mean NOBODY wanted to try to make old Colonel Havfreth actually tear down his house. Instead, they "rented" his downstairs hallway and parlor - now the thing looks like some kind of inhabited victory arch. I guess it was a victory of sorts, for the Colonel. He still gets fifty marks a year for the "inconvenience" of a road through his house.

Being a man of advanced years the Colonel was definitely set in his ways. Once he tried to make the section of his house a "toll road". The townsfolk didn't go along and it caused a bit of an uproar. In the end the Colonel gave up the fight as the travelers of the area would simple go around his home. Having his garden destroyed made it one rough harvest that year. About 2 years before he passed away he visited the CRK for the first time. Seeing the stained glass floor "inspired" him. He commissioned the installation of a "window" of sorts on the floor of his bedroom. Many a young maiden have told stories of cat calls coming from above when they would pass under the old man's place. I suppose the view was quite nice for the old guy.

There's a few more of these architectural oddities - the easternmost Brightmont road has another cantilevered building. Just west of the central square there's another - "the tilted house". It's actually an old inn that predates the building of Kenoshan District - that's why it seems askew from the grid. Nothing special was done to it - the third floor just juts out over the first two anyway. And what's up with the city's center being called a "square" anyway - it's the most oval square I've ever seen -- but that's what the Glyrathians call it, so who am I to object?

Same kind of architecture on that gray building on the road separating Bayston and Kenoshan - just a cantilever. The point of interest there is the owner rents the walls of that "hanging corner" as a billboard of sorts. Some merchant or other always has a lurid advertisement pasted there. Last month I believe it was Golatistein's Bar & Girl. Grill. Sorry - Bar and Grill - the advert just makes one think....

Of course one could always boringly "fix" the buildings-in-the-street "problem".... or one could story-tell around the problem :-). If the shadows that the Street Of Unbeveled Buildings have weren't so jarringly different from the plain bevels elsewhere, I'd be tempted to spin some yarn about how those look at ground level - crazy architecture with dead-flat awning-type roofs sticking up a good thirty feet above the building's actual tile roofs -- something about the religious practices of the Nyeznorian immigrants living there -- you really wouldn't want to know the details. OR you could just re-render that cul-de-sac's houses <shrug>.

Nice map, especially for a first post - repped!

-- jbgibson

Ah yes, the Lord Mayor Desig years. Many townsfolk assumed he was drunk all of the time. He certainly looked it. In reality he was completely sober and knew exactly what he wanted. For hours he would stay hold up in city hall making all sorts of shapes and sizes. He was fascinated them. Off all things, shapes! The most publicized incident was when he had all currency recalled. All currency was round before. Copper coins were changed to triangles, silver to squares, gold to rectangles, and then there was platinum. Platinum coins were left untouched. Most figured it was because the mayor had most of them, so they didn't change.

The townsfolk tolerated this behavior during his 2 terms thanks to his many successful reforms programs in the city. In particular the idea to build the city walls outside the existing ones to add another layer of defense. He also demanded that certain buildings, just south of the town square be rebuilt into odd shapes. The residents of Glyrath starting becoming concerned at this point. These buildings had no significance and were mostly ruins and landmarks of previous battles, but quickly became eye sores. Shadow street, as it was called, was the final straw. Due to the shapes drawn on the ground by shadows the mayor decided to have these shadows painted on the ground permanently and maintained with city funds so he could observe them from his home in Bayston Hills. Shortly thereafter he was removed from office and lived out his final days in the far east home that hangs over Tealmont Road in eastern Brightmont.