M3 Campaign

Solen

3 min read

Solen

“The city where everything important happens and nobody is sure why.”

Overview

Solen is the capital of the human empire (name TBD). It is where the party is based at the start of the campaign and where most of Act I takes place. It is large, politically active, economically central, and apparently a magnet for absurd events.

Mayor Mayor has countless properties here. Madam Chi K. En holds enormous influence over its trade. The Adventurer’s Guild (Solen Branch) operates out of the city.

History

The city that exists today was not always called Solen. The name is relatively recent in the scale of the empire’s history. A predecessor state once stood where the current empire now operates, with the resources, administrative reach, and arcane infrastructure of a major power. Over centuries, that proto-Solen state evolved into the empire the party knows today.

Appearance

Solen sprawls outward from a central hill crowned by the old imperial administrative quarter. The streets below are dense and layered, built over centuries without a unifying plan. Stone foundations from the predecessor empire sit beneath timber-framed merchant buildings, which sit beneath newer plaster-and-tile construction. The city feels stacked on itself.

Major roads radiate from the hilltop down to the outer walls and gate districts. Between those roads, the city fills in with winding side streets, covered market arcades, canal-adjacent warehouses, and residential blocks that shift from wealthy to working-class over the span of a few turns.

The skyline is dominated by guild halls, trade house towers, and the absurdly large civic estate that Mayor Mayor calls one of his “smaller holdings.” Smoke from forges, cookfires, and alchemical workshops hangs in the lower streets on still mornings.

Notable Features

  • The Guild Quarter: Cluster of institutional buildings near the hilltop, including the Adventurer’s Guild (Solen Branch). Busy at all hours with clerks, contract-seekers, and couriers.
  • The Market Arcades: Covered market streets in the mid-city where merchants, food vendors, and traveling traders set up. Loud, crowded, and the fastest way to find almost anything legal (and some things that are not).
  • The Canal District: Lower-elevation warehouse and dock area where goods arrive by barge. The Flow of Economy’s regional operations run through here. Smells like fish and money.
  • The Quiet Coil: A bar on a side street off a less-traveled thoroughfare. The party’s preferred meeting spot.
  • Mayor Mayor’s Civic Estate: Visible from most of the city. Unreasonably large. Staff outnumber some neighborhoods.

Notable NPCs

Story Role

Primary setting for Act I. The party’s home base and the place where their reputation starts from zero and grows.

Connections

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