#Mullandún

[theshapeshifter100]

Major City

(May have turned that into a plural. Prompt 2 of @thewatchau‘s anniversary prompts)

Each city was different, each had their own history and style.

When Ivy arrived at the Scholar’s College, the first thing that she noticed was the size. The centre was a far cry from the mismatched outskirts, with smaller buildings in varying styles. The centre was a bit more uniform, white buildings with columns at the front, red tiles on the roof.

The centre was easily the most extravagant place she’d seen, and she rarely left it. Didn’t really need to if she was honest.

It was strange though, being in the centre meant she was close to the three main Districts. She was in the Academic District, while just across the road was the Medical District, where her brother was studying. Finally, to the side of both of them, was the Merchant’s District, which housed the docks.

Some of the buildings by the docks were a bit dilapidated, not bad, since this was the first place foreigners saw, but not necessarily as well cared for as Guild hubs and the rich family homes of the centre.

The aspiring sailors were usually there, waiting for a ship to have an opening so they could leave Duilintinn behind. It was understandable, sometimes Duilintinn felt small, or dangerous.

 In contrast to Fionport, Monacoil was a crazy city. She had arrived in the Government District first to prove she had arrived, and that was the most like Fionport, although still had a mix of the old Feadhainn architecture. So for every one white wall red tiled building, was another stone tower looking like a series of rings stacked on top of each other. It also had one other building that Fionport didn’t have; a giant tower in the centre of the whole city. The view from up there had to be really something.

She and Irnas spent most of their time in the Mage’s District, which mostly had the Feadhainn architecture. There were some exceptions, like Irnas’s house which was cramped between two Feadhainn towers, but for the most part the buildings were uniform.

The Lake district was where it got interesting. Like the rest of Monacoil the streets were winding and un-organised, unlike the rest they were also crowded. People crossing Loch Glas came here, and the Inventors Guild was stationed here as well. So the whole place pumped steam and had weird and wonderful objects haphazardly thrown around.

It was very easy to get lost there.

The only District that was easier to get lost in was the Forest District, which she only went to once. You had be careful where you stepped, as Feadhainn buildings stood side by side with the swamp, with bridges and planked walkways serving as streets.

 Noefrach was in the middle of construction when she arrived in January. She and Hazel got stuck in a jam on the ramps, giving Ivy plenty of time to see the dam and the scaffolding for new buildings going up at a rate of knots.

Stalls lined the ramps as they crawled their way to the city centre, and time passed quickly as Hazel talked to the stall holders.

Once off the ramps and over the bridge they found themselves in the city centre, an enormous courtyard, the middle open to the sky with all the major buildings here, as well as several sunken amphitheatres.

The city was organised like Fionport, grid like and logical. However, it was cosier than Fionport, and the strong smell of salt was replaced by the equally strong smell of damp moss.

The street Hazel’s house was in was still being built, but it would probably look like the rest of Noefrach. Timber and stone houses with awnings that almost met in the middle of the street, protecting them from the worst of the perpetual rain.

Candles lined the streets, making it easier to see in the enforced gloom and low natural light, and the whole place felt, cosy. Something Fionport and Monacoil thoroughly missed.

The colour was also something to behold. The other cities had been fairly dull so far, but here was the home of artists, and is showed. Murals decorated walls and some had mosaics of pebbles decorating their house. They managed to light up the gloom like no candle ever could.

 Ivy barely touched Mulladún while in House Jackie, her visit there would come later. Aghaboy on the other hand, she did pass through.

She had to hitch a ride with traders heading to the city, and the best way she could describe it was, a less fancy, blocky version of Fionport.

The centre clearly had a grid system, and there was a stone wall, marking old city boundaries. Naturally the city had grown beyond both of those constraints.

It’s history as an old trade centre could be seen if you squint. She half remembered from school that Aghaboy used to be mostly warehouses, which had been adapted into shops and houses, and decorated for some of the richer inhabitants.

She got dropped off at the centre, and although she needed to head north, over the Pa’Gille river, she headed west instead. If she remembered correctly she’d eventually come across one of the Farming Guild’s hubs. She could easily go to the east one as well, although felt there was little point going to either of the southern ones, that felt like backtracking.

Thankfully, there was someone going to Slinad, and she hitched with them. They passed the hub of the Ocean Men along the way, which looked like a small Feadhainn style building, standing at the edge of Aghaboy. It didn’t look that active, but it disappeared among the other buildings, and they were on their way.

 Ivy never stepped foot in Mulladún until much later, long after she had finished her apprenticeship in House Jackie.

You could hardly miss the city, in fact you could see it from Arcath. It looked like a bunch of amphitheatres stacked on top of each other, getting increasingly smaller until you reach the top. It was like the whole city embodied the Feadhainn style of building, which was rather accurate as Ivy learned. It was an ancient city after all.

She led Firefly up the steps, passing homes shops and markets on the first two levels, with archery points along the walls. The whole city was designed for archers to shoot down at an invading force. None of the buildings were taller than two or three stories, so either archers, or more buildings could stand on top of them.

Naturally, the Guard Coalition’s hub was almost at the very top, not quite in the centre, but close enough. By the time the two of them got up there, Ivy was no longer paying attention to the architecture. She was just glad she didn’t’ have to climb any more bloody stairs!

(Also a bit retrospective, so no date as such. I can tell you that she arrived in Fionport Jan 1602, Monacoil July 1602, Noefrach Jan 1603, Aghaboy Jan 1604, and Mulladún Nov 1606)