Cocytus — Zagan, the capital city
The feeling you get from Zagan will change with the wind.
When the wind blows from the north, the stench from the sea monsters’ slaughterhouse fills the streets, making every activity uncomfortable and every people cranky. Penguins are the only ones enjoying the foul smell of Leviathans’ blood and rotting Krakens. During these smelly days, penguins become more daring and annoying in their mischief and thievery, adding to the general irritation.
The winds from the east spread exotic aromas in the city, making Zagan feels like a cosmopolitan and vibrant city.
The Flowers’ Court, the elves’ district of the city, is the center of the perfume industry: whiffs of lavender-infused smoke puff out of the ornate Laboratories’ chimneys and carts full of scented raw material come, going back with bottles of essences, that, should they break, would envelop the city in a mist of overbearing delight for days.
Lady Jaragal, the elven lady who founded the Flowers’ Court 300 years ago, is quite generous: she created the Hyacinth Pools, an elvish-style bathhouse open to the public for a reasonable price.
Bathhouses are an elven institution unusual for the Empire but nonetheless appreciated and always busy, with different tiers of services, able to satisfy commoners and nobles alike.
Winds from the south bring the smell of sawdust and industriousness from the sawmills and shipyards.
The city south is connected through channels to the river Cocytus, the main way to transport wood from the Agathion mountains. Along the channels, there are many workshops to build boats, ships, crossbows, and architectural beams, but also minute and delicate carvings. The South is also the place of the underground dwarven bazaar: not fancy and alluring as most bazaars, Zagan bazaar smells of resin and glue, with all the various workshops displaying samples and miniatures of their products.
Many of the other stands are full of dull but precious sacks of salt near racks and racks of stockfish and other dried and salted fishes. Lady Miltajir is the “queen of salt” and the de facto ruler of the Dwarven District. She is the last of a long line of merchants that oversee one of the longest-standing trading agreements in the world: dwarven salt for infernal fishes.
The smell of the dwarven salt is very different from the saline wind coming from the west.
When the breeze comes from the ocean, the city feels projected into a sea of possibilities. Many people come to the city chasing that ineffable fragrance: Zagan is a very popular destination for young nobles on their Grand Tour, the year-long trip they take after becoming adults. the young aristocrat doesn’t stay much in Zagan, they want to go further. Some go southwest, to the castles at the end of the land, to hear stories of explorers and dreamers, maybe trying to become one of them.
Others go northwest, to the Cathedral of Levistus on the Eternal Iceberg, the never melting island of Elemental Ice. Going on a pilgrimage there is considered one of the most inspiring experiences.
Some visitors say that, in the western wind, they can smell ice, the holy ice where Levistus is entombed, but local knows that is just a pious delusion.
