_Perhaps the best-known location in the Inner Planes is the City of Brass, on the shores of the Sea of Fire. This is the fabled city of the efreet, and its ornate spires and metal walls reflect their grandiose and cruel nature. True to the nature of the Plane of Fire, everything in the city seems alive with dancing flames, reflecting the vibrant energy of the place._ _Adventurers frequently come here on quests for legendary magic. If it’s possible to buy magic items at all, the City of Brass is the most likely place to find any item for sale, though the price might well be more than gold. The efreet are fond of trading in favors, especially when they have the upper hand in negotiations. Perhaps a magical disease or poison can be cured only with something that must be purchased in the bazaars of the city. The heart of the city is the towering Charcoal Palace, where the tyrannical sultan of the efreet reigns supreme, surrounded by efreet nobles and a host of slaves, guardians, and sycophants._ (Source: Dungeon Master’s Guide, “Plane of Fire: The City of Brass”) ![[Map_CityofBrass_Old.png]] **Settlement Statistics:** Tier 7 – Metropolis Population: Approximately 500,000. Efreets form the upper-class of the city, with only a handful of disgraced members standing outside the noble caste. Other residents include azers, genasi, fire giants, firenewts, and other intelligent elemental creatures, as well as a smaller number of visitors and immigrants from the natural world. Roughly two-thirds of the city’s residents are slaves to the Efreets. Renown: 5000+ Monthly Upkeep: ?? --- The oldest city all creation, the City of Brass is a nexus for planar travelers. Those willing to look long and hard enough can find anything they have ever imagined somewhere in its labyrinthine avenues. With numerous grand bazaars and ornate shops, the City of Brass is the mercantile center of the universe. Built on a bast basalt plate in an immense volcanic field on the edge of a fiery sea, the City of Brass is a still point in the churning tempest of the plane, and a relatively hospitable destination for mortal travelers. It is the home of the fiery efreets, and the temperature is invariably hot-comparable to a sweltering summer day in most place; more like the inside of a smelting forge or the slopes of an active volcano is others. The capital of the efreets, the City of Brass is the marketplace of the universe, where virtually anything can be bought or sold. **Architecture.** Even the poorest neighborhoods of the City of Brass feature monumental buildings made of granite, basalt, obsidian, or other igneous rock. Buildings made of any more combustible materials do not last long in the city’s fiery environment. The wealthier neighborhoods also include buildings plated with or made from solid brass, copper, or iron, and trimmed with precious metal filigree. The city’s skyline features slender towers, glittering domes, terraced ziggurats, and tall spires reaching high into the smoke-clouded sky. Colorful murals and ornate sculptures adorn buildings and public areas. In much of the city, stone buildings show signs of wear, some even crumbling and in various states of disrepair. This leads some to suggest (privately) that the efreets’ control over the surrounding maelstrom is not as complete as they claim. **Defense.** An entire caste of slaves are born and raised as soldiers to defend the City of Brass against incursion from the wider Elemental Chaos and the Abyss. These include archons, azers, and salamanders. A corps of fanatical efreet warriors called the Unquenchable patrol the Charcoal Palace. The city guard, housed in the Ashlarks district, consists primarily of archon and salamander soldiers. Inns and Taverns: The best place for visitors to find food or lodging is the district of Iskalat, near the city’s harbor. The inns and taverns ringing the harbor cater to travelers from across the Elemental Chaos and other planes beyond. Guests are advised to keep a close eye on their valuables and be wary of con artists, but little risk of death or enslavement exists. **Laws & Society.** The City of Brass has a highly developed dual set of laws—one code for efreets, and another for everyone else. Few restrictions are placed on the efreets’ behavior or trade. Members of other races labor under numerous regulations pertaining to how they conduct themselves, how they do business, and the taxes they must pay on their transactions. These laws are well publicized (posted at the gates and in each inn and public house) and are relatively simple to follow for those who wish to obey them. Some of the more obvious laws prohibit theft, murder, kidnapping, and misrepresentation of goods. Lawbreakers are sentenced to a period of slavery under the control of the offended party—often the city itself, though such slaves are usually sold in the markets in the Arches. The original length of servitude can be extended for additional infractions, ranging from speaking impolitely to one’s master (seven days for a first infraction, or if a year has passed since the last infraction) to attempting to escape (one year plus one year for each day the slave was missing). Aside from breaking laws, the most common way that visitors to the City of Brass become slaves is by borrowing money and not being able to repay it (and the accrued interest) in time. Slaves must wear and display bracelets indicating their servitude and their master. They are commonly bought and sold during the period of their slavery. Once the sentence is served, a slave again becomes a free person. **Supplies.** Commoner’s Market; Street of Steel in the Keffinspires; Marlgate warehouses; Pyraculum bazaar. Anything can be bought in the City of Brass. The Commoner’s Market in the district of Avencina is an ideal place to secure both ordinary and exotic goods of a nonmagical nature. The Keffinspires district is home to most of the city’s smiths, who make and sell magical and mundane item, including weapons and armor. The warehouses of the Marlgate district hold goods brought from across the planes for trade in the city, and the bazaars of Pyraculum offer the greatest diversity of high-quality goods. **Temples.** The City of Brass is hostile to worshipers of the deities, and holds no public temples to any gods. The primordial known as Ignavore, the Skyfire has an opulent temple in the Furnace called the Nest of the Eternal Flame. Residents of the city are strongly encouraged to offer praise and gratitude to the lord of the Charcoal Palace in large shrines located in each district. Like many other metropolises, the City of Brass is organized into districts—fourteen different sectors, each with its own local character. ### _Arches._ This area lies between the naval yards and the well-to-do neighborhood of the Foundry. Its most notable location is a bustling slave market. **Slave Market.** ### _Ashlarks._ This residential area is home to many of the free nonefreets of the city, as well as a few of the least prominent efreet houses. The landmark feature here is Long Castle, home to the city guard. **Commoner’s Market.** **Zam-Zam.** ### _Avencina._ Avencina is a rowdy, lower-class district where many races mingle. It contains the Commoner’s Market, one of the city’s largest open-air bazaars. Though buying or selling stolen merchandise is strictly illegal, one would be hard-pressed to explain the many used, “secondhand” items in any other way. All merchandise is sold as-is. Frequently, a vendor selling in the market one day isn’t there the next (or, at least, not in the same disguise). **Burnt Bean.** ### _Castings._ In the shadow of the Furnace, this district is home to the barracks of the city’s slave army. A great monument in the form of a giant archway, called the Gate of the Fallen, celebrates the many victories of the efreets in battle. It depicts them triumphing over most of the creatures native to the Elemental Chaos and the natural world. **Gate of the Fallen.** Despite its name, the Gate of the Fallen is not a gate nor a memorial to the efreeti dead. It is in fact a large decorated archway depicting scenes of the efreet dominating all other races found on the Elemental Plane of Fire. **Ring of the Unqeunchable.** Though they were a slave legion, the efreeti mamluks of the Ring of the Unquenchable are favored by the Sultan. ### _The Char._ The smell of molten metal suffuses this business district, where metalworking businesses congregate. The area houses the Red Wyrm Smelter, which has several different slave-operated workshops and refines great quantities of ore brought into the city. The Forge of Manacles makes shackles for the city’s slaves, and Locksmith’s Row provides the fasteners. The massive Firespring creates fire archon soldiers for the city’s defense. **Forge of Manacles.** An establishment that is dedicated to making manacles and shackles for the city’s slaves. **Red Wyrm Smelter.** An area with several slave-operated workshops that refine the great quantities of ore brought into the city. ### _Cindersweeps._ This neighborhood houses lowerclass, free residents for the most part. The notable features are the Military Dock, Drydocks, and the Keep of Fire Striking Steel. The fortress serves as an armory for the harbor garrisons. The Naval Yards allow restricted admittance to the city’s canal system via the Naranj Canal. **The Gate of the Simoom.** Also known as the Gate of the Desert Wind, is an entrance into the Cindersweeps district. It also acts as a fortress, complete with a permanent garrison and a dedicated military commander. **Krak Al-Zinad.** Also known as the Keep of Fire Striking Steel, houses soldiers that protect the harbors of the City of Brass. Additionally, all of the marines, and others who specialize in seaborne weaponry, are trained here. **Naval Yards.** which includes both a drydock and a military dock, are situated in the lower reaches of this district. It houses the ships of the city’s navy, the Sultan’s personal fleet — consisting of 90 booms and 40 baghlas — and efreet-owned interplanar crafts. Those who operate the Naval Yard also govern admittance to the city’s canal system via the Naranj Canal. ### _The Foundry._ Visitors to the city sometimes make the mistake of going to the Foundry district in search of the metalsmiths who actually do business in the Char or Keffinspires. The Foundry is the third most exclusive neighborhood of the city, boasting large, ornate mansions and beautiful memorials to past notable personages. Efreets not well enough connected to live near the palaces of the Furnace and not wealthy enough to live in the Plume reside here. In addition, the wealthiest members of other races live here, since only efreets are allowed to live in the Furnace or the Plume. **Plaza of the Hunters.** **Plaza of the Silver Chariot.** **Gate of Glory.** The Gate of Glory is the entrance to the Glory Mines–a maze of tunnels running beneath the City of Brass that is inhabited by salamanders. **Fountain of Clearest Azure.** ### _The Furnace._ The most exquisite district in the City of Brass is the Furnace, a perfect hemisphere with the Charcoal Palace rising from its center. Government offices in the Red Pillar Halls surround the palace and accompanying areas, which include the Barracks of the Ring of Fire (the Lord of the Efreets’ personal guard), and the Eternal Flame Pavilion (a shrine sheathed in beaten gold, dedicated to the primordial Fire Lord, Imix). **Breath of the Sultan.** As a symbol of a Sultan’s rule, a great fountain was created. In the front of the Charcoal Palace, it spews purple glames high into the air from where it sits. The fount’s fire dies out or dims in the event of the Sultan’s death or deposition. However, a new Sultan always relights the fires of the fountain in a thunderous explosion easily heard by every occupant of the City of Brass. **Charcoal Palace.** Dark basalt was used to construct most of the structure of the palace. The basalt is so dark that it appears to drain light from the flames surrounding the city. Gold, brass, and copper were used to cover many of the towers and domes of the palace. The Charcoal Palace was perched atop a landrise overlooking the entire city. A huge fountain of purple fire, called the Breath of the Sultan, is found before the palace as the sign of the Sultan’s constant rule and vigilance. This serves as the seat of power for the Great Sultan of the Efreet. **Eternal Flame Pavilion.** The Eternal Flame Pavilion is dedicated to [**Lepton and Ignis**](https://merovia.obsidianportal.com/wikis/lepton-and-ignis). Since the priests of the Twin Pheonixes preach the ideal of redemption and immortality, the worship of the phoenixes is wildly popular among common efreet, but only tolerated by the noble efreet who preferred to keep their subjects hard at work instead of praying. **Red Pillar Halls.** Serves as the court of the Sultan of the Efreet. Additionally, bureaucrats collect taxes, make appointments, and deal justice here. Any efreeti hoping to address their frievances here was subjected to an extensive search and often needs to dish out hefty bribes to make it into the building. **Mosque of Blistering Atonement.** As a dedicated shrine to Igmalleus, a terrifying archomental of fire, the entire building was covered with corroded copper, creating a disquieting scene. Since Igmalleus is a primordial prince of creatures of fire, he is the defacto ruler of, not only the City of Brass, but the entire [**Lands of Eternal Fire**](https://merovia.obsidianportal.com/wikis/lands-of-eternal-fire). After his disappearance, the Sultate of Efreeti developed and took hold. Many efreeti and their legions revere Igmalleus and await the return of the true emperor of fire. ### _Iskalat._ In this district were the public docks, primarily used for interplanar vessels. It is a lively district with a multitude of races from across the planes and was dotted with inns and taverns. **Octagon.** The Octagon can easily hold up to 10,000 prisoners at any given time. Each prisoner is kept locked within their own cubed cell of solid basalt that sealed magically around them, leaving only a tiny slit for air and to pass food through. Impervious to attacks, these cells can only be opened by the efreeti prison guards. ### _Sea of Fire._ The Magma Gate allows entrance to the harbor, and from there to the city’s canal system. Anyone who makes a living from vessels (repair, provisioning, or housing/recreation for travelers) lives and does business here. The district’s a lively one, with many different races of planar travelers occupying the numerous inns and taverns. A notable landmark is the obsidian-walled Octagon, a great prison containing magic cells designed to keep even powerful creatures carefully sealed away. ### _Keffinspires_ The main feature of this merchant district is the Street of Steel, where numerous smiths manufacture and sell weapons, armor, tools, and other items. The smiths of this district include a sizeable population of azers. **Golden Tower of the Azer Steel Guild.** **The Great Smithy.** ### _Marlgate_ Located just south of the Ashlarks and north of Iskalat, this district holds the warehouses that store all that is worth having. The goods from the holds of planar dromonds are bought here and sold in bulk. ### _The Plume._ Second in splendor to the Furnace alone, the Plume houses the wealthiest and most noble of the efreet houses. Only efreets can own or occupy property in this district. Magnificent buildings overlook splendid open courtyards. The district also houses the Castle of the Sun and Moon, where the city’s finest legions live and train. **Krak Al-Nayyiran.** Also known as the Castle of Sun and Moon. The finest of the Sultan’s military units are trained within the castle of Krak al-Nayyiran. Additionally, the most elite of troops from those units are awarded quarters here. ### _Pyraculum._ This area houses the City Market, which is larger and slightly more upscale than the bazaar found in Avencina. Artisans of different races live and work here. **Edible Bazaar.** A bazaar within the district that specialized in fruits and vegetables. **Hayyat Suq.** A clothier and tailor establishment within the district. **Marabout Suq.** A bazaar within the district where one could find preachers, books, and holy items. **Marakish Bazaar.** A bazaar within the district that was dedicated to dealing in leather goods. **Mehara Bazaar.** A bazaar within the district that specialized in camels and crafting saddles. **Qahwa Suq.** A bazaar within the district where one could find beans, coffee, and spices. ### _Rookery_ An infamous quarter of the City of Brass, this area is renowned throughout the plane as the most dangerous and lawless area of the city. Even the city guards sometimes fear this place. Its gambling dens, pleasure gardens, and fighting pits never close. **Kalian.** The Kalian is one of the largest markets within the city. Smoke vendors abounded here, selling incense, tobacco, smoked foods, and other aromatic luxuries. **Khat Market.** **Seven Maidens Gambling Den.** --- _(Source: D&D 4E Manual of the Planes, “City of Brass”,pg 73-76)_ _Wolfgang Baur (November 1993). Secrets of the Lamp. (TSR, Inc.)_