Viper's Gate
A wretched hive of scum and villainy.
Viper's Gate was once the edge of civilization, where the cults of Set were driven back in ancient times. The battles between the ancients and the Snake cults blasted the land, rendering them useless for both farming and fishing, stopping the crush of civilization and expansion as what came to be known as the Adderwall Mountains.
For centuries the only people living along the Adderwall Mountains were those stationed there to watch for resurgences of first Yuan-Ti and later Orcs, the Elven worshippers of Tel-Unir (attempting to bring restitution for the scar upon the land), and the criminals and dregs who came with them.
Therefore, as the largest of the regional forts, after the worshippers of Tel-Unir stopped their impossible task (probably due to the rise of the Orcs), Viper's Gate began to be the primary stop along the Adderwall. As the land began to regreen, through the efforts of the Namer Anun as well as the elves, the fortress began to grow a city.
The outlying regions began to grow manor houses, and the fortress began to be hugged and ringed by taverns, inns, brothels, and other important businesses. As these sprang up, Orcs began to show up to take advantage of the services. As Orcs began to take advantage, they began trade relationships. And quickly a lively merchant class developed.
The more paranoid of the military quickly created what was informally known as the Orc Quarter at the bottom of one of the valleys, in order to segregate the trade and associated vice into a kill box, should it ever be needed. And to this day the city has an informal rule that the higher on a mountain someone is, the more valuable the land is, meaning many important nobles now live in the recon forts used in ancient days to watch for signs of attack from Minev's Forest. And the Thieves Guild rules the area known as The Deeps.
Rumour has it that there is even crags and tunnels running deeper into the earth and into the tunnels controlled by the Visionaries of the Roden, or others of their darker cults and mysteries.
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