Heaven for the living.
The motto isn’t for nothing; Pristana’s canals are a glittering wonderland. It sits on a small peninsula just south of Vinyot, overlooking the most picturesque stretch of the Long Sea. Many sailors who have docked in Pristana Harbor dream of retiring to a life of leisure and pleasure in some canalside apartment, between someone rich and someone famous.
City of Canals
Thirteen canals connect either side of Pristana’s peninsula, with a web of over two hundred narrower inlets throughout the city. Docks, overhead bridges, and other means of traversing the stone- walled inlets cover their criss-crossing pattern. Streets are only one way to get around—passenger taxi-boats and privately owned craft fill the waters below. These are mostly small rowboats, but the main canals also see larger ships dock within inner harbors to supply businesses directly from short voyages to the mainland.
Architecture in Pristana
Four-story rowhouses face both sides of the water in most districts. These stacked apartments have exits out to canalside lanes, with wrought iron rails along the water’s edge. Many also have lower-level doors onto docks where a resident can use the waterways as transit without walking to a larger public dock. Buildings on the inner streets can be even taller; six-story complexes are not uncommon. Pristana’s popularity and confined space have driven up the average height of a building, and the uneven silhouette of the city has become one of its signatures. It’s common for one’s bedroom window to look out over a roof next door.
Where the Money Is
The district on either side of the 7th Canal has the tallest, most grandiose buildings in the city. Out-of-town shipping magnates and trade lords meet with foreign dignitaries, draconic contacts, and others demanding the very best wherever they go. 7th Canal is open to the public, but unsavory sorts—and the underdressed—soon find them- selves escorted back to more suitable stomping grounds.
Tall gates surround the docks of the 7th Canal. Their sentient locks keep apprised of visitors allowed to pass, and can sense when a boat is allowed to pass through. Some are centuries old and know more dirty secrets than anyone. Spies looking to glean knowledge about the trade lords’ movements sometimes lurk in the shadows of the canal after dark.
Sinful Sides
The 1st and 13th Canals are Pristana’s farthest east and west districts. The edges are where Pristana’s thrill-seeking guests roam, and is where the city earns its reputation as a “pleasure island.” Where the outer harbors lie, it’s nothing but long beaches of fine sand and fine people. The tropical sun brings out the city’s beautiful people to swim with gorgeous leisure craft sailing further out.
When the sun hides, all those people flock to the casinos, brothels, and high-end liquor lounges in the edge canals. These two districts alone have more gambling dens than any other Vinyotian city. Flashy magical lamps whose flame is colored by alchemical powders decorate the canals themselves. On every street corner, barkers for each den of sin spit fire and perform magic for anyone passing by.