Fairhaven

Founded soon after humanity spread across Khorvaire, Fairhaven is a city with a rich history. The capital features straight roads and tidy buildings, with tree-lined neighborhoods, manicured parks, and statues depicting great leaders and heroes. Grand universities fill city blocks, teeming with students and scholars. Great temples dedicated to the Sovereign Host, mage towers, museums, and more give the city a refined atmosphere.

Fairhaven is also Aundair’s commercial crossroad. All the dragon marked houses have enclaves here, and caravans from all across the Five Nations arrive regularly. Overhead, elemental airships drift through the clouds, descending to dock at the sky tower, while elemental galleons prowl the Aundair River, laden with goods being conveyed to and from distant ports. Merchants and traders wheel and deal with skeptical peasants from the surrounding farmlands in Fairhaven’s numerous marketplaces. The Distant Exchange, a bustling market specializing in foreign goods, provides silks, exotic consumables, and brilliant artwork from faraway lands, catering to the city’s elite.

Above all, Fairhaven is a city of learning. Schools ranging from single classrooms to sprawling universities are home to students from all cultures and races. This crucible produces regular advances in philosophy, magic, sciences, and commerce. Fairhaven’s reputation for scholarship makes education its greatest industry.

Common Knowledge: Fairhaven has an orderly design, with brick- or stone-paved streets and stunning towers and minarets. Its grand style hints of something other than human thought, and its layout suggests careful planning. None can miss the pale towers of the city’s central fortress and royal palace, Fairhold (Eberron Campaign Guide, page 69). Elsewhere about the city, other buildings, particularly municipal ones, echo the style of these spires. Magic as much as muscle shaped numerous buildings.

From the uplands about 50 miles southwest of the city spills the Aundair River. The river is wide, slow, and deep by the time it reaches Fairhaven, and then it meanders northeasterly down the plains toward Scion’s Sound. Its position on the river makes Fairhaven a trade gateway to western Khorvaire. Other cities in the region are less hospitable, and the river becomes too shallow and treacherous for larger merchant vessels to fare beyond the city. As a mercantile hub, Fairhaven is also a place full of opportunities, legal and otherwise.

Fairhaven offers much more than moneymaking prospects, however. It is a focus of adventure, learning, and magic. Fey are common here, harkening to the time when Aundair was a wilder place. The University of Wynarn (Eberron Campaign Guide, page 69) also brings a diverse population into the city from across Khorvaire. Major holds of several dragonmarked houses stand in or near the city, including Cannith West. The Wayfinder Foundation has its headquarters within the city, bringing in all sorts of venturesome folk.

History DC 15: After a spy loyal to the Church of the Silver Flame divulged Aundairian battle plans, Aundair lost Thaliost in 926 YK. Aundair’s citizens responded with a passion, sacking Silver Flame temples and killing priests. In Fairhaven, citizens looted the Silver Flame Cathedral and lynched any clergy who failed to renounce the Flame. The ruler of Aundair at the time, Regent Marlex, declared the religion anathema to the Crown. By the regent’s order, the Silver Flame Cathedral of Fairhaven was closed but left standing as a reminder to Aundairians of what they had lost to Thrane. As the Last War ground on, Marlex’s edict became tradition. The abandoned and crumbling cathedral still stands today. Fairhaveners avoid it and its long shadow.

History DC 20: To those knowledgeable on city building, Fairhaven has the appearance of a young city. Old cities meander beyond their original layout, becoming chaotic. Fairhaven has the geometric layout of a settlement that has yet to escape its reins. Fairhaven started as a military installation and became a trade port. The military leaders at the time planned it from the beginning and controlled its growth. Later, when the needs of the city called for new construction, such as the recent addition of Fairhaven’s three airship towers, those with a voice in the city made a way clear to build the necessary structures.

Fairhaven has also had its share of river floods in its history. Civic magewrights and their magic keep the city dry now, even when the Aundair River rises to flood fields near the city. In the past, however, the waters washed away the old and made way for the new.

History DC 25: When the majority of Tairnadal elves abandoned their colonies to goblins thousands of years ago, a few clans of elves remained in Khorvaire. As mobile as their counterparts in Aerenal, some of these elves migrated north to put distance between them and the power centers of the Dhakaani goblins. Over time, their nomadic ways took them amazing distances and their culture changed. Sarlonan immigrants met these elves in Khorvaire and absorbed them, which led to the half-elves of modern Khorvaire.

Among these elves were those who plied the waters around Scion’s Sound and the Aundair River when humans and other half-elves came and established Thaliost, Aundair’s earliest city. Fairhaven served as one of the harbors of the “river elves” in those days. Numerous half-elves of Fairhaven and western Scion’s Sound still bear the traditions and fiery spirit of these elf ancestors.

The river elves are still fine riders. Many believe that the horses of Aundair might have descended from those the migrant Tairnadal elves brought with them. Some claim that the elves also influenced the dueling and singing traditions of Aundair.

Half-elves common in the Whiteroof Ward add local color to Fairhaven and points east into Scion’s Sound. Dressed flamboyantly in loose clothing reminiscent of Valenar elf dress, these quixotic, itinerant people are fishers, ferry folk, shippers, and even pirates on the Aundair River. Such “river elves,” as they are called, are rumored to descend from Fairhaven’s earliest inhabitants, and they keep contact among diverse clans up and down the waterways around the sound. River elves are vibrant and independent, and they are savvy and bold in business and other interpersonal dealings. The half-elves also look to the protection of their kind, and they have a reputation for duping the unwary.

River Running: No better guide than a river elf can be had for the environs of the Aundair River all the way to Scion’s Sound. Anyone who needs to move something in or out of Fairhaven without the notice of the authorities can turn to the river elves. Some Aundairians consider the half-elves, who have downriver dealings in Thrane and Karrnath, a little too liberal and worldly. This tolerance works two ways. PCs might run afoul of river elf buccaneers or thwart smugglers in Thrane’s employ, but they might as easily work with the half-elves to root out river monsters or gather intelligence in Thaliost or Korth.

Although the river elves are a colorful part of Fairhaven life, and most are as law abiding as most citizens, river life has its dark side. River elves are fantastic guides and expert shippers, but both traits make them ideal smugglers. Illicit goods come into Fairhaven through the river ports, and the bulk of that trade flows through half-elven hands. Finding a smuggling ring and shutting it down can be part of just about any heroic adventure.

For most smugglers, the money and thrills are the goal. Such individuals like to think they’ve outwitted the authorities, and live for the challenge of escaping near capture again and again. But other river elves are hardened criminals without a qualm about bringing just about anything into Fairhaven if the price or incentive is right. Still others have political motivations. These reasons can come from dragonmarked houses such as House Lyrandar, governments such as Thrane’s, or even organizations such as the Ashbound or other Eldeen loyalists.

The half-elf ir’Lantar family has enjoyed success within Aundair since before Galifar was sundered. Extensive holdings outside Fairhaven, as well as its manor and grounds within, attest to this success. Family history has it that ir’Lantar ancestors lived here when the foundations of Fairhaven were being set. Countess Tensyn ir’Lantar, a well-known sorcerer, has encouraged all her children into service to the Aundairian Crown. Her youngest twins, Alais and Helais, serve as the queen’s ambassadors to Breland in Sharn.

Fiends in Fairhaven: The truth is that the ir’Lantar family has been in league with rakshasas for generations. They owe numerous triumphs to their affiliation with the Lords of Dust. All the adults know of the family’s true history, and the children are raised to be decorous in appearance but cruel. Helais, one of the Royal Eyes of Aundair who regularly returns to Fairhaven, is a guise used by two rakshasas, Zathara and Nethatar. The ir’Lantirs are willing to go to any length to protect their secret, and their public actions are rarely suspicious.