Drakonstide

Drakonstide is a city located in the continent of Juthron. The capital city for halflings, it would better be called a large town by other races, due to the nomadic nature of halflings making it unusual for them to build large settlements.

Found on the southern coast, the major export of the city is fish, with specialty herbs and spices used in Halfling cuisine being a close second. Its seaport has merchants passing through year round, so the markets of Drakonstide come stocked with all manner of goods from around the world.

The climate of the city is generally warmer than the majority of Juthron, with storms and winds being common throughout the year, though it still tends to experience snowfall during the colder season.

The predominant worship in Drakonstide is to Aashu, with other deities being acknowledge typically only in passing by the majority of citizens.

Aeta Tideturner and his family hailed from this city. His mother, Jinni Tideturner, is the high priestess of the church of Aashu, found near the city docks.

The Legend of Drakonstide
Long ago, halflings dwelled in the lands that Drakonstide would one day be built upon. Save for the few wanderers that still travelled the lands, the people had settled on the coastline, building their dwellings and establishments. At first, life was good. They spent their days working hard and their nights sharing in laughs. However, this peace was not to last.

A cabal of dragons also claimed the lands as their own, and when they returned to find the little people’s homes, they grew angry. Easily slaying the unprepared halflings in their rage, they declared the survivors to be their slaves. Every day the dragons would spread out to roam the seas, and every night they would return, expecting a feast awaiting them. Any attempts to leave or fight back were swiftly routed, and the people became resigned to their fate.

Though they spent long days fishing at the docks and in the nearby rivers, the dragons forbade the halflings from sailing on the sea. The majestic waters were not fit for the little folk: their dirtied bodies would surely stain the ocean with their filth.

One young man sought to change this. One evening, when the seas were calm and the dragons were full, he approached their leader on his hands and knees, pleading that they might reach some kind of compromise. He longed for the days where his people were free to sail on the oceans blue, and offered that they might be able to obtain a more splendid bounty of fish if the dragons just permitted them to sail once again.

The dragon let out a mocking laugh at the idea, before grabbing the halfling in his claws. He flew out over the oceans, crushing him and taunting him as the land grew more and more distant. With a final spit, he threw the halfling into the ocean that he so desperately longed to see again.

As the dragon flew back towards the coast, he heard a roar come from the sea behind him. As he looked back, a blinding light flashed before his eyes as the clouds formed an angry mass. Soon the wind around him began to erupt, and, as fat as he’d grown from the many feasts he’d forced the halflings to prepare, he could not beat his wings against the typhoon that encircled him. A mighty wave swept over him from behind, and he was pulled down to the depths of the ocean, never to be seen again.

As an uncomfortable uncertainty crept across the coastal dragons at their leader's absence, the thundering storm came closer. Dragons and halflings alike watched with baited breath as the winds grew stronger, until they too saw the blinding flash of light. When they opened their eyes, Aashu, the god of the tempest, was before them.

With a mighty roar, he decreed that the seas were for no-one else to claim. As punishment for their hubris, the dragons rule of the halflings had come to an end, and that the lands were no longer there’s.

Arrogant as the dragons were, they rose to fight for what they considered their land against the god before them. As Aashu beat his own wings, the wind continued to rise until the dragons were swept up into the clouds and scattered far and wide, yet leaving the dragons untouched.

His declaration made, Aashu returned to the seas as the halflings celebrated their new freedom. In reverence for the storm dragon saving them from their plight, they renamed the land that was claimed under the dragon’s tongue with a name of their own: Drakonstide. For though it had been dragons who had enslaved them, it was the storm dragon who had showed the true might of the sea, and thus any tide that swept onto the shore was surely his.