Oregent rings with the steady, almost constant peal of bells. Rather than calling the devout to prayer, however, the bells instead summon workers to the factories, mines, and mills that dominate the town. All facets of city life revolve around bell tolling and the special codes every Oregentan learns growing up. Bells tell Oregentans when to rise in the morning and when to go to sleep at night. They chime for meals and send children tromping off to school, then out into the streets to play. Despite the oppressive nature of the bells, Oregentans seldom complain, for the bells also give warning of imminent disaster.
Centuries ago, a devastating earthquake laid waste to the entire city and actually ripped open the labyrinthine Candlestone Caves just to the east. Though the scale of the disaster has never been repeated, even now the city rarely goes a month without suffering a tremor. When the bells of Oregent let out a confused cacophony, the townsfolk know to run outside. Perhaps because of this uncertainty, few Oregentans resent the fact that almost none of them actually own their homes. Instead, a handful of large businesses, many owned by members of the Lumber Consortium and its allies, hold title to virtually every plot of land. The companies give employees permission to build houses on city lots but retain the right to immediately evict them should they ever lose their jobs. With these two considerations in mind, Oregentans tend to make rather flimsy homes, with lots of interior space divided by screens and rich with furniture, decorations, and other valuables easy to cart away to a new dwelling.
Of course, Oregent retains its fair share of more substantial structures. Many public buildings, along with the mills and factories that make it Andoran’s industrial heartland, loom over the rest of the city. Virtually all of these larger buildings come with their own set of bells, and most of those structures with an industrial purpose also belch out clouds of smoke and ash which make their unique contribution to the sights and smells of the city.
Oregentans often appear crass, opportunistic, and even a little shallow to others. Denied the stability of permanent homes, they frequently find themselves measuring their security and self-worth through bank balances, portable goods, and their own marketable skills. When trying to make sense of the world, they often use money and commerce as metaphors. For instance, though as capable of loyalty as anyone else, on some level, Oregentans cannot help but look upon even their closest companions as collections of assets and liabilities and rating them as good investments or bad.
The bells of Oregent actually do ring out coded messages decipherable by every native of city. When the bells ring out nonsense signals, usually due to an earth tremor, the blood of every Oregentan chills. Perhaps because of that, Oregentans frequently use the term “clattering” as a generic curse word.
Oregent Traits
Only characters from Oregent may select these traits.
Oregent Desperation (Regional): Your instinct to survive easily overpowers your intellect, and you consider this a more than fair trade. Once per day you can improve your condition from dying to disabled by taking 4 points of Intelligence damage.
Oregent Timing (Regional): After years of soul-numbing obedience to the schedules of others, you find synchronizing your actions with an ally second nature. Once per day when you take a readied action in combat, you gain a +3 trait bonus on the d20 roll for that action if it was triggered by an ally’s action.
Oregent Vandal (Regional): You find it quite easy to apply your carefully honed instincts for building and repairing to destruction instead. You gain a +2 trait bonus on damage rolls made against targets with hardness. This bonus does not apply to attacks that ignore hardness.
Oregent
Large City standard (democratic government) AL NG (with LN tendencies)
GP Limit 8,000 gp
Demographics
Population 22,700
Type Mixed (79% human, 9% dwarf, 5% halfling, 3% elf, 2% halfelf, 1% gnome, 1% half-orc)
Authority Figures
Elsbet Regere (female human paladin of Iomedae), mayor; Therox Muraine (male human bard), corrupt demagogue; Gristin Downdelver (male gnome rogue), gnome explorer; “Bruiser” Tor (ogrekin monk), Lumber Consortium enforcer