Thoughts on Tamoraz
by Geoff GanderThe first visit or two will be at Jadikira's villa, which lies in the wealthier, outer part of Tarmoraz.
I see the original city looking like a "C", framing a deep-water bay and surrounded by cliffs breachable in only a few places. This saved the city in its youth. The area surrounding the bay is where the markets and businesses are, as well as lower-class dwellings. A number of roads stretch out from the market like rays, with the major one leading more or less to the northeast. About halfway between the piers and the outer wall is a ring road which divides the inner and outer city. The outer city is almost entirely made up of estates, parks, and a handful of defensive towers originally constructed to delay attackers who managed to breach the outer walls. These fell into disuse once the vampires took over, and now most of them are haunted ruins.
This bizarre arrangement is a product of the city's evolution. Originally it was a mundane village, but as it grew its defensability came to the attention of a prominent vampire queen, who used her magic to enspell the leaders and take over - whereas every other attacker tried by force, and failed. Recognising the value of Tamoraz, the vampire queen left the people pretty much alone (aside from the blood tax), and decided that she and her followers would establish their estates in a band of territory surrounding Tarmoraz. This served two functions:
1. It was a visible reminder to the people that they were being protected (and therefore dissuaded most people from leaving).
2. It allowed the vampires to track who left the town to go inland - some people who passed through the estates were harvested, and those who tried to escape in order to get help were never heard from again.
With the vampiric lords protecting them, the towers fell into ruin (and were subsequently used as larders and other things). Meanwhile, life was pretty good in the inner city, and Tamoraz prospered under its protectors. The vampires were pretty nasty to outsiders, so the lands outside Tamoraz acquired a fearsome reputation - until the vampire queen decided to expand her holdings.
NPCs
Initially we would be looking at Jadikira and maybe a personal assistant - a lesser vampire in her service. Over time the player could be exposed to the head of the merchant's guild, the general, the human governor who handles the mundane stuff, and one or two dissidents.