Fort Valiance: The Last Bastion

Where the Shattered Coast meets the Abyssal Strait, perched on cliffs of black volcanic rock, stands Fort Valiance — the last true stronghold of the civilized world.

The Founding

Fort Valiance was not built; it was grown — layer upon layer, generation upon generation. The original fortification was a crude watchtower erected by a band of refugees fleeing the collapse of the Valorian Confederacy. They chose the cliff because it offered a commanding view of the strait and because the volcanic stone was too hard for the sea to easily claim.

Over the centuries, that single tower became a wall. The wall became a garrison. The garrison became a town, then a city, then something that defied easy categorization — part fortress, part port, part desperate marketplace where anything could be bought if you knew whom to ask.

The City Today

Modern Fort Valiance is a vertical city built into the cliffside itself. Its districts cascade down the rock face in tiers:

The Crown sits at the summit — the military command, the Governor's Hall, and the barracks of the Valiance Guard. Here the air is clean and the views stretch to the horizon. The wealthy and powerful live as close to the Crown as their coin allows.

The Midwall is the commercial heart: taverns, shops, guildhalls, and the famous Driftwood Market where salvaged goods from sunken ships are traded alongside more conventional wares. The streets are narrow, winding, and perpetually damp with sea spray.

The Underdocks cling to the base of the cliff, a precarious network of wooden platforms, rope bridges, and partially submerged warehouses. This is where the ships come in — merchant vessels, fishing boats, and the occasional corsair galley flying false colours. The Underdocks never sleep. Lanterns burn through the night, their light reflecting off the dark water in wavering gold lines.

The Depths are not officially part of the city at all. They are the flooded tunnels and caverns that honeycomb the cliff below the waterline. Officially sealed. Unofficially, well-trafficked by smugglers, cultists, and things that prefer the dark.

The People

Fort Valiance is a melting pot born of necessity. Humans form the majority, but dwarven engineers maintain the cliff infrastructure, half-elven traders run the most prosperous merchant houses, and a small but notable Sarathi enclave — the Sserakai — occupies a damp quarter near the Underdocks, tolerated for their knowledge of the deep waters.

The people of Fort Valiance are pragmatic, superstitious, and tough. They light candles for the drowned dead, spit over their left shoulder when they speak of the deep, and settle disputes with either coin or steel — preferably coin.