Roaroux

The Rainy City

Situated in the world's most dangerous stretch of water, the Strait of Ildial, Roaroux is the only light in one of Totania's darkest corners: its very center. The waterway between the two largest continents, Elone and Udai, is heavily traversed by merchants, diplomats, sailors, fishermen, and everyone in between, and the only place they have to rest in case of a storm (which happens more frequently there than anywhere else in the world) is Roaroux.

Landmarks

Roaroux sits atop a cliff overlooking the dangerous strait, and its sky is almost always obscured by storm clouds. The entire strait, as a matter of fact, has anomalous weather, and Roaroux is caught in that cursed maelstrom.

Street Drains

Due to this, Roaroux is likely most well known for its inverted bowl design, surrounded by walls that keep the rain in and a street that curves upward toward the raised city center, making a makeshift moat within the walls during floods and storms. All around the street are drains that empty into the cliff below, where pipes send the runoff back into the sea.
The streets flood often, but thanks to the drains, this is resolved as quickly as possible, and many people visit Roaroux just to see the architectural marvel that, to the untrained eye, appears to be no more than small holes in the ground on the sides of the road.

Auge's Pride

The Roaroux Tower, as it was once known, is the central fixture of the town. A towering lighthouse with a fire at its peak that must always be lit at night (with mirrors reflecting the sun during the day), it is the only signal to aid those traversing the Strait of Ildial that they are nearing land. The tower itself is made of a gray stone that is almost always wet with rain and the remains of the strait's massive waves.
From base to tip it is 105 meters tall, reachable only by a ladder that one must climb to get inside, then a spiral staircase within to the glass room at the top, where the fire sits. It is inconvenient for the lighthouse keeper, but it was designed to dissuade local rascals from tampering with the fire.
During the late Age of Tranquility, it was renamed after its lighthouse keeper: Auge Bivran. She was influential in the town during that period, basically helping to keep it afloat despite worshipping the heretical (and, at the time, banned) Goddess Papatūānuku, and she cozied up to a local political figure, who decided to name it after her. It now stands as a grave memorial of a troubled soul, as Bivran is believed to have contributed to the crash that killed her and King Joziah Regalcrest, one of the tragedies that began the Age of Plague.
Across from Auge's Pride now stands a memorial to the deceased king, a small statue that stares up at the lighthouse's flame, hopeful that it will guide his people to a better future than he had. Some locals have, in honor of Bivran and as a small act of rebellion against the crown, left copies of Suor, Papatūānuku's holy text, at the foot of the statue. Perhaps if anything were to guide King Joziah, it ought to have been that book he so strongly resented rather than the lighthouse's apex.

Founding

Long before Roaroux was founded, during the time of Ancient Ishada, the seaside cliff was home to a town called Haras.
Little is known about Haras, save for the few ruins that survived time and warfare: a temple dedicated to Damaris, the Ishadan equivalent of the Goddess of the Sea Papatūānuku, and a stable on the town's edge, now housing only the bones of its old horses.
As with many Ishadan settlements, Haras was likely destroyed in war, either with another city-state in the region or during the conquest of the Helft Empire.
By the time the Gelts came around, the town was little more than an outpost for local Goblins, and it was taken in a simple skirmish.
But the land posed a danger to its settlers: constant rain left the streets flooded and impossible to traverse, and every week ships crashed into the cliffside, lost in the Strait of Ildial's tides. The mist of the Ethereal Bay made traversal difficult as well, but a solution was found when the lighthouse was first built.
From here, the town of Roaroux began to gain a real identity, as architects worked out ways to keep the rain from being too great of a nuisance while also becoming known as a haven for those sailing through the Strait of Ildial. Not many stopped there, but the lighthouse helped them get their bearings, and from there it became famous around the world.

Jagged Shore

The beaches of Roaroux are not accessible to most, unless they are skilled rock climbers. Jagged rocks jut out, upon which a majority of ships end up impaled, and only a small, difficult to navigate path stretches from the city's exterior gate to a dock at sea level. So few ships stay for long that this dock is rarely in use for a prolonged period, meaning it is not well-maintained (very few people wish to climb down by the unpredictable waters to repair it), and it serves mostly for decoration rather than anything else. Still, it is used frequently for short stops before the tide goes back in.

Trapper's Walls

The walls around Roaroux, which rise up around the town's dip (as it curves downward from the center to the edges) are known as trapper's walls; they help to trap the water so that it doesn't flow down the cliffside (where the dock, lighthouse, and any other buildings outside the wall would immediately be targeted by overwhelming amounts of water), and push it instead toward the drains.
Another purpose for the walls is to keep out danger. Invasions from Alzirgos, Goblins, or Centaurs are repelled by the massive walls that lead into, usually, a moat that is slowly draining as the rain continues to pour down.
Atop the walls are stone enclaves where guards stay, safe from the rain and vigilant of any approaching dangers. Roaroux, however, is no great prize and is rarely the target of any attacks. It is considered cursed, and its roots in Ancient Ishada may have something to do with that.

Shrine of Damaris

The oldest ruin in Roaroux is an old shrine to Damaris, who was the Ishadan equivalent of the Goddess Papatūānuku. The Sea Goddess watches over the town, or so the temple says (though it speaks of a town that no longer exists, not Roaroux itself). Still, even when her worship was forbidden, people stopped to pray at her shrine for good fortune and to keep the city afloat in a deadly region. It is made of old marble and stone, and features inscriptions in the ancient tongues that have since been lost.

Government

Roaroux has, for most of its history, been under the jurisdiction of the Kingdom of Man, and more specifically the Duchy of Raine. Most Dukes have avoided the town, however, considering it too dangerous. Instead, they leave governance of the town to a reeve, who acts as the Duke's voice in all matters regarding running Roaroux.
During the Age of Plague, when the Regalcrest dynasty temporarily fell and the kingdom split up, Roaroux became a pariah (due to its role in the death of the King). The local Reeve became a major political figure, establishing the Rainy City as an independent city-state that he hoped would be able to compete with the nearby Alzirgos. While not as successful, its vital location allowed it some success, though it was eventually reconquered and brought back into the Kingdom of Man.
Since the Reeve's actions, however, the title of "Reeve" has become one of great honor in Roaroux, as the Reeve was once a king in his own right during the town's most volatile period.

Population

Roaroux is almost entirely made up of Geltic Humans, though there is a sizeable population of Halflings as well (about 30% of the population), and even a negligable but present Nereid community (as this is one of the few places on land that the sea-dwelling folk can survive in). Still, one will likely see 10 humans for every 1 of another species there.