(pop:46,000) Located off Conqueror's Bay, along the Storm Coast, Kingsport is the oldest city in Eldara.
The city of Kingsport, which dates back to antiquity, is unique among Eldaran cities in its mixed heritage of both Shorafi and Thannish culture, style, and architecture. The city also serves as the home port of Eldara's navy, as well as the western terminus for the Isthmus Road leading from Sathay.
For over 4,000 years, Kingsport has been a world-famous seaport, serving hundreds of merchant vessels from the cities across Oris, including: Akros, Elsareth, Freeport, Natharos, Pike's Ferry, Sasserine, Sathay, the Seven Cities of Bronze, Shard, Syrene, Tymor, and Wyn Falas.
Kingsport is currently governed by Duke Gildan Irazadi.
Local History
Present-day Kingsport is one the oldest cities on Corwyn— its history stretches back into the early the distant years of the Third Age. The city's history can be divided into several distinct eras.
Member of the Tekritian League
The city of Tekrit began as a humble trading center where caravans crossing the Sea of Sand would meet with northern merchants to exchange their goods. Over the years, the settlement grew into a thriving city. At its zenith, the rulers of Tekrit made alliances with the rulers of a group of fellow City-states spread across the region.
This alliance became know as the Tekritian League, and was named for its largest and most influential city. During much of the Third Age, the city prospered, until it was conquered by the Pharaohs of Shorafa and remained a Shorafi Satrap for many years afterward.
Around the year 800 of the Third Age, Tekrit and the other five cities of the League rose up in a disastrous war against the Shorafi. The League was defeated by a merciless Pharaoh named Agath-Arah, who ordered the city to be utterly destroyed. After this catastrophe, the city ruins lay abandoned for many years.
Capital of Valdor
Over the next three centuries the city of Tekrit gradually rebuilt itself, but while doing so, it lost most of its Shorafi heritage and became culturally Thannish. About 800/3, the city and its surrounding region became populated by a Thannish ethnic group called the "Dhurlan." As the city began to grow once again it became the capital of a local Barony called Dureth.
One of the early rulers of Dureth was Lord Valden Del Vecchio, a handsome and popular leader who married a beautiful woman named Bröna. Shortly after their marriage, rival nobles murdered Valden in a plot to take control of the Barony. Bröna narrowly survived and went on a blood-soaked campaign to avenge his death and destroy all those responsible. While doing so, she proved herself a valiant warrior and a capable military leader. By the end of her life, Bröna had expanded the small Barony into a much larger nation. She re-named her new realm "Valdor," after her beloved late husband.
By 1150/3, the city of Tekrit came to be ruled by Valden the Conqueror, and great changes came to Tekrit. The new king ordered the city renamed "Kingsport" and used it has a base, when he launched a series of military campaigns which would expand the kingdom of Valdor into the largest nation ever seen on Corwyn.
After Valden's death, the rivalries of his two sons would trigger the Twilight War; a bloody conflict which broke Valdor into two smaller kingdoms; Eldara and Rhodara. King Valden's son Eldan, the newly-proclaimed ruler of Eldara, moved his royal seat of power to the city of Azimar, which he re-named "Eldarand."
Recent Events
In the second century of the Sixth Age, Kingsport was attacked by the Vilzari during a bloody conflict known as the Desert War. After a long siege, the city was captured in the year 243/6. Afterward, most of its population were either killed or taken back to An-Khara as slaves.
In the following decades, the city rebuilt itself once again, but it has never regained the grandeur it once held in ancient times. Today, it remains an important southern seaport with n the Kingdom of Eldara.
