The capital. Where the Lucenia River empties into the Divinity Passage, Azantir sprawls across both banks in a maze of pyramids, canals, and markets. This is the largest city in the Shacklands—estimates put the population at over 200,000, though accurate counts are impossible given the Skaag warrens below and the constant flow of slaves through the markets.
The Emperor's Palace crowns the city's highest pyramid, offering views across the entire urban expanse. Below it, the Imperial Plaza can hold fifty thousand for speeches, festivals, or public executions. The great Pillar of Conquest here stands over two hundred feet tall, covered in names too numerous to read.
Azantir's docks never sleep. Slave ships arrive from Tamadrez. Timber rafts float down from upriver. Trade goods flow in from across Alaria, drawn by Gorath's colossal economy. If it can be bought or sold, Azantir has a market for it. The south's oldest banking house keeps its counting-rooms here too. Belmonte's house advances the silver that puts Gorath's legions in the field, secured against conquests the empire has not yet made, and what that wager costs the man who holds it is Belmonte's own affair.
The empire's three powers all seat themselves here. The Emperor holds his court in the palace at the crown of the city, where Veramus now spends his reign opening fronts to keep the marshals from electing a successor. The slave-markets answer to a Praetor; the post belongs at present to Esmeraz, who controls the auctions, the holding-pens, and a treasury that rivals the throne's, and who has begun saying aloud that coin rather than another doomed campaign should choose the next emperor. And the Iron of the Eternal March, Gorath's war-church, keeps its primacy at Azantir, where the Hammer-Primate Ozimar ordains the chaplains who march out with the legions. Crown, market, and altar sit within sight of one another on the city's pyramids, and each watches the other two.