Corazon Valley Island Oasis

Corazon Valley Island Oasis-- or just Corazon to those familiar, and lovingly, Corvio (cor[azon]v[alley]i[sland]o[asis]) to the citizens.
You enter the city from the West. The city was built around the river, La Marianne. Once a small oasis, the river was diverted to flow around both sides of the city and allow a larger town to be built .The walls of the city are a silvery-white marble with gold spires every 100 meters around the outer wall, to cross the river, there is the 1000 ft bridge. This bridge is sectioned into 3 segments that can be raised above or lowered into the water with thick ancient chains, the first segment is 300 feet before you get to a small “island”, then another 300 feet, a small island, and the last 300 ft to the first city wall. The city has two outer walls, about 20 feet between the walls, it is just enough to park a wagon on the single small drawbridge to enter the city on the west side of the city. As soon as you enter the city, you are in the Arabesque Bazaar, the crowded and labyrinthine marketplace. Here is where you find the shops, stalls, and shady business areas, as well as some of the lower quality food/alcohol or lodging establishments. This slowly bleeds into the Gold Plaza, the business district where the more cerebral places of work exist. Lots of accounting, law offices, etc. This acts as a buffer to the platinum walls that enclose a 3000 foot radius circle in the center of the city, the Cloud Palace. To the north, this merges into Mirage Heights, the very wealthy area that clusters around the entrance to the Cloud Palace. This is mostly residential, though some extremely exclusive clubs and stores can be found here. Continuing around the walls of the Cloud Palace is The Sanat, the arts district. The Opera, Museums, and several universities are here. The Akoumarinis is the district of hotels and restaurants for the wealthy and for travellers, merchants, and tourists who want to stay in comfort. This blends back around to the market, and you have circled the city. Weavings its way around the inner city wall and rising up into the sky is the Cat’s Cradle, the slums. The houses and shops and makeshift buildings are built with scraps of whatever makes it into the city. Houses and platforms that get too close to the nice districts find themselves falling with people inside in “horrible accidents”.

This used to be a monarchy and is now technically a democracy though the rulers tend to have been rulers for generations. Too long ago for even the elves to have first hand accounts, the Tabaxi founded this city. Rakshasa from Eidur Mountain snuck in, seeing a place where they could blend in fairly simply. They created The Sinister Paw, a play on their hands being backwards (two left hands) and also their very demonic nature, and infiltrated the government. Their corruption and deceit let the city fall to seige, and when they were overthrown, the Tabaxi fell with them, humanoid races unwilling to differentiate them. There is now a “no glove” rule in many establishments to prevent hiding their hands. The legend was that a powerful dragon created “the heart of the city” an enormous purple gem carved into a heart and that as long as the heart of the city remained in the center of the city, in the Heartspire, the city will be immune to attacks. Anyone can see the gem and it remains a huge attraction. The Heartspire is located in the very center of the walled Cloud Palace and is heavily guarded. The Heartspire is a platinum spindle-like tower with a gold tip that can be seen for miles as a blinking beacon guiding travellers to the city.