Khôltar

Khôltar was a small city on the edge of the Great Rift in south Faerûn. It was known as the Iron City because of its high walls covered in iron. Founded in the Year of the Vibrant Land, 316 DR, the city existed for over a thousand years until it was destroyed by the collapse of the Underchasm caused by the Spellplague in the Year of Blue Fire, 1385 DR.

Geography
The city sat on the western edge of the Great Rift in south Faerûn. It was connected by the Dunsel Trail to Eartheart on the Trader's Way about 90 miles (145 kilometers) to the southeast and to Shaarmid on the Golden Road about 500 miles (800 kilometers) to the west.

Description
Khôltar was surrounded on three sides (north, west, and south) by a double wall erected in a ragged pattern of jutting points and concave angles. The walls were roughly thirty feet (nine meters) apart and topped out at over a hundred feet (thirty meters) tall in most segments, with the inner wall a few steps higher than the outer wall. These barriers were made of large stone blocks and the external face of the outer wall was covered in huge sheets of iron laid out like overlapping shingles and bolted to the underlying stone. This iron cladding gave Khôltar its moniker of the Iron City.

The city had three entrances that passed through the towering walls. These heavily defended gates each had a unique design carved above the inside arch depicting some aspect of Khôltar's history. The northern gate, called Handrornlar after a human smith that led the defense against Shaaryan raids in the city's early years, was adorned with large carvings of dwarves wielding pickaxes, hammers, and waraxes. The western gate, called Dubrinlar after the last Shieldlord (governor) before Khôltar was granted its autonomy from the dwarves of the Deep Realm, sported carvings of human smiths and other crafters each standing over a cache of coins. In one hand, they are holding the tools of their trades, and the other is open, palm up, waiting to receive payment for their work. The southern gate, called Farrgaunlar after the person who built it, was decorated with a somewhat gruesome scene of desert nomads on rampant horses, all being skewered by spears in the Iron City design.

Inside the walls, space was at a premium and most structures were solid keeps of stone, cylindrical or rectangular, between five and nine stories tall, with very few structures below three stories high. Cellars were quite common but kept simple due to the large footings and anchored buttresses required for the high towers.

Infrastructure
(roads, cobbled streets, water, dump)

Atmosphere
(Canyons, stench, rust, street justice, work ethic, greenery, soot)

Government
