Gyrodus - Capital of Salvatoria
Gyrodus (or Gyrodeus) is capital of the Salvatorian Empire, it is easily the largest city in Samond, and boasts the most considerable defenses and advanced infrastructure of any since the fall of the Zycharian Empire. Known the world over for its glory, it is the product of countless generations dedicated to the service of the Empire. Some even say the city began as a Zycharian outpost before the rebellion.
Whatever the case, the city is a marvel of engineering, and despite its population easily numbering in the millions - is nearly entirely self-sufficient. Not an inch is wasted in Gyrodus, the roofs boast gardens, the windows hanging planters, mushrooms are cultivated in the basements, and massive plots of land are sectioned off for agriculture on stacked platforms. Water is provided by a network of aqueducts, canals, and aquifers beneath the city. All of this is serviced by an extensive and advanced sewer system, and defended by the largest, best trained, and best supplied army in the world.
“Gyrodus? No, I've never been there, but I have heard stories... here's one:
There was an army of ten-thousand raiders. They were powerful, feared across the continent, warriors for a living. One day they came to Gyrodus and decided to attack.
The outer wall stood a hundred feet high, but the raiders were not deterred - they had faced impossible odds before. They circled around the city for miles, until they found the gates. They stood wide open. Caravans of traders and workers and parades of aristocrats flowed in and out of the city like great rainbow rivers, dwarfing the army of raiders. But still they were not intimidated.
They entered the city and looked up at the soldiers along the walls. Even though they approached with weapons ready, the soldiers paid them no mind. The raiders found that all the streets of the city were paved with polished stone, like the floor of a holy temple. They slipped and fell on their faces, weapons clattering. After all, they were foreigners, like us, with smooth leather-soled boots. Humiliated, they took off their shoes and shuffled barefoot out of the city.
But still they would persist. They came back without their weapons, and dispersed into Gyrodus to buy the studded footwear produced in the city. But they found that in spite of the great wealth they had accumulated through their lifetime of raiding smaller settlements, they didn't have enough coin.
The raiders were still not ready to give up. They took jobs as simple laborers in Gyrodus, and found they made more money, lived more richly, then they ever thought possible as thieves. The army and all its deeds were nothing to the city, so they were forgotten.”