Dazunor-Rannuli is the preeminent city of Essera, its greatest Rill port and economic engine. In addition to having the largest population and being headquarters for the Order of Epoptes that operates the Rill, the city is also home to the Seven Houses, a cartel of merchant families that wields enormous power both commercially and politically. (Read about the Seven Houses here.)
The city started out as a small town named Heb on the Dazun River. The town had a tall, treeless hill at its edge and was surrounded by fens and swamp. The people of Heb caught fish and birds and prospered that way but they were far from rich. Derlon, one of the Three—a godborn son of Leur and Amynas—liked to visit Heb and he grew fond of the townsfolk, with whom he would sing and feast.
After Derlon raised the Rill at Sordan and then Permephedon, he established the Rill’s main corridor. His first act after doing this was to awaken another Rill node. He chose the hill at Heb—which he’d known so well—to give birth to the third Rill port. The hilltop transformed into a Rill crown with three runs. Because the new port served two domains, Dazunor and Rannuli, it was called by the port name of Dazunor-Rannuli. In time as the city grew larger and larger, the port name supplanted Heb as the name of the city.
Over the centuries the natural waterways of the fens gave way to canals, some of which were originally natural channels and others which are human made. The Rill Mount and nearby areas are thick with wharfs and warehouses. Many canals are lined with the houses, manses, and palaces of the city’s inhabitants. That the city is rich and has lots of impressive buildings is an understatement. The map shows some of these which play important parts in the series, such as the Rillhome, the Emrysen Palace, and the Customhouse of the Seven Houses. It also includes locations that will play parts in The Walled City. [The walled city is not this city: readers will notice that Dazunor-Rannuli does not have a wall.]
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