Header Art: The Impossible Eye, 2009 Paizo Inc.

What is the City of Brass?

Located in the heart of the Plane of Fire is the fabled City of Brass, one of, if not the, largest city in the multiverse. This city is made of basalt and obsidian; blackened stone cracked from the intense heat that comes off the sea of flames in intense waves. Ruled by the cruel efreeti sultan, Abd al-Malik bin Marwan, the King of the Jinn, all manner of unsavory creatures are attracted to the immense markets where magic, treasure, weapons, and even lives are traded in equal measures. It is said that nothing is illegal to sell in the city, so long as the Sultan is given his share.

The city is wrapped by an immense black stone wall with twenty five gates and two brass towers that provide commanding views of the city. On one side is a harbor to a sea made of liquid fire; the rest of the city sits upon a cracked and scorched wasteland with orchards of twisted trees that span for miles around the city's walls.

History

Founded thousands upon thousands of years ago, the City of Brass was built to be the greatest destination in the multiverse, attracting merchants from across the planes and perhaps beyond them. This feat had been attempted many times before, from the city of Dis in the Nine Hells to the various worlds on the Material Plane, but the City of Brass has been able to succeed where others have failed. The city was founded by 26 noble efreeti families, with one of them, the Marwan lineage, forcing the other families to bend the knee to them. As millennia passed, the families waged their private wars against one another, each trying to outmaneuver the other and claim the sultanate. After all this time, only one family has been wholly destroyed by the others, though the Marwan lineage has passed through almost all of the original families until no one is truly sure who the original Marwan family might be.

Many believe that this city is the oldest in the multiverse, a fact that the efreeti are happy to remind any who complains about the city. Ancient estates, the obsidian walls, and copper towers still stand in their original grandeur; little else can claim to be as ancient in the city as the families are constantly trying to outdo one another. Whole city blocks are destroyed in a day when a family decides that they can improve the area and show off to the sultan that they are far wealthier. Residents of such areas are rarely given more than a few hours of notice, and, if they are particularly lucky, or it is a family that can afford to do so, they are given a large stipend to find new housing elsewhere in the city.

To truly be the oldest city in the multiverse would mean that the city was created almost immediately upon the creation of the Plane of Fire, when the forerunners first enfused their mind and soul with elemental magic, binding themselves to a specific element of air, earth, fire, and water. Only the gods may remember such times from such ancient history, and only the true gods who were first here at the first stage of creation. If the City of Brass is the oldest city in the multiverse, it also acts as proof to philosophers who wander what came first, the inner planes or the outer planes, matter or belief. With the City of Brass being the oldest, it would mean that the inner planes were formed first, and it is from the elemental planes that everything else was crafted from.

Prophecy of the Final Ember

It is said that when the city was first formed, a prophecy was made that the city would stand the test of time. That if the city was ever emptied, it would be the sign that the Plane of Fire itself was finally burning out, and that the time of the Final Ember had begun. It would signify the end of the multiverse where entropy ultimately unravels all matter, time, space, and belief in the planes. While the prophecy has been lost and found hundreds of times since the beginning of the city, it always predicts that the Final Ember will begin with all inhabitants in the city suddenly dying, their corpses turning to burnt ash, and all the gates will be sealed against entry. Those who climb the walls will find an empty city where only the ghosts of the true Marwan lineage reside.

An Outsider’s Perspective

The City of Brass is hot; it is a constant heat that can be hard to ignore as there is no escaping it. It’s easy for outsiders to understand why someone would visit this plane, as the city boasts the largest markets for almost any item or service within the Grand Bazaar and there are vast riches to be made within the plane. The thing that escapes most outsiders is why anyone would want to live in this city, and how the city came to be so massive. While a resistance to fire can certainly help to survive such a hot environment, there are nicer cities in the multiverse that don’t feature buildings, sometimes melting when the magical protections of the city are overtaxed by a solar storm that rages across the plane.

Most outsiders are willing to spend a week or two, at most, within the city before they seek cooler climates where water isn’t a precious resource and their thirst can finally be quenched. Those chose never to leave the city are typically because they were enslaved by the efreeti or because they become part of the burnt, those who are said to have lost their mind thanks to the heat of the plane, with anywhere else being too cold.

A Native’s Perspective

Those who reside within the city often have a link to fire in some way, be it that they are born of fire, known as the fire-born or the fire-touched, depending on how attuned to fire they are. Those who are fire-born, and therefore are immune to fire, find this city to be rather cold compared to the rest of the plane, while the fire-touched, any who has a resistance against fire, typically find the city to be warm but not unbearable.

For any but the efreeti, living within the city is simple enough, so long as you know the laws and where you are allowed to be. The efreeti truly own the city, everyone else is simply a visitor with few rights. There are districts within the city that are only for the efreeti, like the Noble’s Ward located around the sultan’s palace. Non-efreeti who try to wander these streets are quickly captured by one of the two million-plus efreeti that reside within the city and are enslaved by whoever captured them. Breaking any law within the city, and you aren’t an efreeti, is a good enough reason for any efreeti to simply enslave you and so crime typically happens only in the wards and districts where efreeti do not travel into.

For those who are an efreeti within the city, a constant play is being performed. They act as if there is great harmony between the Families of Brass, but in actuality, there is a constant waging political war between them. Assassinations aren’t uncommon, and the original hostilities between the families has carried on since the founding of the city. It isn’t hard to imagine why, as each of the twenty-six Families of Brass were given a gate to oversee and impose their taxes on. Allied families naturally gravitated so that they chose gates that were close to one another, while their enemies took ahold of gates that were on the opposite side of the city from them. For outsiders, it is easy to guess that the Jawdat family located along the northern wall of the city has an intense hatred for the Zaahira family found on the southern wall of the city, directly opposite of the Jawdat.

For everyone else, they are simply trying to survive in a city that holds no love for them. Merchants are given greater leniency when it comes to the law than even azers or salamanders that have lived here for all their life and are not of the merchant class. The typical hierarchy within the city starts at the top with the sultan, followed by the Families of Brass, the major efreeti families who arrived after the founding families, the minor efreeti families who pledge themselves to a Family of Brass, any other efreeti, like merchants or adventurers, dao allies visiting from the plane of earth, with non-efreeti merchants far below them, and then everyone else even farther below the non-efreeti merchants. Most travelers to this city are told to bring several wagons of trade goods and to try and get themselves introduced to the city and the families as merchants; that way they are given greater permissions and leniency within the city, unlike all others. This is an expensive procedure that typically costs thousands of gold, but can be worth it, especially for adventurers who find it difficult to follow the law.

Appearance

There are vast orchards of blackened and twisted trees leading up to the city. While outsiders might think these trees are destroyed by the heat of the plane, they are actually healthy date orchards that are carefully well tended to by the efreeti’s slave population. The city is wrapped by a black obsidian wall that appears hazy as waves of heat billow off of them, giving the entire city a hazy image as if seen as a mirage in the desert. There are two massive brass towers that rise on opposite sides, the largest buildings within the city, standing four hundred feet tall. Twenty-five gates are located at even intervals around the city, each with long lines of merchants and travelers attempting to enter the city, but first must pay the respective taxes to the city.

The city is situated next to a burning sea of liquid fire that is so dense that metal, and supposedly wood and flesh, can float upon it before it is incinerated by the intense heat. The city streets are chock full of people and goods, with throngs of people attempting to navigate the twisting streets of the city while still giving a wide berth to the efreeti who stalk the streets as its master. Tall buildings rise up across the city with traditional architecture elements found across the planes with minarets, intricate designs, and bright colors that are typically red, orange, and yellow, but never blue as that is the color of the Plane of Air and Water, vile genie who are the hated enemies of the efreeti. The splendor of wealthy families can be found across the plane, as each attempts to outdo the other, commissioning buildings made entirely of gold, using diamonds and gems like common tiling, and working rare metals throughout the structures. There are some trees and plant-life within the city, but it is sparse and limited as few plants have adapted to grow within the blistering heat of the plane.

Atmosphere

Outsiders who visit the Plane of Fire may see the city as a haven within the plane, as it is one of the ‘coolest’ locations on the plane with an average temperature of 125°F (52°C). While this is still an unbearable temperature for most creatures, compared to the rest of the plane, it is a welcome relief from the burning flames that encircle the city. With the Burning Sea adjoined to the city, many find it unbelievable that the city could be so cool, especially as the sea is so hot that it melts any metal or object placed within it, reaching temperatures over 7,000°F (3,870°C). Many believe that only the most powerful stars in the Material Plane can match or exceed the temperature in this plane, which makes the cool temperatures of the city astounding.

The secret to this is within the black obsidian walls that wrap the city with glyphs and sigils carved deep within the stone. The founders of the city knew that outsiders wouldn’t visit their city if it burned as hot as the rest of the plane, and they weren’t so arrogant as to assume that their city wouldn’t need the trade from outsiders. They wove primal magic into the walls, which formed an invisible barrier that surrounds the city and prevents it from getting too hot. For many fire-born creatures, the temperature of the city is cool and many dislike staying too long due to discomfort.

Traits

**Dungeon Master’s Guide**, 2014 Wizards of the Coast

Thanks to the eternal burning fires within the ground and sky, the city is never dark and never rests. The streets are clogged with elementalkin, azer, efreeti, elementals, salamanders, magmin, mephits, dragons, dao, eleminals, slavers, devils, demons, fiends, arsonists, slaves, and so many more who are passing through the city. With a population boasting more than five million, with almost half of all of that the efreeti, almost any type of creature can be found within the city at a given time. Though, about a fifth of the total population within the city is enslaved and work for the efreeti, the only ones in the city who are allowed to own slaves unless you are a merchant who has specifically come here to sell slaves to the efreeti. Most people who own slaves get around this restriction by claiming that their slaves are actually indentured servants who are working to pay off the cost of travel, room and board, and any other debt the owner can think of. Most efreeti know the ruse, but so long as the master doesn’t do anything to attract unwanted attention, they are left alone.

Traveling to the City

The City of Brass is commonly accessed by trade caravans that are adept at crossing the Blistering Plains or the Burning Sea. Often these trade caravans are heavily protected by magic that repels most of the heat from the plane, allowing them to survive a trip even if no one in the caravan can claim to be fire-born. The caravan wagons are specially crafted with protection spells that safeguard all those within a few dozen feet of them. Traveling further than that away from the wagons will lead to many simply being immolated by the plane in the blink of an eye.

There are also great firetreaders that sail the Burning Sea, their massive metal frames designed to slide across the liquid fire of the sea. Due to how hot the sea is, they must be carefully treated by protective magic to prevent the ship from simply melting into the ocean. The metal hulls are carefully etched with runes that must be continuously replaced as the magic is quickly drained due to the intense conditions of the sea.

The harbor is controlled by the sultanate alone and is where the sultan’s vast fortunes come from as while many travel to the city from through the gates, the dao enter the city by sailing their great stone ships across the Burning Sea, bringing a dragon hoard’s worth of rare metals and gems through the port of the city almost every day. The dao pay the sultan his taxes to bring in fleets of such riches, paying enough for each fleet to fund a small kingdom for a generation.

Most gates feature runes etched into an obsidian stone, the runes lined with gold. These teleportation circles were funded by a Family of Brass that controls the gate next to these travel sites, providing easy access for merchants to visit the city and to enter the city through their gates, paying taxes to the family that controls the gate. The teleportation circles are free to use by anyone, and each family attempts to spread the codes throughout the multiverse to get as many people as possible to use their teleportation circle instead of using another family’s circle.

Traversing the City

**Manual of the Planes**, 2008 Wizards of the Coast

Much like any other place across the plane, the city has normal gravity and is typically negotiated by walking. Most beasts of burden can’t stand the heat of this city, and so slaves are used for much of their work. Eleminals, elemental animals, can be found here, though they are rare and typically only owned by rich families as pets. With slaves so prevalent throughout the city, it is simply cheaper to use slaves and they have more uses than a simple beast of burden could ever have.

The city streets are twisting and outsiders are expected to simply stick to the main streets as the efreeti offer no protection to anyone who wanders off. There are sections of the city where only the efreeti may walk, but there are few markers or signs to alert anyone to such a restriction. Typically, a visitor will only know they have made a mistake when an efreeti towers over them and begins clamping chains on them and informing them that they are now the slave of that efreeti. Of course, slaves of the efreeti are free to walk around in these areas, but only if an efreeti is accompanying them. Slaves are seen merely as extensions of the efreeti master.

There are districts within the city where no efreeti live; those are for the non-efreeti to make their home. Some neighborhoods are quite nice, like the royal azer family estates, while others are beyond poverty, where people fight for the rubble-choked streets in organized gangs. The efreeti don’t patrol such areas and have no care for what happens in them; this is where crime thrives in the city. So long as the gangs, thugs, and crime lords don’t attempt to harm an efreeti or its property, or expand their holdings into efreeti property, they are free to do whatever they want. Strangely enough, this means that slaves owned by the efreeti can freely walk through these neighborhoods with almost complete impunity while everyone else would be attacked by bandits.

Locations & Landmarks

Brass Towers

There are two immense brass towers at the corners of the walls opposite the Burning Sea. They stand four hundred feet from their base, three hundred feet above the walls, and most of the city, providing a commanding view. These towers are used for the defense of the city, though one can purchase tickets to climb the nearly 373 steps, though they are sized for the large-sized gait of the efreeti, making it difficult for smaller creatures to climb them.

Supposedly if the city were to ever be under siege, the sultan can control the towers from his palace, spraying fire and lightning from the towers that can tear apart whole armies in a single burst.

The Gates

There were twenty five gates that dotted the city's walls, though one of them had their doors forever barred in obsidian and gold for their betrayal. Each gate is controlled by a different noble family of efreet, each free to impose their own taxes upon those who utilize their gate, so long as the sultan is given his share. These noble families are the same who, along with the sultan's family, founded the City of Brass thousands upon thousands of years ago.

Once upon a time, each gate family had their estate set near their gate; all the better for them to manage their gate and lay their taxes. But as time has continued, they have built finer homes and mansions closer to the central palace of the sultan. Now their ancestral homes remain largely empty except for a few rooms taken up by their agents, who impose their will on each gate, often led by a third or fourth child with few other chances than their older siblings.

Any who venture through these gates are taxed, though it is not a single tax as each gate family decides their prices. Noble families that align themselves with a specific gate family will utilize those gates, often with much lower taxes than they would find at other places, and merchants will use whichever gate is the cheapest for them or which they hope to curry favor with. It wouldn't do for a merchant to try to gain the attention of a gate family and not even bother to pay for the right to use their gate.

The Raka Gate

Sometimes known as the Gate of Fools, this is the only gate to have been sealed when its family attempted to betray the sultan and their entire lineage was burned out of the city. It is wrapped in gold and obsidian, forever bound until the sultan deigns that a new family is worth raising to the rank of the other families of Brass. Many believe that there were no survivors to this massacre over 5,000 years ago, though every once in a while an efreeti while claim some lost kinship with the family, perhaps hoping to regain the ancient estates and use of the gate in the city. This has never worked as each time someone claims it, they go missing just a few days or weeks later, never to be seen again.

In addition, no one seems to remember what the name of the family even was. Each efreeti that comes forward claims a different name, and so many just call the extinct family the Raka, a heavy insult that means fool, but only a fool who has made such a grave mistake as to bring great suffering or pain upon themselves.

The area around this gate has been claimed by merchants who are outsiders to the city. No efreeti would ever willingly reside in the area, as that would mean they hold no allegiance to any family within the city, and that they are protected by none. They would immediately become the prey of all other efreeti families who would strike them down in the streets and plunder whatever valuables they could find. Outsiders face no such risk, or at least, very little risk of that happening, and have claimed this section of the city as their own.

Ice Houses

For outsiders looking for relief from the city, they should look for taverns or inns that are nicknamed ice houses for their magical spells that cool the air and even ice for drinks to make them truly cold. Most fire-born creatures refuse to enter into these establishments, seeing them as a blight against the city and the plane.

The Flaming Ice

This tavern is located along the Grand Bazaar where it features a flame trapped inside of ice, the flame frozen in its movements. It keeps its doors leading into the tavern where cold air blows into the Grand Bazaar, luring in weary travelers and outsiders hoping for some respite from the heat of the city. This tavern is focused on attracting tourists into its rooms and cool ale, specializing in ale, wine, and beer from across the planes instead of the heavily-spiced date wine that permeates most of the city. Thanks to its location, it is one of the most expensive ice houses in the city; though most people are willing to pay its prices for a cool place to rest - there are even rooms crusted over in ice for those who truly wish to escape the fires.

Wards

There are dozens of wards across the city, beginning with the twenty-six estates next to the gates, and leading deeper into the city. The Grand Bazaar covers almost a square mile of space within the city, with thousands of stalls cluttered and pressed against each other, featuring almost everything imaginable from across the planes. The only thing that can’t be sold in the city are any items that would magically trap genies, though even that limitation can be overcome if you know the right people in the city.

The Noble’s Quarters

Surrounding the Sultan estates are the Noble’s Quarters, where only the efreeti are allowed to live and walk through. Everyone else must walk around the ward, adding hours to their journey, or be enslaved by an efreeti that sees them where they shouldn’t be. There is a single, major road that cuts through the Noble’s Quarters and links directly with the sultan’s palace that anyone can walk, but there are efreeti always lying in wait at alleys and side streets, trying to lure visitors from the main road, even just a few feet, to throw chains on them and claim a new slave.

Inhabitants of the City

Efreeti

The efreeti make up the largest portion of the population within the city, making up almost half of it. Many of the efreeti are working tirelessly to further the goals of whatever Family of Brass they owe loyalty too, and are constantly looking for ways to better their position. From negotiating trade deals to murdering those in higher offices from them, the efreeti political structure is constantly in motion and changing as the young and driven rise through the ranks, leaving broken promises and corpses in their wake. While it is illegal for an efreeti to be murdered in the city, and a great dishonor for an efreeti to do so through assassinations, the efreeti get around this by hiring outsiders to do the deed for them.

Few non-efreeti will ever see the violence of the political structure of the city, as the efreeti do everything they can to provide a façade of peace and prosperity throughout the city, all to attract ever more merchants to their city.

**Monster Manual**, 2014 Wizards of the Coast

Families of Brass

The 26 original founding families are known as the Families of Brass or just the Brass and include the Basit, Jamal al-Din, Jawdat, and Zaahira families who are the greatest among the families, though the Marwan lineage is the sultanate line and stands above all other families in the city. They are constantly maneuvering against one another, looking for ways to outshine and even kill their rivals. While no efreeti would ever say it outloud, everyone is looking to remove the sultan and claim themselves as the ruler.

Abd al-Malik bin Marwan is the current sultan, though he only began his reign just a few decades ago when he led a quiet coup and slaughtered Alia Marwan while she slept. He quickly announced that he was of the Marwan lineage, changing his name from Abd al-Malik bin Salama to Abd al-Malik bin Marwan. This has happened since the beginning of the city, and no one truly knows who might actually be of Marwan descent or if the bloodline has died out over the millennia.

Fire-Born

Those who are made of fire are called the fire-born; this includes azer, efreeti, fire elementals, salamander, and others who are completely unharmed by fire. Their immunity to the element is enough to them to prove that they are true beings of fire and that they should invoke fiery temperaments and passions to better align themselves with fire. For them, fire means purity by flames, that passions should run hot, and that you only know the true measure of something if you burn and scorch everything away until its true essence is revealed.

The fire-born look down on those who need magical assistance to be immune to flames; even the fire-touched is met with some scorn for their perceived weaknesses. Some may even express some manner of sympathy for those who can’t handle the flames, believing that they are completely made up of flaws and lack purity. The flames burn away imperfections, and if it consumes you completely, then you must have been a truly flawed creature.

**Elemental Evil Player’s Companion**, 2015 Wizards of the Coast

Fire-Touched

There are also creatures who have been exposed to fire or have some affinity to it and are known as the fire-touched. While they have the essence of fire within them, granting them resistance to fire, they are still susceptible to flames if they visit a location too hot within the Plane of Fire. They often make up the bulk of the slaves for the efreeti, those who can handle the extreme temperatures of the city, but can’t simply run away across the Blistering Plains, as it would be too hot, and they would die. In addition, the efreeti can still burn them with their touch, making it easy to properly abuse the slaves.

The Burnt

A name for any who live within the plane, typically in the City of Brass, and who has no meaningful resistance or immunity to fire. They are often thought of as sun-touched or crazed by everyone, including outsiders, fire-born, and fire-touched. They willingly put themselves in a hostile environment and seem to like it even.

Encounters

Caravan Guards - A merchant has a simple job; they need protection for their travels into the City of Brass. While this job seemed simple at first, it has quickly gotten complicated, as the party and the merchant are accused by the efreeti of being assassins sent to murder the sultan not even a day since they arrived.

Royal Request - A message has echoed across the multiverse; the sultan is in search of adventurers willing to venture into the Blistering Plains and take down a terrifying foe that has recently broken through its cage of fire. This freed primordial once attempted to destroy the city, whose fires are so hot as to even burn the efreeti and harm them. The sultan is worried about what will happen once the primordial has found its full strength and turns its attention on those who imprisoned it.

Wrong Street - The party has stumbled into the wrong street and an efreeti has blocked the exit holding a set of chains. The options are clear; accept slavery or take on a task for the efreeti that will have the party solving some political problem through assassination or theft.

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Feb 21 City of Brass - Planar Location

Header Art: The Impossible Eye, 2009 Paizo Inc.

What is the City of Brass?