Drene

Drene is a walled city on the Letherii frontier, reached by three landward routes including the lightly travelled North Coast track that enters from the north along Gate Road. Its main thoroughfare runs past the arching gate of the High Market, a vast concourse of stalls, carts, and livestock loud with hawkers, where carved seal ivory, polished amber, and bloodwood utensils change hands amid the smells of dung, roasting meat, tanning hides, and drugs. The dust above the streets is thick enough to hide the colour of the sky. North of the centre stands the Drene Garrison on a low hill, headquarters of the Atri-Preda who commands the Eastern Army, while palatial estates fill the southern districts and slums crowd the ground northwest of the docks. Drene was once an independent city-state, until a long war with the Awl led its king to invite in troops from the Kingdom of Lether.