Gaald is a walled port city on the Sea of Lidraeu. It is the last surviving city of the old Kingdom of Caal and has been the capital of its successor confederation since 1993 BCC. Today it is one of the independent city-states of the main continent, and the home of the Grand Federation of Merchants.
Geography
Gaald stands above a natural, placid harbour on the Sea of Lidraeu, the sea route west to Daphoa. The Yagash mountains form its southern border, and beyond them lie the ruins of Gogoth. Inland, the ethron forest of Qilarn has grown over the scorched ruins of Caal.
Gaald's region also takes in Nordath, a former outpost that has fallen to the Gamaloth verge, and Inessa, the independent settlement that grew out of the keep of Sineston.
History
Gaald was founded as a fishing village in Lidraeu, one of the three realms into which King Indar divided the Kingdom of Caal. Under Glaren Caal, who ruled Lidraeu, the village governor Arenham Gaald began raising great battlements, and the eastern wall was finished two decades later. When Tourin Caal reunified the kingdom, Morras Gaald was named Duke of Lidraeu.
During the War of Fire the srryn razed Caal, and only Gaald and the keep of Sineston survived. In 2031 BCC Gaald withstood a srryn siege, though the shrine of Raedaletaei was destroyed. In 1993 BCC Gaald, Nordath and the coastal settlements signed the Gaaldic Articles of Confederation, which ended Caal as a political entity and made Gaald its capital. The Thirty-Seven Families of Gaald were raised to the nobility, and the despoiled Caalic lands were ceded to the Eqiril ethron, whose forest of Qilarn grew over them. Sineston refused to sign and reorganized as the independent settlement of Inessa.
In the War of Night, the ethron drove the shuddeni out of their forests and kept them from reaching Gaald.
For centuries the Corvalius family of Gaald ran the Grand Federation of Merchants alone. Its base remains the Corvalius family's ancestral manor, near the city's northern boundary.
Society
Gaald is shaped by the philosophy of Jalassa, and its Duke is a Jalassan. House Lenahiri holds most of its power base here. The library of Gaald lies far enough from war to work largely undisturbed, and is of special interest to the followers of Chadraln.
Relations with Earendam are strained. When the Raiders of Twilight murdered the Patrician Vaelania Elinstad in 1725 CC, many of the adventurers Earendam banished for it were known to move in Gaaldic circles. The Patrician Vhiona Larine won her election in 1739 CC on a platform that named Gaald the Republic's true rival.