It is said that Korvosa suffers from a curse—the Curse of the Crimson Throne—that no monarch shall die of old age or produce an heir.
With the current king ailing, the city teeters on the edge of anarchy, and a terrible threat begins to emerge
The City Of Korvosa
Korvosa thrives as a cultural and economic powerhouse—relatively speaking—with opportunities for any visitor, regardless of morals and guiding principles and like any city, has its share of undesirables. Cutpurses, thugs, thieves, burglars, assassins, and lowlifes of every sort can be found in waterfront slums, creeping in the sewers, or hiding in the tangled Shingles above. Korvosa, like any city, has its share of undesirables. Cutpurses, thugs, thieves, burglars, assassins, and lowlifes of every sort can be found in waterfront slums, creeping in the sewers, or hiding in the tangled rooftop-scape known as the Shingles. The Korvosan Guard does what it can to keep the city's criminals from causing too much harm, but the cold reality is that crooks will always outnumber the law. And that means some crimes go unpunished and some criminals see great success. The worst of these, perhaps, are the city's crime lords. Dozens of them operate in Korvosa today, from the scheming leader of the Cerulean Society all the way down to the Varisian Sczarni thugs who preside over a gang of a half-dozen friends and cousins. These minor crime lords are often, ironically, the ones who do the most damage to Korvosa's law-abiding citizens, as larger organizations have little need to bother commoners. One such undesirable is Gaedren Lamm, a despicable wretch who missed his chance at being somebody big in Korvosa's murky underworld. Well past his prime, the decrepit thief abducts orphans and forces them to support his parasitic lifestyle with petty crime. Many members of Korvosa's lower class have had dealings with Lamm, and even a few of the city's middle class and nobility have had their lives complicated by this foul old man. Yet no matter what he does, he always seems to slip away from the guards and avoid answering for his crimes. Gaedren Lamm’s luck is about to change, though. For among those his actions have recently touched are men and women destined to potentially become some of Korvosa’s greatest heroes!
Korvosa: The Jewel of Chessenta
Korvosa, the Jewel of Chessenta, has long sparkled on Sea of the Fallen Stars’ northern shore. Established 300 years ago by Tchazzar at the height of that empire’s expansion, the city now commands its own destiny. A line of Korvosan kings and queens emerged to rule the city, establishing an infamous seat power—the Crimson Throne. Rulers have sat upon the Crimson Throne for more than a century, and the city has flourished. Yet the monarchy always seems on the brink of disaster. The Crimson Throne is not a prize to be won—it is a curse. No monarch of Korvosa has died of old age, and none have produced an heir while ruling. Even though King Eodred II controls Korvosa more fully than any previous monarch, that control remains tenuous, and many secretly count the days until their latest king falls to what they call the Curse of the Crimson Throne.
At its height, before the death of Aroden and the departure of the separatists who founded Magnimar, Korvosa topped 23,000 inhabitants. It lost nearly 10,000 because of the resulting chaos of the time, but in the last century it regained half that many. As a result of its rapid contraction and slow re-expansion, many of the affluent sections of Korvosa remain underpopulated. With increasing trade and abundance of area into which it can expand, Korvosa could comfortably fill out to a true metropolis.
