The City of Coin — capital of Amn
“In Athkatla, gold is not spent. It circulates, like blood through a living god.”
— A now famous quote from Highcoin Lauren Garke, from one of his sermons
Athkatla is the glittering capital of Amn, a city built upon the golden currents of trade that flow through the Wyrmtale River into the Sea of Swords.
Here, coin is covenant, faith is commerce, and the Council of Five governs not through law, but through wealth and influence.
The city was born from caravans and gilded contracts, rising atop centuries of bargains — both mortal and divine. Dragons once ruled its skies; their legacy still hums beneath the marble streets and gilded spires.
| Faction | Focus | Public Face | Relationship with Others |
|---|---|---|---|
| The Caravaneers | Control desert routes and river crossings; maintain fleets and convoys | The Red Samooh caravan, amongst others, such as the Sadiki Chadid | Depend on the Guilds’ demand and the Temple’s coin |
| The Guilds | Artisans, merchants, and craftspeople united under the Guilds’ Council | Culinary Guild, Pleasurers’ Guild, Shipwrights, Central Cooperage | Rivalry with Temple of Waukeen; cooperation with Caravaneers |
| The Temple of Waukeen | Economic and religious power; banks, schools, and hospitals | The Goldspire and its hierarchy of golden priests | Rivalry with Guilds; influence over every purse |
| The Arcanists | Scholars of the arcane and the Elemental Planes | The Arcanist Council, led by seven archmagi | Neutral; wary of Chatan’s instability |
| The Shifting Sands | Invisible brokers and informants; shadow politics | Unknown leadership | Operate in the gaps between all factions |
Together, these five forces form the true government of Athkatla.
The Council of Six in distant Esmeltaran may claim authority, but the City of Coin answers only to gold.
Athkatla sprawls along both banks of the Wyrmtale River, which divides the city before spilling into the sea.
Each district reflects one of the city’s many faces — trade, faith, magic, and survival.
The ancient heart of Athkatla, where stone streets twist around hidden courtyards and the first markets still operate beneath archways of green copper.
Home to the oldest guildhouses and public fountains that once drew from the Wyrmtale directly.
Operated by the Guilds, these docks serve as warehouses, workshops, and weigh stations for inland trade.
True import and export are rare; when needed, Guild merchants rely on Caravaneer ships to cross the sea.
At dawn, the air is heavy with spice smoke and steam from glass furnaces fed by chatan shards.
Controlled by the Caravaneers, these quays serve as resting grounds for ships and rivercraft arriving from the desert.
Here the great desert convoys meet the sea, exchanging sand-borne goods for silver, scrolls, and salt.
Home of the Arcanist College and the Council’s seven towers.
Glass domes and mineral courtyards shimmer with latent magic, where the veil between planes grows thin.
Chatan is studied, distilled, and occasionally weaponized here — to the Temple’s dismay.
Dominated by Waukeen's Promenade, and the Goldspires (the Temple of Waukeen), whose marble terraces gleam like molten coin in sunlight.
Surrounding the Promenade are banks, guild archives, and almshouses — proof that generosity, in Athkatla, is merely investment by another name.
Clustered around Athkatla’s main gate, this quarter hosts markets, moneylenders, tax collectors, and inspection offices.
It is the first and last thing a merchant sees upon entering the city via the desert — a glittering tollgate where gold outweighs law.
Within the city walls lies a patchwork of pavilions, stables, and market tents.
The caravaneers treat this ground as sovereign soil; no guild seal or temple tithe holds sway here.
Deals are struck by hand, and coin is measured by trust.
A humble settlement clinging to the city’s outer wall along the river.
Fishermen, ferrymen, and craftsmen live here — those who keep the city’s lifeblood flowing but will never taste its wealth.
A caravaneer village beyond the walls, where desert-bound merchants gather before departing into the sands.
Canvas roofs and iron braziers dot the dunes, glowing faintly like stars fallen to earth.
The Temple of Waukeen governs morality through commerce.
Its golden laws define prosperity as holiness itself:
These tenets reach far beyond the temple — they dictate how citizens speak, trade, and even pray.
Every tithe, loan, and oath is weighed upon the golden scales of Waukeen.
Born from the death of Sahalia's, chatan is a partly translucent, obsidian-like material forged where dragonfire fused desert sand.
The Red Samooh caravan mines and protects it, while the Arcanists harness it for experiments in planar magic.
To the Temple of Waukeen, chatan is almost heresy — unlicensed power, unmonetized faith.
To the Guilds, it is profit beyond imagining.
And to the land itself, it is a wound: a crack through which the Elemental Planes whisper into the world.
Athkatla stands upon the edge of transformation.
The death of Azraq has unbound old powers, and the living city now hums with potential — elemental, divine, and political.
Whether it becomes a City of Faith, a City of Flame, or remains the City of Coin depends on the choices of those who walk its shining streets.
Campaigns: Tale of Two Dragons, Weight of Coin.