Illyndra

Population: 137,000

Illyndra sits on the shores of the lake Daeth Myral, built in terraced levels up the valley walls. The city combines The Crescent's premier magical academies with all the trades and services needed to support a major population center, creating a prosperous hub built from white stone that gleams in the sunlight.

The city's magical institutions train mages for settlements across The Crescent while conducting careful research into phenomena connected to the underwater ruins visible beneath the lake's clear surface. Past attempts to explore the ruins directly have ended in disaster, so most scholars now focus on observing and theorizing rather than diving.

Districts

The Scholarch: The upper noble district housing administrative buildings, elite magical academies, and the residences of prominent magical families. The city's governing council meets here, making decisions about research priorities and resource allocation.

Lakeshore: The prestigious district surrounding the lake with upscale shops, restaurants, and observation platforms. Wealthy visitors and scholars gather here to discuss magical theories while watching the ruins through the clear water.

Artisan's Rise: The western terraced district filled with magical crafting workshops. Enchanters, alchemists, and artificers work here, creating both practical items for daily use and specialized equipment for magical research.

The Exchange: The central commercial hub where magical components, scholarly texts, and everyday goods change hands. Merchants from across The Crescent come here seeking magical services or rare materials.

Midtown: The northern residential area housing the city's working citizens - scribes, apprentices, guards, and the various craftspeople who keep the city functioning. A reflecting pool has been slowly manifesting in the district's central square over the past several decades, and what once were occasional damp patches now disrupts the weekly markets where residents buy daily necessities.

Key Features

Daeth Myral: The clear lake at Illyndra's heart, fed by waters from The Stormfont. The ruins beneath its surface sometimes emit strange glows or respond to magical activity on the surface, creating ongoing mysteries for the city's scholars.

The Reflecting Pools: Natural pools scattered throughout the city, highly prized by scholars and sages. Most pools have existed since the city's founding, with construction built carefully around them. Each pool connects mysteriously to the lake and occasionally shows visions or images that have nothing to do with normal scrying magic. The very rare emergence of a new pool represents a once-in-a-lifetime event that can reshape entire neighborhoods.

Crystal Gardens: Terraced growing areas that incorporate magical cultivation techniques. These gardens provide both food and magical components while serving as practical laboratories for agricultural magic.

The Archive Towers: Tall buildings housing The Crescent's most extensive collection of magical texts, research notes, and historical records. Access is controlled by academic guilds who guard their knowledge carefully.

The Luminalis Academy

The Luminalis Academy is a prestigious eldar institution known for its rivalry with Ecleptara's Astramagus Academy. Located in Illyndra's Scholarch district, the academy attracts students who excel in manipulating light and matter.

Specialization: Illusion and Transmutation magic

Notable Features: Reflective halls, transmutation laboratories, galleries of illusionary art

Key Faculty: Headmaster Valeris (Illusion expert), Transmuter Thea (material transformation)

Students compete in magical duels and exhibitions while mastering the arts of creating illusions and altering material properties. The academy's graduates often become court wizards, theatrical enchanters, or innovative artificers.

Regional Characteristics

Illyndra provides magical education and services for communities throughout The Crescent. The city's mages help maintain wardstone networks, provide healing for distant settlements, and create magical items essential for trade and defense.

The slow emergence of a new reflecting pool in Midtown's market square—the first in living memory—has split the city. Working-class residents, backed by wealthy merchant families who depend on their labor, want to wall off the pool and preserve their neighborhood. The academic elite demand access to study this rare phenomenon, proposing to clear the square and possibly surrounding homes for the observatories and laboratories required for proper research.