Place
Cerberus
An island, a city, and a state that never became a kingdom
Cerberus is an island and a city-state at once, and the confusion is permanent: the country, its southern capital, and the three-headed black dog on its emblem all carry the same name. Gold thread traces that dog on the sleeves of wizards' red and black robes.
Before the exiles came, only giants lived here. The refugees from the Ark built two capitals — Cerberus in the south, where the Academy stands, and Vlad in the north beneath its hilltop castle. Between them lie green plains, forests held by packs of black wolves, and Mount Cerberus, where the Academy holds its examinations.
The plains breed the Cerberus horse, a black beast larger and braver than any horse elsewhere; it breeds nowhere else, because the grass gives it its size.
The survey is drawn on the island map.
The frontiers are the problem. They are uncertain, and they leak: ogres, trolls, and above all giants whose resilience often shrugs off spells. There are too few mages to cover the ground and the State cannot defend an expansion, so the map stops where the wizards stop. An adult White Dragon or Red Dragon is not an encounter here. It is a political event.
That danger built a martial culture the Ark never needed. It also shaped the government: the Mage War produced a council rather than a crown, held together by Christophe Leblanc's pactstone. Three consuls sit on it, in a meaningful order — the first consul's voice outweighs the others.
The great families hold the land between the capitals: Stoneheart, Leblanc, Alois, Adelbrand and Loubreton each administer a territory, with counts and barons beneath them. A Cerberan is anyone living under the State's protection, and the family — not the State — is the unit that settles its own affairs.