Tassato
Peering at each other across the fast-flowing Vassa, Tassato is called the Twin City or the Split City. Providing the only easy way to cross the wide and dangerous river, Tassato is a city divided against itself. Tassato was originally two towns, Mestra and Regario, named for the feuding siblings who historically founded them on either bank of the Vassa. Over time, both towns grew on each bank and the river formed a natural boundary between them. Attempts to build bridges between the cities have always foundered and the people rely on boats and barges to cross the river.
The western part of the city is called Tassato Mestra, and the eastern is Tassato Regario. The people on either side of the river are historically rivals, and that historical rivallry occasionally boils up into open conflict. The two cities were unified under the control of Anabela di Regario, a merchant prince who ruled over a century before the creation of the Empire. Anabela was forced to contend with the constant rivalry between the two cities, open battles in the streets between bravos was causing widespread lawlessness and in the end the prince declared a ban on the open carrying of weapons. The ban had the desired effect, damping down the bloodshed although and the rivalry was slowly transformed to verbal banter between the two sides. The ban endured until Tassato joined the Empire and in that time the people became famous for their wordplay, launching quips and insults at each other like arrows.
Today Tassato enjoys an unrivalled reputation as a city where the spoken word is an art-form. Tassatans take a delight in layered meanings, subtexts and unspoken communication. The city has provided several senators famous for their brilliant oratory and representatives from the city are usually regarded as the finest diplomats in the Empire. Of all the people of the League, Tassatans are most likely to view life as a game and they are notorious for their love of intrigue, not just for the sake of advancement but for the sheer pleasure to be had thereby. They regard cunning diplomacy more highly than armed conflict, not because they are peace-loving, but instead because they regard words as a more effective tool than weapons in destroying their enemies - better to set enemies against enemies than to face them yourself. Manipulation is high art here - no surprise that the first and the finest mountebanks hail from Tassato.
Tassato Mestra is famous both for its boatyards - it is the primary source of the riverboats that ply their trade from Sarvos deep into Dawn - and for the boldness of its brothels. The west bank of the river is almost entirely given over to a gaudy display of brazenness, the so-called Street of Pleasures where anyone with the purse for it can buy company, narcotics and other goods of dubious virtue. The east part of the city, Tassato Regario, is best known for its workshops and magicians. According to legend, the printing press was designed in Tassato Regario and the first presses were employed here printing religious tracts, scholarly treatises and political manifestos.
In the centre of the Vassa towers the Imperial Mint where Imperial coinage is produced. While the fortified building itself is operated by the civil service, its protection falls to the people of the League, and the Master of the Imperial Mint is an important title among its citizens.
Citizens of Tassato generally refer to Regario and Mestra as seperate places, while everyone else refers to them as wards or parts of the same city.