Lan Exeter

Lan Exeter
Information
Type	City
Country	Kovir and Poviss
Region	Gulf of Praxeda
Location	Mouth of the river Tango
Map(s)
World
World
Appearance(s)
Books	Time of Contempt (mentioned) The Tower of the Swallow The Lady of the Lake Season of Storms (mentioned)
Games	The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt (mentioned) Blood and Wine expansion (mentioned) The Witcher IV
Other	Wiedźmin: Gra Wyobraźni The Witcher Role-Playing Game A Tome of Chaos

	They floated alongside promenades packed with colourful and finely attired crowds. They travelled between avenues of magnificent aristocratic residences and merchants' townhouses, reflecting in the canal's water a spectrum of splendidly embellished, but exceptionally narrow, façades.
- The luxurious face of the Kovirian metropolis, p. 411, The Tower of the Swallow

Lan Exeter is the prominent metropolis of Kovir and Poviss as well as the location of the winter residence of the royal Thyssenids. Built on the coast of the Gulf of Praxeda, Lan Exeter is a major port city, a home to dozens of wealthy and accomplished traders, financiers, technicians, and craftspeople.

Its main peculiarity is the almost complete lack of streets. The city sits on the mouth of the river Tango, and as such, municipal transport is accomplished via series of canals. One of the richest settlements on the Continent, Kovir shields Lan Exeter with the most advanced navy in the Northern Kingdoms.

History

12th century

Gradually, by the end of the 11th century, the port of Lan Exeter together with the one in Pont Vanis grew so much in size and economic turnover that it could rival the docks of Novigrad itself. As it turned out, the barren Kovirian mountains were hiding large quantities of precious stones and minerals, including more than 80% of the Continent's gold. Soon enough, an average craftsperson in Lan Exeter—often a child or a grandchild of a destitute migrant—came to earn four times the amount as their counterpart in Temeria or Redania.

Having become a city populous enough to attract vampire predators, in 1104, Lan Exeter witnessed a series of gruesome murders committed by three garkains. Following a large scale investigation, the City Watch hired the witcher Olivier of Gulet who successfully dealt with these monsters.

Around the 1120s, King Radovid III of Redania decided he wanted a share of Kovirian wealth. After all, in times of his great-grandfather Radovid I the Great, Kovir was a mere appanage county ruled by a branch of the Redanian Dynasty. Nevertheless, following a tariff squabbling and an unsuccessful punitive expedition, Radovid III and his ally King Benda of Kaedwen were forced to come to Lan Exeter and ask for peace. They came on Alata together with their mediator, the Hierarch of Novigrad Walter Beda. There, together with King Gedovius and Queen Gemma of Kovir and Poviss, they signed what came to be known as the First Exeter Treaty.

Sigismund Dijkstra's visit

By October 1267, Nilfgaardian armies had been so successful in their war effort that many in Redania, including Sigismund Dijkstra, believed their own kingdom would soon be under direct threat. To try and prevent this, Dijkstra made his way to Lan Exeter to seek an audience with King Esterad Thyssen to try and ask for a loan of a million bizants, which would allow Redania to prepare itself for the spring offense. However, Esterad could not provide the loan the spymaster was seeking, citing both his kingdom's long standing neutrality and an old pact with the Nilfgaardian Empire preventing him from backing its enemies. Despite this, the king's deeply cherished wife, Queen Zuleyka, gave him advice that allowed him to see a loophole through which he could supply the Redanian regency indirectly. Dijkstra, having struck up an unlikely friendship with the king, ended up staying a little bit longer in Lan Exeter before he headed back home.

Geography

Positioned on the Gulf of Praxeda like the rest of the Kingdom of Kovir, Lan Exeter is built on water, that is to say, on a set of islets and stone quays lying at the mouth of river Tango. Down the coast of the Gulf from Lan Exeter is Pont Vanis, the summer seat of the Kovirian kings. Valdrest, a bustling port town of merchants, fishers, and miners, can too be found not far off.

Unlike other royal centers in the Northern Kingdoms including Pont Vanis, the city is interconnected by canals much more so than streets. Slender many-oared boats with a slightly lower stern and a highly upturned prow are the primary vehicle here. The axis of this communication system, the Grand Canal, connects the canals adjacent to the isles and stone quays of the sea harbor directly with the royal residence at Ensenada.

Economy

In Lan Exeter, houses are built with narrow, richly decorated façades along canals because the property tax is based on the width of a house's frontage. The wider it is, the higher tax one has to pay.

The city highly profits from trade by sea, with its harbors characterised as a forest of masts and white sails. Its vast ports are visited every year by crowds of sailors, who are drawn by a huge pleasure district and an host of prostitutes, as well as a number of taverns. In these parts of Lan Exeter, one can buy varied curious intoxicants like opium and hashish. All the brothels, inns, courtesans, and shops pay a tax to the city, which constitutes a significant part of its income.

Resident craftspeople make much more than their colleagues in other Northern Kingdoms. For example, to enter the city's Guild of Blackboots, one has to pay no smaller a sum than 1000 marks as an entry fee. Another similar association is the ferrymen's guild, comprised of owners of the small barges used to traverse the canals. The city also has several jewellery stores which accept cheque notes in payment. Meanwhile, one of the city's notorious workshops is a cartography atelier run by a Lan Exeter University alumna whose clientele included the Vegelbud family and the Duchess Anna Henrietta of Toussaint herself.

Locations

Dijkstra observing the townhouses of Lan Exeter

The Grand Canal is the main artery of Lan Exeter, lined with tall, narrow, and lavishly decorated townhouses. It links the city's sea ports with the Ensenada Palace, the royal residence of the House of Thyssen and the only building on the Grand Canal with a wide front. The main entrace to the palace is ornamented by a great marble flight of steps. After making her breakthrough, the trobairitz Priscilla started her concert tour at the sumptuous courts of Lan Exeter.

Each August, the many aristocrats, trade barons, and mining magnates throw extravagant parties on brightly decorate barges plying the Grand Canal. Other sights standing above this canal include: the Admiralty building, viewed as "impressive" and "the boast of Lan Exeter"; the Merchants' Guild centre; and the "bijou but extremely tasteful" Palace of Culture and Art.

The pinnacle of its intellectual activity and higher learning is the University of Lan Exeter, which has, according to some, already surpassed the Oxenfurt Academy by the 1270s. Be that as it may, the city does have a spacious academic library.