The Royal City of Rekkenmark

A map of the city of Rekkenmark from the Eberron campaign setting.

From canon, we know that Rekkenmark lies on the Scion's Sound and features a military academy, the best in the world, and was once connected to the city of Thaliost and the western part of the continent by the White Arch Bridge, until the latter was destroyed in the Last War. Here is a map of the city as it would have appeared before the war. The academy is the starforst on in the north-west, looking out over the sound. I've divided the city into an upper city, with bastion-fortifications now set in a park, a lower city with similar fortifications and a fully-functioning ditch with scarp and counterscarp, demilunes (ravelins), caponiers, and casemates (not visible), as well as an island part where the White Arch Bridge and the lightning rail (marked by the turquoise line of conductor stones) arrives.

Given its military reputation, I gave the city bastion-fortifications, which are more advanced than regular city walls. There are a number of forts defending the week points. The streets were designed to run up to buildings facing them perpendicularly, allowing defenders in that building to enfilade enemies in the alleys, whilst perpendicular streets allow crossfire. The military vocation also led me to create a new quarter for the bridge: fortress cities do not like bridges, as they create gaps in their fortifications, so the city fathers decided to have the bridge arrive next to the city. This also solves a few continuity problems with the material, as most of the setting material explains that Rekkenmark Academy provided Karrn officers throughout the war (pace 4E, which claims against all other evidence that it was closed), whilst Forge of War claims Rekkenmark was overrun. So my solution is that the Karrngate (my name for the quarter where the bridge arrives) was taken, and severely damaged (partly by the defenders blowing up the casemates underneath), and so was the Mark (March, here in the sense of country) around the city, also called the Rekkenmark, but the city resisted.

Today, the city still lives on, and the upper city is unharmed, but the effects of the firestorm in the wake of the Thrane Air Raid of 974 YK can still be seen in parts of the city, and to venture into those parts of town is dangerous for anything that still lives.

The bastion-fortifications and the idea of a railroad quarter outside the city walls were inspired by Luxembourg, one of the mightiest fortress cities until the fortifications were dismantled in 1867.

A closer look at the coat of arms can be found here


The as yet unreclaimed parts that were destroyed in the Aundairian attack and occupation of 898 YK and the Thrane air raid of 974 YK marked in black. The island is largely slums now, whilst the central parts (damaged in the fires of the air-raid) are closed off and roamed by vengeful undead victims and patrouls of Karrns undead armies.




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Eberron, Rekkenmark and its Academy, the Air Raid, the White Arch Bridge, and the Lightning Rail are (c) WoTC; but there has never been a plan published.