Alera Imperia, Citadel, Aquaduct, River Gaul
Citadel, Canim Embassy Black Hall (Book 2 cover
This city is the capital of Alera and the main setting of Academ's Fury. Key scenes also occur in Alera Imperia in book 4, Captain's Fury, and in book 5, Princeps' Fury.
Description[]
Alera Imperia is much like Rome. Located near the center of Alera, all roads lead to Alera. The causeways form a pipeline to the capital. Likewise, ships reach the capital by traveling up the River Gaul from Parcia. See Maps for Codex Alera Series.
All Roads Lead to Alera Imperia
For a thousand years the great city of Alera Imperia has been the Capital of the the realm of Alera. It is home to tens of thousands of inhabitants. The city is the seat of power of the First Lord and the House of Gaius. Currently, First Lord Gaius Sextus calls this city home.
Key Buildings[]
The city features a white marble stronghold —- the First Lord's Citadel. It’s the tallest building in the capital. An ambassador for the Canim is chambered in the First Lord’s stronghold, in the Black Hall, under watchful eyes. This city also holds the Academy of Alera. The Senatorium is here, also, enormous, gray, with theatre-style seating for 200,000 souls. The city also has various manors owned by the High Lords and Citizens, the Grey Tower prison, and a network of underground caverns, catacombs, and passageways called The Deeps.
- "Looking down upon the Senate floor, one had only to lift one’s eyes up a little to see the First Lord’s Citadel, the heart of Alera Imperia, rising above the Senatorium." (First Lord's Fury, chapter 5)
- "The Grey Tower, that unassuming little fortress, was a prison built to hold powerless even the strongest furycrafters in the Realm—and was a silent statement that no one in Alera was beyond the reach of the law." (First Lord's Fury, chapter 5)
City Defenses[]
The entire city is surrounded by a tall shield wall.
- ". . .the city gates behind the actual, massive walls of battlecrafted stone, far below the citadel." (Princeps' Fury chapter 40)
The city (and province and nation) is defended by three Imperial Legions and the Crown Legion. The legion is commanded by Captain (Sir) Miles who reports directly to Gaius Sextus, First Lord of Alera.
The city streets are laid out in rising concentric circles leading to the towering white marble Citadel of the First Lord. This is similar to the layout of Minis Tirith in Lord of the Rings. Both cities lie on a river and within a mountain. Alera Imperia may not be as white as Minas Tirith, but the First Lord’s Citadel is white marble. See image, modified from LotR wallpaper.
- Alera Imperia had been built to withstand a siege—originally, at any rate. Her avenues ran in concentric, descending circles around the citadel, with cross streets laid out in straight lines from the city’s heart, like the spokes of a wheel. Each avenue was approximately fifteen feet above the next level of the city, and the stone buildings lining each avenue had been reshaped by Legion engineers, so that their outer edges had become defensive walls. The streets had been sealed, except for a single avenue between each level, alternating on opposite sides of the city. Now, the only way to the citadel was a long corridor of streets faced with stone walls, so that even if the enemy took one gate, they would be faced with another and another before they reached the citadel itself. Against conventional tactics, Alera Imperia could theoretically hold against an attacker almost indefinitely. (Princeps' Fury chapter 40)
House of Gaius[]
See House of Gaius, or Gaius Sextus, or Gaius Septimus, etc.
This capital city is distinguished by the emblem of the House of Gaius. Throughout the city and the Crown Legion one sees the Scarlet and Azure of the House of Gaius and its emblem, the Eagle.
Around the capital city, and all the High Cities of Alera, flies the flag of the First Lord
- "a scarlet eagle on a blue field fluttered in the breeze" (First Lord's Fury)