unyasi [Lore] Clawifax

[Bellosh]

Clawifax - Where All is Traded, Including Cultures

 

Among the great city-states of Unyasi, none have been touched more by the outside world that the port of Clawifax. As its name suggests, Clawifax is populated equally by griffons and zebras. In conjunction with the massive amounts of commerce the city engages in with Aquellia and Equestria, this port is undeniably the most cosmopolitan locale on the southern continent.

 

Clawifax arose about a millennium ago, back when the griffons of Aquellia first set their sights on an overseas empire. One bay on Unyasi’s west coast looked particularly inviting as a base for colonization efforts, and its proximity to the mineral wealth of the mountainous Mwamba couldn’t be overlooked either. Clawifax came to serve as an exemplar protectorate of Aquellia for many long years... that was, until cultural diffusion with the zebra inhabitants encouraged the city’s griffons to seek out self-rule and establish an independent city-state.

 

A thousand years later, this Unyasian port in many ways still looks very much like it did back during the heyday of the protectorate era. Like a typical Aquellian city, the nascent skyscrapers and other lavish buildings that comprise Clawifax’s skyline have entry points for winged griffons on every floor. All structures in the crowded metropolis are also constructed (or renovated if older) to ensure that zebras and other equines can easily travel up each floor, since they make up half of Clawifax’s population. Yet because the original griffon architects did not keep equines in mind back when the city was first constructed, street layouts within older areas are outright mazelike with twists, turns, and dead ends in every direction.

 

Nonetheless, both griffons and zebras happily live with one another in Clawifax. Side-by-side they work in the tireless docks and airship landing strips, maintain law and order, conduct business in bazaars, and root for their favorite hoofball teams. Clawifax zebras are more likely than the rest of their zebra kin to desire mastery over nature through industry and technology, and the independent streak of the local griffons often leads them to mock their Aquellian counterparts... especially the Goldplume family, who’s merchant enterprises can be felt everywhere throughout the city-state.

 

Despite not always seeing eye-to-eye with their cousins, the residents of Clawifax are remarkably successful in cultivating close ties with the Republic of Aquellia and the other tribes of Unyasi. Local tribes and smaller city-states always take delight in the diverse and exotic goods that traveling Clawifax merchants bring with them, while the Aquellian Navy has enthusiastic permission to use the harbor as a base to ensure that overseas trade runs smoothly. Other than Stalliongrad, it is hard to find a place like this metropolis where an odd coupling of species can live in harmony.

~Unyasi and its Mysteries: A Pony's Guide