Aurelia

Aurelia, or The Gilded City, is a location in The Crown & The Flame series. East of The Five Kingdoms, it is the city-state spoken of in the Legend of Aurelia.

The Crown & The Flame
It is said to have gardens, gold mines, and riches beyond imagination. The city is built from a special ore that are mined from its grounds; its weapons and soldier armor also come from the mineral. Many people do not believe it actually exists, and very few know how to find it.

Aurelia can be accessed in three known ways: visitors may either follow a hidden path laced with misdirection and traps, scale the mountainside as what Marco's scouts did to outpace Kenna's group, or travel by air as what Hex did.

Due to its immeasurable wealth, Aurelia is believed to host parties everyday, and rumor has it that every inhabitant owns a peacock. Likewise, it is also a magnet for plunderers, and Aurelia has employed mercenaries to protect it from bandits, with one of their contacts being Val Greaves.

It is also renowned for its beautiful gardens and the legendary Golden Mountain Fang, a golden glaive that can cut through virtually anything. The glaives were stored deep underground for hundreds of years until they were used for Kenna's reclamation of Stormholt.

At first, Aurelia is indifferent to the Five Kingdoms and the wars they wage, offering no aid to visitors. Its gates are closely guarded and all visitors must surrender all weapons to gain entrance. However, after the Nevrakis captured the city, Aurelia has participated in its savior Kenna's quest to end Nevrakis rule and, later, Ducitora's tyranny.

Trivia

 * Aurelia bears a strong resemblance to Thai and Khmer architecture, especially the Grand Palace in Bangkok and the Royal Palace in Phnom-Penh.
 * In Bloodbound, Book 1, Chapter 9, Lily Spencer references Aurelia in an expletive (Holy Aurelia!) and Marcel Lafayette's gardens bear somewhat resemblance to the Gardens in Aurelia.
 * Aurelia´s name may come from gold´s Latin name, which is Aurum, meaning "shinny" or "radiant". Also, Aurum (Au) is the chemical symbol for gold in the periodic table.
 * Other inspiration for the name could be the roman gens Aurelia, which comes from the Latin adjective aureus, meaning "golden".