A description of Valador I wrote as a piece of practice-writing, since I was bored and burnt out from writing my story.
A city of immense spires rising into the sky, silverine length gleaming in daylight and blue crystal tips glowing at nighttime. Banners of blue and silver and gold threading billow above the blessed steel walls, showing the imagery of the ruling Edelrath family.
The cobbled, paved streets are neat and well-ordered throughout the entire city. No litter, no squatters, and certainly no human waste. The main avenues are kept well-cleared by diligent guards in their blue raiments and well-polished steel, so making your way from the outermost gate through all the successive walls could almost be called a breeze, except for the busiest of times.
Sturdy, tall buildings of oak-framed concrete rise up on both sides as you make your way down Valador’s wide-open avenues. Their roofs are steeply pitched into the sky, and even the commoners’ houses present solidly-framed windows of good glass.
But it is when you go further inside the city and witness the homes of the wealthy and the noble, that true luxury, in Olvensterner terms, presents itself. Neatly trimmed rows of flowers line their clean, stark white-and-gray walls, and doorways become larger and more elaborate until finally, houses become mansions with yards, enclosed by firm steel themselves. There, the full opulence of the Olvensterner nobility is displayed; teeming gardens of vivid flowers and fresh produce, estates that soar over a dozen storeys into the sky, intricate geometric patterns and script etched all over their marble walls and stained glass windows, and a distinct air of power that wafts through the air.
This journey finally ends when one comes up against one of four main gates of Valador’s central palace/citadel. Here, the walls rise up far, far higher than previously, and verses and commandments from Vallast, patron god of Olvenstern himself, are etched in enchanted sapphire all along the pure mythril walls. Inside, one might find softer beauty, but on the outside, the citadel presents a cold, regal aura, awing and repelling anyone from thinking they have a chance at forcing their way in.