The City of Blood

[Xalyz]

First off! Some background:
I have a job where I have way too much time on my hands, so I fill it by world-building. This is the first of the various ideas that I will post sporadically in the following weeks. Feel free to use this in any campaign.

The City of Blood

A city of vampires built in a sharp ravine located on a prominent trade route that cuts through a tall mountain range. The reason that it is used so often is due to the unusual fee that is charged. It starts at 1sp and an half pint of fresh blood collected in special flasks. The more the route gets used, the less the vampires need to go on raids and since it is a city of vampires it is foolish to attack. Most nations are leery of them, on one hand they rarely have to attack anyone, but on the on other hand they see themselves above other nations and frequently ignore the laws and customs of those passing through. The city is carved into the walls of the pass, the tunnels and caverns that stretch deep into the mountain and it is unclear exactly how far they go.
There is some evidence that the vampires aren't the original inhabitance; some tunnels date back thousands of years and show signs of early Dwarven stone cutting. If you want to get through the mountains fast, and don’t mind a little loss of blood, Blood-Stone Pass is the way for you.

But I do have some questions:
1. How should the fee scale? should it be by person or by weight of cargo?

2. What kind of city would spring up around the city proper?

3. What people would want to live/set up shop in it?

[Mechalich]

An average human adult can give a pint of blood safely once every 50-60 days. The rate is considerably worse for children and the elderly. Accounting for illness, the inevitable inefficiencies in mass programs, and other factors, figure you need a population base of 100 people per vampire if they require a pint each night (which is the oWoD vampire consumption requirement, D&D vampires are much more nebulous).

So a 'city' of vampires that has 1,000 vamps needs to draw on a population of 100,000 people to survive. That would be a very large medieval metropolis (ie. London or Paris level). Charging a toll on travelers can mitigate this to a degree but trade was a relatively modest contribution to medieval economies and the actual number of people involved in merchant activities (especially overland as opposed to nautically) would be relatively small. Your vampires are drawing on 1% of the available population each night, even if all travelers are fit adults (dubious) you need something like 500 every day to meet blood requirements, though as long as you were hitting 100 or so you'd be making a real dent in the requirements and easing pressure on the locals. That's certainly possible but it means your trade route is very busy. Also it needs to be located in a mild climate where seasonality has no impact on trade flow.

[arrowed]

a) this is a great idea
b) this is an amazing thread title
1) I'd personally say by cargo rather than by person size. Otherwise you would get a lot of very skinny merchants with huge baggage trains. And people might well 'sponsor' a caravan for a bit of coin, with the merchant passing through bottling their blood in advance.
2) Slums, probably of people selling their blood, and maybe also seekers of vampirism. If the city heart is vampires only, these slums will eventually evolve into a regular human city, with blood-giving probably being somewhere between a tax and jury duty.
3) necromancers trying to avoid persecution, and healers making liberal use of blood-replenishing spells/ potions. If this is in a d&d universe, I'd say any local temples would have strong biases to the more edgy gods, since Pelor etc would be all 'kill the abominations!'. Since it's in a ravine and full of ancient architecture, there will be a certain lure to adventurers, archaeologists, and stonemasons. And the fact it's on a merchant route will probably lead to inns, stables, and other industries that thrive on people passing through.
c) once more, I love this idea

[Xalyz]

I have come up some local "attractions"

-Vampire council- although being dragged in front of them is terrifying, it is interesting to visit it during the off hours. It is also important to know where it is if you need to pay a fine or a permit (both paid in blood).
-Black Market Cavern- most large cities might have a black market, none are as open, advertised, or as diverse as this one. Whatever your vice is bodies(dead or alive), magical devices, banned texts, or just unusual components this market has it all. Looking to sell? there are even vendors willing to act as middlemen to sell all kinds of oddities.
-Bordello of Blood- what happens at the Bordello, stays at the bordello.
-Ancient Mines- the deepest levels of the city are were originally part of a ancient iron mine, the material from this one resists magic but it has been mined dry. Rumor has it that some ancient evil has been awoken and only the latent metal in the ore is keeping the evil from escaping.

The pass goes through a large mountain range which is guarded by various glyphs and wards. The city is bordered by a reasonable sized city of lesser species, whether they are fleeing persecution, or they worship the vampires.

Edit: The glyphs and wards are to protect the pass from weather and rock slides.

[Gwaednerth]

The Silent Sun- filling the traditional niche of "evil death cult" and "rogue's guild" the Silent Sun is a religious organised crime group composed of paladins. They use traditional organised crime methods (smuggling, extortion, etc.) to amass wealth for an eventual holy war against undeath. They justify their crimes by reasoning that wrongs committed against the undead are not truly wrongs. However, they face a lot of resistance in the form of secular policing from the vampires and religious inquisition from the churches of good deities that see the vampire-mortal relationship as symbiotic rather than parasitic.

[tantric]

concept: the undead cannot create anything with permanence - everything they build comes to ruin

solultion? dwarf guest laborers....