Priestella

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Priestella (プリステラ, Purisutera), also known as the Watergate City of Priestella (水門都市プリステラ, Suimon Toshi Purisutera) or the Capital of Water (水の都, Mizu no Miyako), is one of the Five Great Cities in the Dragon Kingdom of Lugunica. It is located near the western border with Kararagi and the Tigracy River in the far western part of the country. The city of Priestella was formerly led by the Priestellan Council of Ten until nine of them were slaughtered by an unknown perpetrator during the Battle for Priestella, leaving only Kiritaka Muse alive.

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Priestella is a large, upside-down shaped dome-like walled city, located directly at the Kingdom's border with the Kararagi City States. It was built approximately four centuries ago, using four centuries old combination of technologies. Furthermore, the city was said to have been built by none other than Hoshin of the Wilderness, and throughout history, the city itself was a cause of considerable territorial disputes between the two nations, though it currently belongs to Lugunica. Due to Kararagi's influence, the city has notable traces of the so-called Kararagi-style and Jabanees-style architecture and overall culture; inns that are extremely similar to the traditional Japanese-style inns both Al and Subaru are familiar with from Japan, can be visited all across the city, with one of them even being the location of the initial meeting of four of the Royal Selection Candidates' camps at the start of Arc 5.

Priestella is the closest city to Kararagi, with the Tigracy River separating the two. It is a beautiful city and a famous tourist location that is built in the middle of a large lake, with waterways running through the city. The waterways divide the city into four blocks called City Districts which are numbered clockwise from the main gate. According to Subaru, the city sees most of its traffic in the First and Second Districts.

The city itself is built like a sports arena with a basin at its centre. In the event of a flood, the centre would be instantly submerged. In order to have water canals in which people could travel via water dragons, Hoshin used an intricate magical mechanisms which stand at each of the four cardinal points–the control towers. These towers are massive stone pillars, and according to Emilia, they all are some sort of complex meteors. They are used to regulate the flow of water throughout the entire city, either lowering or rising the water levels. Their main purposes, however, are so to prevent the water from building up in one specific spot (in this case, in the centre of the city), send the water through water canals and creating some sort of artificial rivers (as mentioned above) and to flood the city if necessary. The magical mechanism is even capable of making half of the water from one single waterway flow in one direction while the other one flows in the other direction, effectively making Priestella's waterways flow in both directions.

Priestella was governed over by the Priestellan Council of Ten, a group of ten powerful and wealthy individuals, with Kiritaka Muse acting as their leader of sorts. Due to the influx of Kararagi's culture at Priestella's border, it was inspired by Kararagi's League of Cities, which is made up of ten representatives from each of Kararagi's ten major cities. During the Witch Cult's attack on the city in Arc 5, everyone in the council save for Kiritaka were slaughtered, presumably by the Witch Cult; however, according to Capella Emerada Lugunica, they were uninvolved and she theorized that the one who killed them was Al.

During said attack, a large portion of Priestella was destroyed. When one of the water gates was shortly opened, it allowed the water to flood the district for a short time. While the Muse Company took considerable damage, City Hall was completely decimated during the fight against Capella. Meanwhile, the Third District, where the fight against Regulus took place, left many buildings crushed, destroyed, and erased, numerous holes were left in the ground, and portions of the district were flooded with water, among other damages. After the fight, the residents began to rebuild upon the damages.

History

Priestella was built as a trap mechanism for extremely dangerous individuals and creatures, specifically the Witches and strong witchbeasts. The control towers were designed so that they could flood the entire city when the flood gates are all released. This mechanism was successfully used in the past to kill Typhon.

Around 100 years prior to the story’s beginning, Lugunica and Kararagi fought for the rights over Priestella. Though it was within Lugunica’s domain, due to its proximity to Kararagi and the fact that Alec Hoshin was responsible for the city’s creation, Kararagi demanded rights over the city. In the end, however, Lugunica maintained rights over Priestella.

A year after Subaru's arrival in Lugunica, Anastasia Hoshin decided to organize a party in Priestella for the camps participating in the Royal Selection. As they arrived, most of the Witch Cult's Sin Archbishops arrived in the city for various reasons and took control of it, with their demands being the Book of Wisdom, an artificial spirit, a Witch's remains, and from Regulus Corneas, to not interrupt his forced wedding with Emilia. Because of this, all five Royal Selection Camps were required to work together in order to quell the incident.

As the fighting came to its conclusion, Regulus Corneas was killed by Reinhard van Astrea and Natsuki Subaru, and Sirius Romanée-Conti was captured with the help of Liliana Masquerade and Priscilla Barielle. Despite their triumph, various people were transformed into different forms by Capella Emerada Lugunica, and several, including Crusch Karsten, were afflicted by the curse within her Dragon's blood. The Sin Archbishops of Gluttony also erased the existence multiple people, including Julius Juukulius, who only lost his name, and Joshua Juukulius, who was robbed of his name and memories. To look for answers, Anastasia Hoshin suggested visiting the Pleiades Watchtower, which resulted in her camp and the Emilia Camp leading a group to visit there.

With that group gone, Garfiel Tinzel helped with the reconstruction efforts, and later, he helped retrieve the remains of the Witch that were within the city’s catacombs.

Locations

• Tigracy Bridge (ティグラシー大橋, Tigurashī Ōhashi): A stone bridge that sits over the Tigracy River on the Lugunican side which leads to the front gates of Priestella.
• Water Plumage Inn (水の羽衣亭, Mizu no Hagoromo-tei): A Kararagi style inn located in Priestella's first avenue.
• Muse Company (ミューズ商会, Myūzu Shōkai): The Muse Company is a large building primarily built out of stone. It's strategically situated between Priestella's First and Second Districts–an area which holds the most traffic in the entire city and is therefore the most ideal place for merhants to have their offices. The building itself is the base of operations for Muse Company, the most powerful and influential merchant company in Priestella, ran by Kiritaka Muse. He hires the White Dragon's Scales to protect his goods. The building was temporarily used as a headquarters during the Battle for Priestella, and it took heavy damage during the fight.
• The Great Temple (大神殿, Daishinden): A temple located underneath Priestella, where the Witch of Pride's remains are said to be kept. It can be accessed through a secret door in the area under the canals, that masks a trapdoor. The Temple is protected by a Guardian, with a grotesque appearance. It's described to not be a witchbeast, and to have an appearance that looked like it had been formed by a lot of rats coming together, with heads coming out of its torso.
• The Four Control Towers: At all four sides of the city–north, south, west and east–there lies one massive stone tower. As mentioned above, the towers themselves are complex meteors housing water magic crystals, and server as regulators of the water channels' flow and amount of water. Furthermore, one can open up the floodgates and flood the entire city. During Arc 5, one of the floodgates was opened, and the result was a total submersion of one of the four districts. During the Battle for Priestella, one of the control towers collapsed from the might of the Sin Archbishop of Wrath.
• City Hall: The City Hall is a tall building in the center of the city. It houses a large communication device used to broadcast all over the city. During the Battle for Priestella, it was completely destroyed.
• Time Towers: All across Priestella, several Time Towers can be found scattered around. These Time Towers are usually built out of stone and are rather tall, with a tall spire at its peak. At its upper portion, one can see a magic crystal clock, which works similarly to normal clocks from Earth. In truth, the point of Time Towers are to help people track the time of day. One of these Time Towers was the location of Sirius' original introduction in the city, at the end of volume 16, and it was damaged at the start of the battle against her.
• City Park: Priestella has its very own city park, filled with meticulously maintained flower beds, a large green lawn and at its centre, there's a dazzling water fountain, which could only be described as perfect for its location. According to Subaru and Beatrice, the park is perhaps the most beautiful and relaxing location in the entire city.

Residents

• Kiritaka Muse
• Liliana Masquerade (temporarily)
• Reala Thompson
• Garek Thompson
• Rafiel Thompson
• Fred Thompson
• Lusbel Kallard
• Tina
• Darts
• Muslan Kallard
• Ina Kallard

Trivia

• In the web novel, there was no Priestellan Council of Ten.
• Priestella is extremely conscious about its surrounding landscape, therefore they've enforced a lot of rules against littering. They have done such an amazing job that the bottom of the lake can be clearly seen without any obstructions.
• It took the members of Emilia Camp exactly 12 days to travel from Roswaal's new mansion to Priestella.