Skalagard

Skalagard (ᛋᚦᚨᛚᚨᚷᚨᛡᛑ), officially the Grand City of Skalagard (ᚸᛡᚬᛄᛊᛏᚨᛑᛏ ᛋᚦᚨᛚᚨᚷᚨᛡᛑ Großstadt Skalagard), is the capital and second-largest city of the Kingdom of Zoria in the Zusian Empire. The city is also the fifth-largest in the country, with a population of 2,856,109 people as of 2020. Alongside neighboring Farbai, Skalagard is one of the two cores of the Faskala Megalopolis, the second-largest in the world and the largest in Zusea. The city is also the economic and cultural center of the greater Kinser Valley at the mouth of the Skalasund, a massive of the Kinser and Schuhbach rivers.

Skalagard played an instrumental role in the Zusian National Springtime as a center of revolution in the then-independent Kingdom of Zoria, a meeting place for the National Fathers as they crafted the predecessor of the modern Zusian constitution, and the adopted home city of Alexius the Magnificent before he unified Zusea and launched the Alexian Wars. Several other key events occurred in the city during the Springtime, including the Zorian People's Congress, the creation of the Bells of the Republic, the Battle of the Thousand Flowers, and the Siege of Fort Hausenburg. Skalagard was the new nation's largest city until it was overtaken by Farbai in 1820; the city was also one of the proposed capitals of the new Zusian nation-state, as an alternative to the traditional imperial capital of Vordin. In the 19th and 20th centuries, Skalagard became a major industrial center and a railroad hub.

Skalagard's many universities make it a top study destination, as the city has evolved into an educational and economic hub. Skalagard has more outdoor sculptures and murals than any other Zusian city. Skalagard is the home of many Zusian firsts, including the nation's first modern hospital (1751), medical school (1765), stock exchange (1790), zoo (1874), and business school (1881). Skalagard is also the home of the world's second-oldest university, the Maanthau Institute, founded in 1088.