Malador was not a city during the reign of the Masters. In fact, merely a tiny settlement, it was not even located on the coast. Before the Masters’ destructive war, Malador lay 20 miles inland and was a small farming community that provided foodstuffs to the great cities on the shoreline. When the Masters drowned the land, the village now found itself perched on the coast.
Some years after this cataclysm, fishing boats from Malador’s newly built docks discovered the half-submerged remains of the Masters’ cities. Many of the buildings were in a few dozens of feet of water or less, and those with many stories or that stood on higher ground often jutted well above the water line. Curiosity and greed quickly overcame fear, and ships’ crews ventured into the accessible levels of the buildings — finding them filled with rich furs, gold cups and plates, and many other valuable treasures. However, many of the explorers did not return. The towers were filled with dangers far beyond the capabilities of mere fisherfolk, but the people of Malador quickly came up with a means of gaining the tower treasures with a minimum of risk: any mercenary willing to enter the towers in search of treasure could do so, provided they paid the city a tariff of one-half of all treasure they recovered.
Adventurers were not the only people drawn to Malador by the wealth in the "Drowning Towers". The promise of great riches brought people of all walks of life, searching for work and profit. The settlement grew into a town, and then a city. Districts began to form as the rich separated themselves from the poor and the poor from the destitute. Authorized construction could not keep up with the population growth, and illegal shanty-towns soon sprang up, with homes made of driftwood and whatever other detritus could be found. To this day, these "temporary" slums spread out to the south of the city.
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