First City was founded in 2301 by then-Admiral Joshua Underwood at the behest of Reydovan Emperor Joshmaul I, dubbed "Joshmaul the Destroyer" by the Republic. Two centuries later, the revolution began, and the Empire was destroyed. First City remains the seat of the legislature and center of all political workings.
After the merger with the Commonwealth, the Republic Congress Building became the seat of planetary legislature. There are 1000 Senators, all hailing from one of Reydovan Prime's 61 provinces, as well as the Mayor-Chancellors (the provincial governors of Reydovan Prime), who are led by the Deputy Reydovan Chancellor.
The Imperial Palace kept its name, though there's nothing Imperial about it. The Imperial Palace is the official residence of the Chancellor and his family, as well as a command center for Republic military operations, which fall directly under the Chancellor himself. The Palace is the operational center of Reydovan politics and is also home to the First City Gladiators, the Underwood-endorsed football team who play in the top level of the pyramidal structure (which opens up for games except during extremely bad weather).
The Tower of the Argonath, in the Hillary Mountains above First City, was built for the late Jeremiah Neill by command of the Emperor himself on June 17, 2401, one hundred years to the day before Joshmaul's death. This heavily guarded fortress was the only such fortress in this range, though Black Mountain - the tallest peak on the planet, in this same mountain range - is home of the Dark Tower of Joshmaul, which was rebuilt and renamed Montagne Noire (Black Mountain) in 2503.
After Neill's death, the Argonath changed from his residence to his tomb. Chancellor Neill's coffin is in the main hall, flanked by two armed Reydovan Guards. The house is sealed from public viewing, with the exception of Neill's library in the East Wing, which is open to the public, though the books are to be read INSIDE the grounds of the fortress and cannot be checked out.
The tower of Montagne Noire is Joshua Underwood's mountain stronghold. Built over the ruins of the Dark Tower of Joshmaul at the top of Black Mountain (which the tower is named after), the fortress is, like the Monolith on Belle Terre, a replica from the Lord of the Rings movie trilogy filmed in 2001-2003 (295-293 PED). This tower, however, is based on the tower of the Dark Lord Sauron, the Lord of the Rings, in the fiery land of Mordor. Like Mordor, the area surrounding Black Mountain is extremely volcanic; Black Mountain itself, the tallest in the Hillary Mountains at 34,000 feet, is a proven-extinct volcano which poked out close to the upper atmosphere over 300 years ago, in the year 2191 (105 PED). Black Mountain's last eruption was eighty years later, in 2276, at the EXACT moment the soon-to-be-Emperor Joshmaul disappeared into the void for twenty years. Whether this is magic or coincidence, no one is sure.
Montagne Noire is carved right out of the top of the mountain itself, whereas the Emperor's tower was built with man-made material. It was here that Chancellor Underwood addressed the Republic Army for the last time on December 30, 2502, for the complete scouring of the shattered planet of Tiberius Prime, where two days earlier the last remnants of the Imperial Army assassinated Chancellor Jeremiah Neill. The Republic Navy evacuated the loyal people of Tiberius Prime to some of the nearby worlds until the entire planet is scoured clean of its rubble-cities, underground gladiatorial arenas and slave pits, and are preparing for the terraforming process.
The tower takes up the top 4,000 feet of Black Mountain and can support 800,000 people for approximately one year.
