The Sunken Circle, The Temple of The Archons

The Sunken Circle, The Temple of The Archons

Steps lead down from each of the five shrines into the now flooded sunken area at the center of the Temple of Archons. Along the wall of the depression at shoulder height, an inscription is carved, “It Belongs Not to the Pawn to Question the Intention of the Hand That Moves It”.

The bulk of the sunken area is taken up by a single immense block of red stone that has been carved into a wondrous model of a city. It rises above the stagnant water at its base. When one descends the stairs, the model lights up, illuminated by the same light that currently falls on Zyan above. In the daylight the streets are lit by the mottled light of dappled clouds or the orange of dawn, at night by silver light of the moon and phantasmagorical pools that accumulate below the city's dangling colored lanterns.

The model rises to shoulder height at its highest, and waist height at its lowest. It is stylized, with some buildings and locations of outsized proportions, and others, such as common streets and humble dwellings, you suspect not represented at all. But so detailed are its minute streets, sunken courtyards, arcades, and jeweled rising towers, that it seems no clumsy mortal hand could have fashioned it. To look at it is to be lost in the sights of the city, and to imagine its sounds and movements, the cry of the water carriers, the singing of wind chimes, and harsh bartering over rolls of richly printed fabric.

The Lay of the Land

Zyan Above is wider (East-West) than it is tall (North-South). There are many changes of elevation, hills, hollows, and such like. The island rises to the west dramatically, where the buildings on the narrowest part of the isle sit on a plateau. Far to the west, a small separate island is connected to the main body by a narrow bridge. On this island a palace rises, a majestic and elegant structure, with domes piled upon domes, and towers climbing into the sky. These towers are cleverly fashioned to form narrow channels, along which clouds roll towards a central dome, where this heavenly river pours through unimaginably high arched windows of the central ballroom. On the Palace's western face, a glorious stain glass window rich with iconography, six stories high, is set. Through its colored panes, a council chamber can be glimpsed, where a massive orchid springs, dangling over a jeweled ivory throne that sits at the head of a great table. A label is affixed to this structure which reads “The Sunset Palace”.

Moving eastward across the bridge and into the raised western plateau, the buildings here are bright and elegant. Wooded hills rise here and there between which are nestled cozy manses with sunken courtyards. At the center of the plateau, a great hollow descends gently to mossy woods through which a sparkling stream runs, to which a label is affixed reading, "Peacock Hollow". There is, on the plateau, also a great building along the northern edge of the island, with many columns, and martial statues. Piers extend from dark openings in the building out over the Endless Azure Sea. A label affixed here reads, “The Stables of the Guides”. From this building a silver thread runs through the air up the NW stairs, terminating in the shrine to Foravion.

Further east, down the cliff that sets the western area of the city apart, seven sets of narrow steps run into the neighborhoods below that sit at various heights. Along the largest of these stairs leading down the cliff face, a series of marketplaces is carved directly into the living rock. You can glimpse here arcades that lead deep into the rock, with colorful merchants stalls offering silver pipes, little caged monkeys, and other tiny queer goods. A label affixed here says, “The Vertical Market”.

The neighborhoods at its base are hilly and uneven, with steep stairs that climb past buildings clinging to the hilsides, and numerous small bridges connecting high points. Southwest from the base of the Vertical Bazaar, a hill rises above all else. Perched atop it is a tower that rises like a crooked finger into the sky. From the top of the tower a great telescope extends into the heavens above, while another snakes downward over the island's edge to point downward towards the heavens below. Here a label is affixed that reads, “The Observatory of the Horoscops”. A green line runs from here SW to the shrine to Thovis.

Across the island to the north, the city spills down a great hill that eventually becomes too steep for homes. A wall has been set here running between tightly packed houses that lean together against the harsh winds that blow from the north. In a plaza in this tilted neighborhood there is an amphitheater with a festival air about it, with several stages, bleachers and raised platforms, with jangling bells, and instruments for performers. Leading onto one end of the central stage from the building within are a pair of great doors, fifty feet high, painted in gaudy colors. Here a label reads, "The Theater of Justice". A golden thread runs from this building directly north up to the shrine of Azmarane.

Beyond the walls here, where rocks spills steeply down to the edge of the island, narrow ledges jut, supporting lonely twisted trees that clings in the harsh wind to the barren rocks. Here ancient stairs, queerly carved with blowing faces lead down into the island near its uttermost edge. On the norther side of the island, the cliff face is riddled with several tunnels that end in baroque gates, facing the Endless Azure Sea. Past the gates, ancient tunnels with richly carved tiles can be glimpsed. At the ancient stairs leading to these tunnels below, a label is affixed that reads the “Catacombs of the North Wind”.

Beyond the shore of the main island here, several other smalls islands float, making for a broken and irregular barrier against the biting North Wind. Here fantastical birds nest by icy pools of turquoise water. The last island is long and thin, ending in a jutting rock that rises above the island and looks out into the Endless Azure Sea. From this isle dangle cages that hang from chains spinning over the depths of the Endless Azure Sea. A label has been affixed to this island that reads, “The Farthest Isle”.

On the eastern edge of the city, the neighborhoods becomes seedier and more dilapidated. Here the crowded buildings with their network of tautly stretched clotheslines give way to sudden hollows, where silver grasses grow, and groves of forlorn trees stand. An especially steep hollow cuts through the neighborhood like a gash, with a dark narrow wood winding along its base. This is labelled “Gutter Hollow”. Nearby a building rises above the shabby dwellings, with outdoor altars of an evil aspect, dangling censors, and elaborate drains that empty into massive sewer grates below. A label is affixed here that reads, "Abattoir of the Fleishguild". A red line runs from this building SE to the shrine of Vulgatis.

Amongst the very poorest dwellings, crumbling, and overtaken by nature, sits a large monastery, imposing in its modesty. Within its courtyards massive dinner tables stand at which the poor and abject receive daily sustenance. Over them presides a statue with a fat belly, its swollen limbs contorted in strange and painful poses. Through other windows one can glimpse rows of hospital beds, and penitents cells filled with instruments of self-torture. Here is affixed a label which reads, "Monastery of the Benefactors". A black thread runs from this building NE to the shrine of Nulfex.

cole long Eric Boyd Joshua Blackketter Aleksandr Revzin Chris P.