U’Du
The Well is the lowest point in U’Duasha, both geographically and socially. The destitute of the city congregate here, to warm themselves by the raging arcane fire and to beg alms from the cultists of the Deprived. Here the cramped homes of the poor are little more than crumbling clay brick structures with broken roofs and doors. On the dusty dirt lanes the condemned are led from their cells in the blood-slick executioners block. Throngs of spectators gather to watch the bloody work of the I’Yalim executioners, whilst lesser Criminals moan in the stocks arrayed around the fire, begging for early release. The cyclopean monolith of the Tower of Stars looms above, dark windows like many eyes ever watchful whilst the mad cultists of the Deprived sway and sing, entreating forgotten gods, rogue spirits, and the Demon Princes for mystical intervention
U'du or 'The Well' itself is also the fire within the crater at the centre of the city of U'Duasha, it is an ever burning wonder; shifting its colours with the seasons, from pale blue to silver, gold, and deep red; a source of warmth and harnessed steam power in the cold, black, desert mountains. The fire is also a terrifically powerful Spirit Wells, drawing all ghosts to it as if caught in an undertow. When a person dies within the city walls, their spirit is inexorably pulled from their corpse and into the great fire, merging with the arcane forces there. The closer the body is to the fire, the more quickly this process takes place. The upper-terrace reaches of the city’s elite, farthest from the Well, may enjoy a day of mourning and funeral rites before a spirit is pulled free. The poorer denizens of the city, however, who live closest to the raging inferno at the Well, lose their ghosts to the flames before their bodies hit the ground. The lone Spirit Warden, assigned to U’Duasha by Imperial decree, has virtually nothing to do. No ghosts are able to avoid the Well to stalk the streets of the city—not without help from a Whisper, of course. A cumulation of shrines, altars, and temple-chambers have sprung up around the Well, inhabited by occultists who seek communion with the deluge of passing spirits.
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