Silverkeep
Silverkeep is a large city in the Vundkragi region of Mid-Rezinsog, built on the hill Mount Morchite. The lord of Silverkeep is Lord Derrin Arvanor, husband of the aunt of King Ulfgar Ruby-Eye, Lady Giledd Arvanor.
Silverkeep is known for its temple to Kaeli, the largest in all of Talazic. Being a predominantly dwarven city, the majority of it exists underground, and much of its trade is based on mining.
Demographics
88% dwarf, 8% human, 3% gnome, 1% other
History
Silverkeep began as a town in the small country of Himminheim late in the Era of Cloud. The largest town in the kingdom, it drew prosperity from the silver ore veins upon which it sat. During the Great Shadow, its population remained more or less steady, as the populations of several nearby shanty towns and villages found their way there even in blindness and banded together, creating a stronghold. The temple to Kaeli at its center seemed to offer divine sanctuary, and even in times of distress, the people of Silverkeep fled to that temple and found unfailing refuge there.
When the darkness lifted, Silverkeep was all that remained of Himminheim, and in the following two and a half decades, as the dwarves of the peninsula regrouped, the city grew immensely in size, and, when the kingdom of Vundkrag was formally established, Silverkeep was named its capital. The city continued to grow and thrive, but in 278, concerns arose surrounding the depth of involvement the Kaelic clerics were having in political decisions, and the capital was moved to Shildefficte. This contributed somewhat to a crisis of faith that rose in the ensuing years.
By the start of the fourth century of the Era of Light, Silverkeep and the surrounding region continued to enjoy moderate prosperity, but had decayed into wanton excess and gross immorality. Husbands abandoned their wives for perpetual and bacchanal bachelorhood, givers of work stole from their laborers' homes, professors obstinately spewed falsehoods, and in the thick of it all, even the sun seemed always too hot or too cold. The king was rarely seen and seemed only to feast and subsequently fast for days in a drunken food coma. Some degenerate gangs even killed children for sport. Devotion to Kaeli and all the gods waned and seemed nearly forgotten. Silverkeep was the center and worst of this apostasy.
The fire genasi Archcleric Balthasar Flamestar of Metreliou, that temple’s seventh leader, learned of this decay from his traveling missionaries and grew troubled. In a rare move for a cleric of his stature at Metreliou, he moved temporarily to Silverkeep in hopes of igniting repentance and redirecting the hearts of its citizens towards Kaeli.
He was shunned for the first three years of his stay, and during his public sermons was often mocked for his race and spit upon for his religion. He resided in the city’s shrine to Kaeli, founded by his predecessor and still located in the city’s geographic center, though now covered in filth and cobwebs (he chased out a drove of men and women alike using the basement as a brothel for the city’s wealthiest upon his arrival).
In the third year of the cleric's presence, a pestilence fell upon the city. People grew pale and thin, developing black splotches on pallid skin. They recoiled at all light, particularly natural sunlight, though this now rarely shone on the city. No cure could be found, and as the death toll mounted, so did the anguish within the city walls.
This anguish slowly turned to desperation, and after 7 months, Balthasar found that he had regular company in the shrine. By 8 months since the first case, it was regularly packed. This trend continued until March 27 in the year 325. Then, in a miraculous conversion, one year and one day after the first death from the pestilence, the peoples finally completed purification and repentance rites to their former and newly beloved Kaeli. That day, the last of the plague vanished in a wisp from the remaining ill, and the sun broke forth on Silverkeep once again.
Balthasar returned home to Metreliou a hero 7 years after his departure, having revitalized the storied reputation of the shrine in Silverkeep. A mural above the shrine's doors depicts the entire tale in three panels: his arrival, the pestilence and subsequent conversion of the city, and his founding of the new order there. Silverkeep and particularly its shrine has traditionally been a safe haven for persecuted genasi because of Balthasar’s heritage there, and one or two can generally be found wandering its streets in any given age.
In the intervening centuries, Silverkeep became the foremost site to Kaeli in all of the continent. It is a traditional stop on pilgrimages and constitutes the last major stop on journeys to Metreliou, a route especially well-trafficked around the summer solstice and new year. Though it was, is, and always has been populated largely by dwarves, in line with the kingdom as a whole, Silverkeep's history had singlehandedly proven that all peoples are in need of light, healing, and redemption.
Silverkeep's association with genasi was also solidified with the life of Æshir Þorlássón. It has at times been called the elemental capital of the world.
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