Deep in Falast Ithrondil hangs the storied elven City of Gates. Six massive platforms, each perfect circles called
rind (re-end, meaning 'circle') in elvish, are suspended by thin and magically-reinforced exotic rope. Each rind holds an entire district, each containing roughly four-hundred to eight-hundred people. All districts have housing, with substantial portions of those built into the massive trees around which the rind is hanged, and each district has a subtly-different feel. They are each named after their most founder's given name and are perched in such a way as to where five rind are spaced roughly equidistant around the central rind, which houses the city's main governmental offices. All rind are on the same plane of about six-hundred feet above the forest floor save for the central one, which is at only five-hundred feet.
Through trade with local villages, skilled hunters, and the interplanar commerce the city hosts, it has little need for vast fields or farms. Its hearty gardens, each grown on or around each residence, provide plenty of food even in times of scarcity. The elven people of the city are far more accommodating than their sister city of Andul, but still regard themselves a step above.
Rind Ithrondil
Located in the center of the city, this district is named for the city's founder and brother to Andul. While Ithrondil has passed into memory, he left behind a legacy of nation-building, interplanar diplomacy, and a city that could stand the test of time. Pulling in elements from across the planes in a fusion with the typical grace of elven architecture, visitors to this governmental district have little doubt they stand in a place of significant importance. Five great porcelain spires rise from the forest floor far below this district's platform, intersecting with it along its edge to provide support as well as living spaces for each of the leaders of the other rind. Gardens of exotic plants from across the planes are fed by wellsprings tapped from the Greatheart, the most exotic and central tree of the entirety of what was once Falast Abas. The Greatheart is unlike any other tree on
Enos, sporting blood-red bark that seems to pulse with a life of its own and bleed when pierced.
Within this district is found all major governmental buildings, embassies, and the Horizon Throne which serves as the seat of power for the leader of the Horizon Council, the five-person government made up of the leaders of each rind that runs T'vathi Ithrondil and makes its decisions. While the person that sits the throne changes depending on which leader has the most experience with the matter, the word of the sitting leader is law on that matter.
| Rind |
Leader |
Role |
| Aerenduil |
Caundur Aerenduil |
War and Diplomatic Affairs |
| Ellania |
Ellania |
Natural Affairs |
| Hirwen |
Aran Silverfire |
Spiritual Affairs |
| Pharom |
Pharom |
Arcane Affairs and Planar Nexus |
| Reysalor |
Deratis Reysalor |
Historical Affairs |
Rind Ithrondil sits in the center of the city. To the north is Rind Aerenduil, to the east sits Rind Ellania, to the southeast sits Rind Hirwen, to the southwest sits Rind Pharom, and to the northwest sits Rind Reysalor.
Rind Aerenduil
Named for the famed war hero Aerenduil, this rind hosts the Horizon Garrison. Both a school of war and diplomatic studies, the Garrison serves as the barracks for both the city's Horizon Guard as well as the city's Esper Front presence. While its eponymous leader died in battle shortly after the Abas Wars in which she gained fame, her son Caundur carries on her legacy as leader of this Rind in matters of war and diplomacy.
Multiple training yards, exotic stables, weapon storehouses, and related buildings are interspersed with the living quarters of those that make residence in this district. The highly-selective Silverhouse College trains bards in the arts of eloquence, swords, and valor, and the Redtap Winery supplies wine from here to all houses in the city. A fusion of the wrought iron of
The Hells and the gildsteel of
The Heavens intermingle with the natural and porcelain elven construction to lend this area of the city an brutal edge to its beauty.
Rind Aerenduil sits to the north of the center of the city. It is only connected directly to Rind Reysalor to its west.
Rind Ellania
Nearing the end of her natural life, Ellania has served as the material and spiritual leader of T'vathi Ithrondil since the inception of the Horizon Council in 5318QE. Still as spry as she was in her youth, the elder elf spends her days tending to the Circle of Variations, a garden-temple to Enos, of which she is the archdruid. Its myriad colors of flowers pulled from across the planes bloom in colors impossible, tended by an expert hand. The entirety of the multi-story temple serves as a focus of Enos' power in the region, and from it the druids of Variations can control and see the entirety of Falast Ithrondil.
The majority of inns, residences, and other residences in the city are found within this rind. For those esteemed elves afforded the privilege of burial within the city, they are entombed within this district's Womb of the World, a massive catacomb that sits inside of the rind's platform itself. The rest of the elven burials in the city, known as loamings, are ceremonies in which bodies are lowered to the forest floor to become one with nature's cycle.
Rind Ellania sits to the east of the center of the city. It is only connected directly to Rind Hirwin to its south.
Rind Hirwen
Given the name of a world-class healer, prophet, and leader of the Celestinian church, Rind Hirwen hosts a massive mutlifaith temple built inside its central tree called the Pantheon of Grace. Inside, priests of
Celestine,
Deku,
Xelin, Dictum, Auralia,
Voyage,
Esters, and
Pythas offer blessings and services. They meet on the 4th day of each month for a gathering in which they discuss and share methods in which to benefit each of their churches using knowledge they have learned in the past month. The church of
Ballast moderates the meeting, though it has no formal Standard in the city.
The overwhelming majority of this district is built within the tree at its center, called the Arm of Enos. The largest tree in the entirety of the surrounding forest in terms of thickness, it was found to be naturally hollow and is said to have sheltered the first group of elves to find the forest and settle it. The architecture of the district is decidedly influenced from elements all over Enos, owing to its broad spectrum of ideas and faiths within. It is currently watched over by Aran Silverfire, a Ballastian priest that once served as that faith's Aegis Eternal before his daughter Glesni took the mantle.
Rind Hirwen sits to the southeast of the center of the city. It is only connected directly to Rind Ellania to its north.
Rind Pharom
Looked over by Pharom, wielder of the legendary moonblade Keltris, this eclectic rind hosts one of two interplanar nexus on Enos (the other in
Tomir's Wake, the capital of Indai). Aside from Ellania, Pharom is the only living leader for which a rind in the city is named. One of the oldest living Elves, his exact age is unknown, but is rumored to date back to the late Age of Four, as there are tales of his advising Aegadar, father to Ithrondil and Andul. Whatever his age, Pharom has built a reputation as an expert statesman and planar diplomat.
The district, built apart from the rest of the city on purpose, hosts multiple open-air markets in which angels and devils freely trade with fey and mortals, peddling wares, magics, secrets, and stranger things. Carefully-maintained gates to every accessible Ring Group of planes stand at the far end of the rind, openable only by Pharom's blade. Watching over the district is a solar angel named Elemiah, together with the pit fiend Baalphegor. Both of these extraplanar giants spend their time shapeshifted and masked as random other forms, only showing their true selves when the need arises. The district hosts the city's Esper Front enclave, as well as the most diverse group of civilized sentient beings on the whole of Enos.
Rind Pharom sits to the southwest of the center of the city. It is connected only to Rind Ithrondil.
Rind Reysalor
Home to the College of Lore and Creation, Rind Reysalor's founder was a poet and elven sinnarntae (shen-har-ti, meaning 'storyteller') of legendary renown. The structure of the college itself is made half from marble, half from onyx in tribute to the Twins
Animatus and
Mortalis, for which it serves as a rare example of a church, though no priests of either deity exist within. The scribes of
Vorocit have an abbey called the Monastery of Mythweaving within the rind's structure underneath the college, and preserve those stories which can only be told amongst themselves. The district is watched over by Deratis Reysalor, the granddaughter of the rind's founder. While young for an elf at just shy of three-hundred, she is known as "the Legendweaver" for her skills as a sinnarntae, and her knowledge is a legend in and of itself.
Around the district are dotted numerous libraries and storytelling theatres in which the sinnarntae spin their historical tales, poems, legends, fables, parables, and myths. Still other elves known as sinnarnteith (shen-har-sheth, meaning 'story writer') record select stories in books for dispersal amongst the wider world. There are few permanent structures in this rind, with tents of silks moving and migrating about the space on a daily basis, giving the whole district a living feeling. Many gardens and parks are spread between and around the rind's central tree, and houses hang from a dense network of vines below the district known as the Undergrowth.
Rind Reysalor sits to the northwest of the center of the city. It is only connected directly to Rind Aerenduil to its east.
