Tyrn-Cha

There is no reason to visit the haunted streets of this arctic city-state on a whim. You can earn a living here through fishing, mining, or civil service, but few see an appeal in its narrow subterranean quarters and months without sunlight.

The Vadakendanic Procession summoned Tyrn Cha eight millenia ago, as part of their spread across the AmunAlden continent. It has changed hands and languages several times throughout history, and for the last eighteen centuries has existed as a socialist republic spiritually guided by the Convent of the Maiden's Oracle, whose temple encapsulates the stronghold's heart.

The living stronghold has carved itself into the foot of Mt. Alden -- first as a ziggurat and later tunneling down into the subnivean to accomodate agriculture and later towards the core of the mountain and the heat of its magma chambers.

Its population is predominantly Faecha and Nasyk, whose descendants were deported here during both Vadakendanic and Valuser'ran apartheids. They are not the only people you'll encounter in Tyrn Cha:

Aspirants come to commune with the gods interred within, and to train their Divine Eye and Breathless Voice with the venerated seers of the convent.

Historians come to peel back the layers of history. Its walls carve themselves with stories and murals of those who have lived within the city. Eight millennia of rises and falls, tragedies and wonders.

Exorcists come to study the Soul Cycle of the city and the thaumaturgy which animates it.

Monoliths pass through on their way up the mountain -- usually to either be buried or visit a burial.

Anglers come here to work at the subnivean fisheries and in the Fossil Sea

Miners come here to extract gold and silver from the mines within Tyrn Cha and peppered up the side of the mountain.

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Summary

Location under

Dar’ru

Citizenship

Citizens are granted a living space and the aid of the resident phantoms.

Entering Tyrn Cha requires a Pact ID and a citizen who vouches to be your guarantor.

Phantoms avoid non-citizens, giving them several meters of berth. This can be inconvenient in places where phantoms are doing lots of work.

Becoming a citizen requires serving five consecutive Night Shifts, at which point you will be given the Citizen Sigil during the First Dawn ceremony.

Phantoms build furniture and the structure, as well as cleaning and maintaining facilities. They can also be asked to find a missing person or dear object, as well as guiding you to parts of the city.

History

~8,000 Years Ago // First Construction

The Vadakendanic Procession builds a soluma, and installs it into a heart chamber built into the side of Mt. Alden. Verin Spell-masons laid the groundwork, with Ka and Nasyk slaves building the rest. Any slaves who died were interred into the heart chamber.

~6,000 Years Ago // Slave Uprising

Following the assassination of the Vadakenda of the Procession by Euphraesthi, and inspired by it, Khytask lead an uprising of the Nasyk slaves both alive and dead to exterminate the Verin population of Tyrn Cha and bury them in the place of the freed slaves.

Khytask spent the spring preparing himself and the freed slaves in battle, and abandoned the stronghold to join the war. Some attempted to stay behind, but without enough of them to run the city, most died by the end of the next Long Night.

~6,000 Years Ago // Descent into Madness

With nobody left to tend to the stronghold, the Soluma spirit animating it struggles to resist the influence of the enraged phantoms of the Verin interred in its heart.

In hopes of luring residents back into it, it burrows down the mountainside and into the subnivean, where it constructs a city chamber populated with tenements. The wilderness creeps in, but instead of rejecting it, the increasingly demented Soluma embraces it, and fills itself with flora and fauna. Few are interested in living here — they have moved south into lands once denied to them by apartheid.

~5,000 Years Ago // Sporadic Habitation

After a coral-quake to the south opens new channels and brings hot, humid air into the subterrene via subnivean gales, a population boom sparks an increase in tribal warfare and the drawing of territory boundaries. During this time, various tribes attempt to retake Tyrn Cha. At first they can only secure the outer perimeter and chambers, but subsequent tribal incursions are able to gradually breach into the center and rappel down into the undercity.

~4,000 Years Ago // Malisyk Reign

Empowered by the same curse pandemic which allowed the Ralakeshi and the Valuser'ran Empire to gain prominence, the Malisyk Cannibal Cult took Tyrn Cha in its entirity, from ziggurat to the moon pool.

The cult breaches the heart and makes it their headquarters, corrupting the Soluma into Manifestation of Murder. The heart expands exponentially to accomodate all the thousands of bodies produced by the cult — nearby Faecha and Nasyk tribes, contracted assassination targets from around the world, and their own members after death.

~2,000 Years Ago // Blood Snow Offensive

With the backing of Aempis, the Oracle Maidens overwhelm and uproot the Malisyk, exorcise its influence from the Soluma, and empty the heart chambers. This is the Blood Snow Offensive

The Maidens take command of the stronghold and invite the heads of all the local tribes to meet up and negotiate a unification. The talks take decades to settle, during which time people begin moving into Tyrn Cha while the Maidens exorcise its many lingering curses.

@1,800 Years Ago - Now // Republic of Tyrn Cha

The tribal homelands have become towns, with representatives of each represented in the Council of Tyrn Cha. The Convent of the Maiden's Oracle honors and continues the work of the Maidens, many of whom sacrificed their souls to the Soluma to negate and exorcise the influence of Murder. The Convent buries only the willing, and exhumes them when their sould is weary and asks for release.