Lagash - the Imperial Hill

The beating heart of Lagash.

The home of the mage-emperor himself, the Imperial Hill towers over the rest of the city upon the back of a piece of planar debris from some unknown world. It is black as the night and sharp as a razor, and most citizens agree that it makes for a good metaphor of the emperor's temprament. From the Hill, dignitaries slave away in office-halls and gilded towers, Imperial Wizards perform experiments in secret laboratories, and the Emperor sits upon his throne in the imperial palace. This is the heart of Lagash and the seat of its power, where the fate of countless millions is decided with the stroke of a pen by an indifferent bureaucrat.

Layout

The Imperial Hill is divided in two principle parts - the crown of the hill itself, girded by walls and towers, and the interior of the hill. For most citizens of Lagash, the latter is only spoken in hushed whispers and conspiratorial rumors. "It is said" or "many believe" come up far too often when people discuss it for something supposed to be real. Such speculation is a favorite past time in Lagash, though pointless - the vast herds of the city's citizens will never see any part of the Imperial Hill to begin with, save as a imposing fortress from afar.

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The Hill is connected to the rest of Lagash by a large bridge. By day and night, endless caravans cross travel the slope and pass the bridge, ladened with gifts and tribute, of hopeful supplicants or foreign dignitaries seeking to meet with the Emperor or one of his chosen.
The whole span of the Hill is large enough to house a town already, and the Emperor's Palace dominates the greater part of it. Towers and guild halls reach high into the sky, making up for their lack of space by going upwards. Other than the Imperial Palace, there are few decorations about, with every open space decidedly more utilitarian. A few other landmarks, like the dreaded Black Halls or the Inquisitor's Throne, occupy places of power and prestige upon the Imperial Hill.

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What Lies Underneath

The colossal chunk of planar debris that makes the Imperial Hill is riddled with tunnels, chambers, and blood-soaked laboratories, shielded from view and accessibly only from within the Imperial Palace. Here, wizards and experimentors further the Emperor's secret work with near limitless resources and no oversight, save the demands for result. It goes about as well as you'd expect, and the tunnels beneath the Imperial Hill has rapidly become a place of unspeakable horror and forbidden magic. Every now and then, the Emperor's gaze falls upon the bloodstained halls and well-used implements of torture, and a purge ensues. The Black Cloaks of the Emperor descend into the tunnel, drag the guilty out, and cleanse them with fire - unless they have something to show for all their efforts.