The Hanging Web is a complex tunnel system suspended under Chronwhorl, in the mid portion of the crater the city is centered over. The tunnel system is completely secret to all but those who live within it. It is widely believed that there is nothing beneath the city, other than the deep crater full of freezing mists. The myth-touched humans who live within the tunnel system know better, and they know the Web is not the only structure down in the mists.
History
The Hanging Web tunnel system is named the way it is to ensure that no one will ever find out about its existence by accident. The name was chosen to sound like a shop or tavern to divert suspicion if anyone were to hear about it. There are several entrances to the tunnel system from the Fog Zone of Chronwhorl, but they are primarily hidden within the support structure for the
Shining Roads level above the fog. By hiding the entrances part way up to the upper districts, they were able to further prevent accidental discovery. The
Seekers patrol the the Shining Roads and the Fog Zone, but the same seekers will rarely cover both areas. Since the travel between the two zones of the city is not monitored directly, it is easy for the residents of the Web to slip off into the support structure and make their way back down to the tunnels. It is rare enough that the Myth-touched need to come into the city proper that there is not enough unexplained traffic to raise any notice.
There are several indications within the city that should raise concern for there being another structure somewhere in the crater, but they are not common knowledge and the Order doesn't want anyone, including their own people, searching around under the city. One of the biggest indications that something else is down in the mists is the presence of the
rust builders within the Fog Zone. Chittering builders will only appear in areas where there is an Eldyr generating an aura of Oas for the surrounding area. Without the aura of Oas, elemental beasts like the builders cannot sustain themselves and do not appear. While the
Academia Spire is aware of this concept, they keep the information hidden from everyone to keep them from digging around and trying to find the source of Oas in or around the crater. The Academia Spire is so focused on hiding this information that they failed to notice over the years that rust builders are the only variation of builders in the city.
The rest of the builders have been tamed by the myth-touched, and moved beneath the city to create the Hanging Web. The Web is comprised of all the stone varieties local to the crater, as well as some of the same building materials for the city. It took many years to tame all of the builders and carve out new spaces for the myth-touched of Chronwhorl to live safely. Once new builders were no longer appearing throughout the city, they moved the builders down along the support structures of the city and started building the Web. The construction of the Web started around the same time the city itself was being finished, and before it settled into the pentadricts it is currently structured around. It was also several years before the Radiant Disk was created, making the endeavor much safer that it would be in the current state of the city. The chaos of the time also made it easier to slip away without being noticed.
Very early in the construction of the Web the city was still being finished, so stealing some of the building materials for the builders was easy and had minimal risk. This allowed them to start the tunnels from the same material as the supports without damaging them, and helped to further hide the entrances. While there were initially far more entrances, all but a few were carefully closed off and broken down over the following years to make it easier to hide and protect the Web. The Seekers are a dangerous and sneaky bunch, so limiting the access points as much as reasonably possible was deemed to be the best first line of defense.
While the tunnels of the Web are regularly being updated and maintained, one of the most recent additions is veins of prismem woven into the walls of the tunnels. A few prismem myth-touched were born to mining families and brought down into the Web after their families cast them out. It turns out that they were able to breed and work with a unique variety of builders that could build with prismem. They bred these new builders to be relatively small and to lay down veins of prismem slightly inset into the walls. Once the network of crystal was connected to a natural prismem vein from the mountains nearby, they brought in both light and a flood of Oas. It is a very good thing that the veins within the Web were small and only on the inside of the tunnels, so that the light and Oas would not bleed out into the mists and give them away.
Population
The population of the Hanging Web is entirely myth-touched humans and elementine. Most of the elementine living within the Web are a part of the Nyross family, with a few others freed from the mythic slave trade. While the Nyross Guild has a physical location in the Fog Zone, must of the operation and family are based out of the Web. Despite that, they do not run the Web. The Web is controlled by a group of five Elementine with one from each of the major elements of Oabos, referred to as the Elemental Council. The Nyross family represents the void element within the Web, but is not included in the power structure due to their dealings and focus within the city itself.
The Web is still the safe home to all myth-touched in Chronwhorl. While there are many myth-touched who spend their whole lives living in the Fog Zone of the city there are many more that are cast out soon after birth due to clear visible proof of the elements they were born to. It is tradition to take these children out of the city and leave them in an area fully exposed to Radiance. The original purpose of this tradition was to try and burn away the myth touch they were born with. Over time, the residents of the Web started patrols to go out and collect these children. When the children started disappearing it was assumed that the Radiance exposure destroyed them, and the ritual became a way to give up unwanted children with visible elements and who would be unable to enter the spires or an orphanage due to their appearance.
Not the Only Thing Down Here
Throughout the building process of the Hanging Web, there were several instances of running into unexpected structures far below the city. For many years it was thought that these encounters were due to the poor visibility and ability to navigate in the mist causing them to create tunnels much higher than planned, or colliding with part of the crater somehow. The tamers would simply redirect the builders around the obstruction and move on.
One the prismem veins were lit within the tunnels, the truth of the situation started to become clearer. Opening a tunnel wall near one of these obstructions while doing a repair of the stone revealed that it was a pillar of the same materials as the spires up within the city. Further investigation revealed that the six city spires extended deep down into the mists. Far deeper than they should have any reason to. Five of the spires extended nearly as deep as the height they extended above the city. The sixth, central, spire extended much further.
With this new information, the building groups began to rapidly breakdown the parts of the tunnel system near each spire to create a good distance in case anyone were ever find a reason to be on the outside of this lower portion of each one. Once the separation project was completed, two builder crews were selected to investigate how deep the final spire extended. The deeper the crews went, the colder the mists became, until they were comprised of hanging water crystals rather than li quid water. Around this same depth, the spire also had window sections opening up and allowing for a sightline into the mists. The Elemental Counsel decreed that the builder crews were to go no further. These tunnel endings were not allowed to have any prismem veins, and sentries were posted at the very end of each tunnel to keep an eye on anything they could see from the spire. The Radiant Spire, the center of the Order of Radiance, was secretly piercing the very bottom of the frozen crater and the counsel wanted to know why.
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