The city of Sunsreach stands as the most renowned settlement within the Belyrian subcontinent, serving as a seat of power during the era of the Wyrm Kingdoms and the capital of the great Karvina Empire. In the present age, however, it is but a shadow of its former self; having been sacked repeatedly by the warring Karvina Princes in the centuries since the empire's collapse. Regardless, it is still seen as an almost holy site by Belyrians, and the empire's would-be successors continue to fight for control of it, each hoping to one day rule a reborn Karvina empire from within its smooth stone walls.
History
Prior to the Wyrm Kingdoms
The base of what would one day come to be known as Sunsreach was constructed by the Seventy-Fifth of the Hundred, an Ormr known as Sefir. Known and derided among his kind for his perceived affinity with water, he dedicated his life to attempting to devise methods to reclaim the land lost during The Deluge. One of his early experiments in trying to create solid ground within the sea resulted in the creation of what was essentially an enormous stone pillar off of the coast of the Empty Bay, several dozen kilometres in circumference. Flat and without any detail, owing to its experimental nature, it was a remarkable eyesore in the region, and so despite the monumental accomplishment represented by its creation, Sefir continued to be shunned by the rest of the Ormr, and so swiftly moved on to new projects without ever bothering to iterate upon his creation.
Later, during the era of the Grannrormrlen, the pillar was found by the Fyrstbairn governor of Belyria, who saw in it a use as a potential defensive fortification should the Leskeln ever make their way to the region. The first step was creating a bridge in order to make travel to the structure feasible without need for a boat. Next, the governor took it upon themselves to add a rudimentary circular wall to the platform, which rose up sixty feet above its edges and encircled the entire structure, save for a small space left on the side closest to the mainland to allow for the installation of a gate. Though now remarkably defensible, it was soon discovered that stationing humans within the fortification was highly impractical due to its distance from the mainland; it had no access to any natural source of food or water, and so all rations and supplies had to be imported from the mainland, rendering it essentially unusable. In light of this discovery and rising tensions between the eastern and western halves of the Grannrormrlen just prior to the civil war in the sixth century, the project was abandoned for the time being, and no human or wyrm would step foot within the island's fortifications for nearly half a millennium.
Wyrm Kingdoms Period
Shortly after Forfir's death, the various wyrm governors of Belyria all soon began to split away from the Grannrormrlen and form their own separate realms, which would come to be known as the Wyrm Kingdoms. Each of these new wyrm kings possessed designs to conquer the lands of the others, and so in order to protect their domains from outward aggression, the various Fyrstbairn began a push to create new fortifications. Of these wyrm kings, the one who controlled the region of present-day Procovia saw in the fortified island the perfect location for a new capital, and began improvements aimed at making it possible to live in and garrison the area in the long-term. During this time, he oversaw the creation of a grand aqueduct that stretched all the way from the Ormr's Rest mountains and across the sea to the city, providing it with a steady supply of water and eradicating the need for it to be transported from the mainland. Next, in order to facilitate the transport of goods to and from the city, he opened holes all throughout the west and southern walls, where he then carved grooves into the island's stone base to allow the water to flow in, which came to be used as harbours for boats to dock at. The final addition during this period was of a lake-sized reservoir situated in the north-east of the city, to be fallen back on in the event that the aqueduct providing water to the city was sabotaged. All in all, the various developments made within the city took over a century to complete, spanning from the beginning to the end of the period.
During the Empire of Karvinasstrad
The aqueduct leading to Sunsreach was destroyed during the Blazing Empire's invasion around 1040 Re, leading to the city's abandonment. It was left uninhabited for over a century, until Kroskaw of Velwend succeeded in uniting the region of Belyria under his banner and declaring the Empire of Karvinasstrad. In search of a new capital, he decided that the island would serve as the perfect place to create a new centre of power, one that was still close to his homeland in the east, but that would also allow him easy access to the northern half of Belyria; which at the time was in a state of near-rebellion.
Kroskaw's reign saw the propagation of some of the greatest human-driven works of Arcana in history within the city. Even during the time of the wyrm kingdoms, only a small portion of the island had been inhabited, while Kroskaw wished to expand settlement throughout its entirety. To this end, he oversaw the expansion of the harbours, having his Esoterikii - assisted by legions of miners and stonecutters - carve great paths into the city's stone base using explosive arcanums which the water could flow into, creating what was in essence a series of canals throughout the city. These facilitated the easy transport of goods from one part of Sunsreach to the other over the water, leading to much of the city's logistics being handled by boat instead of cart. Elsewhere, small channels were created to allow water to be diverted from the canals into newly designated public baths, where the water was purified by Theos and the salt removed from it to allow it to be hygienic to wash in. In the following years, this system was expanded to include drinking fountains situated all across streets in the city, within which were placed sanctified bird feathers that rendered the water safe to drink.
This period also saw the construction of most of the great buildings in Sunsreach, such as the imperial seat of Wyrmrest Palace, where the skulls of the various Fyrstbairn slain during the Blazing Empire's conquests of Belyria were collected and displayed, often being used as the centrepieces of decorative water features. Thousands of houses were also constructed, and at its height, the city was home to a population of more than seven hundred thousand, making it the most highly populated city in Pretheya since the downfall of the Grannrormrlen. It became the centre of trade within the empire, and merchants would travel from the north and the west to do business there, with goods from all across the world changing hands.
Modern Day
After the assassination of Emperor Broban and the collapse of the Karvina Empire, Sunsreach became impossible to sustain. The vast network of farms necessary to sustain the city's population had accounted for an enormous percentage of the arable land in Belyria, and with central authority deteriorating, these became impossible to maintain. The subcontinent-wide supply chain responsible for the transport of food and material to the city soon failed, causing widespread famine and the collapse of production infrastructure. The city, which had taken a century to grow to its current size, found itself all but abandoned within the following decade; the red-roofed buildings that had once defined it starting to be overgrown with moss, while all of the metal soon corroded away from the salty sea spray. What valuables had once been present in the city were either taken by those migrating away from it in the wake of Karvinasstrad's fall, or stolen by thieves in the following years.
Despite this, the city remained an object of desire for the Karvina Princes who sought to fashion themselves the Empire's successors. Various attempts were made to repopulate the city in some form by occupying princes, but each culminated in little more than the creation of a token garrison to protect the city from any further robbery. Buildings continued to decay as they were subjected to rain and wind and left without maintenance, and by the 19th century Re, all but the westernmost part of the city was a ruin.
In the 17th century Re, it was decided by the presiding Karvina Prince at the time that attempting to station a garrison in the city of Sunsreach itself was impractical, and so a settlement was established by the edge of the bridge upon the mainland, intended to house the garrison and their families. As time passed and few serious attempts were ever made to capture the functionally-worthless city, the village steadily grew up into a town, coming to be known by the locals as Little Sunsreach, later Wavesreach. In time, it would develop into a fully-fledged city and come to serve as the capital of the Princedom of Procovia, with a population of roughly fifty thousand. The city serves as the home of several of the most important treasures once housed in Sunsreach, such as the reputed skull of Forfir himself, and is often considered to be the practical replacement for Sunsreach, in the sense of its ownership often passing between Karvina Princes in place of the abandoned city.
Old Description
The main reason that Procovia remains independent and has not been annexedd by either Velwend or Leithen through Crusreft is that no one wants to control Sunsreach. The city of Sunsreach is an economic dead-end: Its position in the Great Maw allows it no meaningful access to anything other than Qaljenan and Velwendese coast for trade, and its position as an island city with no natural water supply renders it impossible to hold in a siege. During the height of the Karvina empire it boasted a population of around two hundred thousand, with an advanced and well-kept series of roads making transporting goods to and from it feasible, as well as a fleet of boats to carry them back and forth from its harbours. With the downfall of Karvinasstrad, the roads fell into disrepair, and industry rapidly began to die. In the present day, Sunsreach is essentially unpopulated, the city having moved to the surrounding coast. The Procovian king holds court from a castle constructed around one of the support pillars of the great aqueduct, and a rickety wooden bridge remains the only way to enter the city by land.
The city of Outer Sunsreach, as it is known, possesses a population of around thirty thousand and is the capital of Procovia. Its main industry is fishing, but some artisans have stripped tools and salvaged workstations from Sunsreach and brought them out onto the coast in order to work them there. The king of Procovia has very little power over the country at large and often fails to collect taxes from the northern swamps. Within Outer Sunsreach, he is still able to rule to some extent, but beyond those borders the land is ruled entirely by the noble families.
Comments