Dinas Arendau
-- Dinas Arendau in 182 BBE
Though most of the history of Dinas Arendau is wrapped up in that of Cerghaine, after its resettlement and renaming in 335 BBE, the castle-city contained a wholly new culture, borne out of apocalypse and strife, as well as both fear and cooperation.
Retaken in the Night of the Slow Dawn by a then-unnamed group of refugee-knights and fleeing wanderers who were lucky enough to happen upon a fortress which miraculously did not have meaningful damage upon its walls or gates, as well as several economic benefits, Dinas Arendau was truly a lone stroke of good luck in the lengthy list of calamities that destroyed Caesia Thiir. After it was reclaimed, the survivors and refugees generally declared the warriors who fought to re-take it knights, and they took the crest of the Candelabra that laid as a land-lighthouse at the highest tower of Dinas Arendau, and one among them was chosen to be the quartermaster and organizer of the new city, becoming a de-facto king. In a direct insult to the Dusk Chancellor that ruled the fortress prior to the Earthbone's Apocalypse and the later assault by the Candleknights, this ruler took the title of Dawn Chancellor.
This motif of fire and candles would later attract a number of worshippers of the Angel of Irons, who seek to crusade and burn away evil in the world wherever it is found, and so next to the dwindling number of warriors in the Order of the Candleknights wanders a single troupe of (as of 182 BBE) 38 self-named Crusader-Saints serving the Angel of Irons whose order originated from across the sea.
Dinas Arenau lies nestled between the Ceron Canal and the woods of Tir-umbria, formerly those of aspen and now that of a tar-and-slime-slicked petrified wood, with its back to the nearby Lochlyre Mountains. This forms a triangular area of defensive formations that have aided the defenders in surviving against the apocalypse for over a century. Across the Ceron lies the Far Fire, a watertower and observation post with a constant spotlight lantern shining upon the city, so that--while shouting is ill-advised and likely to alert the Sin-Eaters--its extinguishment can alert the city to incoming danger faster than any sconce may be lit. Within the city proper lies the low streets of Tel Daun and the Cathedrals. Old manors and homes built or rebuilt pepper the city, building more often tall than wide, as the city needs to remain within the walls of the antique castle in order to survive. The Cathedrals remain from the days of the Dusk Chancellor, but are not currently used in devotion to any god, for neither the former Caesian divine spirit-beasts nor the Old Gods of Blackreef offer any prayers the Arendauri desire, but they are used as town halls, storehouses, training grounds, and at times, walls and barricades. A thin road of stone bricks, known as the Testing Road, runs out of the main gate of the city across the Ceron in the direction away from Tir-umbria, and with the benefit of running water and focus, it is often used as a funneling point for incoming monstrous hordes; none of which have yet proven too numerous for the Arendauri to fend off. Up the mountain path behind the Cathedrals lies the crown jewel of Dinas Arendau, the Peated Plataeu, a some 20 square miles area of arable land in a mountain plateau that once had multiple passages to and from the raised, defensible area, and through excavation and bombing efforts, only now has one. While rope pulley elevators assist in resource and navigation, this plateau creates an entirely inaccessible, and most importantly, safe method of feeding the populace of the city. This is the deathblow to many a civilization throughout old Caesia Thiir, as the Sin-Eater's turn each and every crop and farm animal around them into pitiful mockeries of themselves, which is what inevitably destroyed Dinas Aurgil: their plague of corruption. Currently, the Candleknights refuse to name a new Dawn Chancellor simply due to tradition going back three decades and the heroic death of Chancellor Coudius Cor upon the Rotten Day, where Sin-Eaters came over the mountains and infected the Peated Plateau. Due to Coudius' sacrifice, enough food was saved from corruption in order to avert famine. Coudius Cor was a Tonn Gan, but as of yet, he has not re-emerged or been reborn anywhere that has been discovered. In the Dawn Chancellor's place a Steward has been named, Luteia Eirion, who organizes the defense of Dinas Arendau, the allotment of its resources, and the diplomacies between Dinas Arendau and the nearby wandering orders of warriors and knights, such as the Candleknights, the Crusader-Saints of the Angel, and the Copper-Penny Knights, all of which refuse to owe true fealty to the Steward.
Dinas Arenau lies nestled between the Ceron Canal and the woods of Tir-umbria, formerly those of aspen and now that of a tar-and-slime-slicked petrified wood, with its back to the nearby Lochlyre Mountains. This forms a triangular area of defensive formations that have aided the defenders in surviving against the apocalypse for over a century. Across the Ceron lies the Far Fire, a watertower and observation post with a constant spotlight lantern shining upon the city, so that--while shouting is ill-advised and likely to alert the Sin-Eaters--its extinguishment can alert the city to incoming danger faster than any sconce may be lit. Within the city proper lies the low streets of Tel Daun and the Cathedrals. Old manors and homes built or rebuilt pepper the city, building more often tall than wide, as the city needs to remain within the walls of the antique castle in order to survive. The Cathedrals remain from the days of the Dusk Chancellor, but are not currently used in devotion to any god, for neither the former Caesian divine spirit-beasts nor the Old Gods of Blackreef offer any prayers the Arendauri desire, but they are used as town halls, storehouses, training grounds, and at times, walls and barricades. A thin road of stone bricks, known as the Testing Road, runs out of the main gate of the city across the Ceron in the direction away from Tir-umbria, and with the benefit of running water and focus, it is often used as a funneling point for incoming monstrous hordes; none of which have yet proven too numerous for the Arendauri to fend off. Up the mountain path behind the Cathedrals lies the crown jewel of Dinas Arendau, the Peated Plataeu, a some 20 square miles area of arable land in a mountain plateau that once had multiple passages to and from the raised, defensible area, and through excavation and bombing efforts, only now has one. While rope pulley elevators assist in resource and navigation, this plateau creates an entirely inaccessible, and most importantly, safe method of feeding the populace of the city. This is the deathblow to many a civilization throughout old Caesia Thiir, as the Sin-Eater's turn each and every crop and farm animal around them into pitiful mockeries of themselves, which is what inevitably destroyed Dinas Aurgil: their plague of corruption. Currently, the Candleknights refuse to name a new Dawn Chancellor simply due to tradition going back three decades and the heroic death of Chancellor Coudius Cor upon the Rotten Day, where Sin-Eaters came over the mountains and infected the Peated Plateau. Due to Coudius' sacrifice, enough food was saved from corruption in order to avert famine. Coudius Cor was a Tonn Gan, but as of yet, he has not re-emerged or been reborn anywhere that has been discovered. In the Dawn Chancellor's place a Steward has been named, Luteia Eirion, who organizes the defense of Dinas Arendau, the allotment of its resources, and the diplomacies between Dinas Arendau and the nearby wandering orders of warriors and knights, such as the Candleknights, the Crusader-Saints of the Angel, and the Copper-Penny Knights, all of which refuse to owe true fealty to the Steward.
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