Alnarach

I found Alnarach built of bricks. I leave her clothed in marble.

—Emperor Ionatus Asa

See the wild Waste of all-devouring years
How Alnarach her own sad grave appears,
With nodding arches, broken temples spread,
The very Tombs now vanish'd like their dead!

—Alexius Pallas

The city is warm enough in the winter that the statues can stay naked.

—Er-Gin Tyaxa

Both the oldest and greatest human city in the world, Alnarach stands as a testament to human ambition, invention, and aspiration. Founded early in the Age of Tribes, it has withstood the currents and eddies of history and continues to serve as the very center of human art, knowledge, and trade. It is a representation of the human spirit, for better or worse, to the diverse races and cultures that call the city home.

Government

The Imperial Senate rules Alnarach directly, its five senior members each responsible for separate aspects of the city's governance: security; economy; health; infrastructure; and diplomacy.

Defences

While, officially, no Imperial army is permitted to march or camp within ten leagues of Lightbringer Bay, the city's defense is overseen by Oridur's Immortals, a force as fearsome as any legion. This elite corps of warriors are led by twenty captains, each corresponding to one of Oridur's closest fighting companions during his pilgrimage from Mirenia. Whenever serving in his or her official capacity, each captain wears a distinctive bronze mask identifying them as the heir of a particular companion, though the true identity of each is unknown, except to the emperor. This lends them an aura of ancient dignity among the people of Alnarach, who, in some cases, develop a cult-like admiration for one captain or another.
Each of the Immortals' captains commands a company of three hundred guardsmen, spies, logistical officers, and armorers. Thus, the Immortals function as both a civil and secret police, as well as the main defensive force for the city of Alnarach and its surrounding lands.

Guilds and Factions

Though countless minor and ephemeral factions and associations operate in Alnarach, there are a few stable and politically powerful organizations whose actions consistently resonate across the city's politics.

History

In the first human tongue, "Alnarach" means "gift of fire", an appropriate name for the city founded to celebrate the victory of Shael, the fire stealer, and the Silver Gods behind her, over the tyrannical Elder Gods of the Arnetikon.
Since early in the Age of Tribes, humans have gathered in villages and communes around the shores of Lightbringer Bay. Sometime during the first centuries after the Great Exodus, a clan of settlers erected a monument to Shael at the mouth of the Idamate River. A stable village would grow up around this monument, quickly growing into a center of trade. This monument, a great, pillared plaza known as the Place of the Eternal Flame, still remains, with the city built around it over the following millennia. This makes Alnarach the oldest surviving human settlement in the known world.

Architecture

No single style or technique can represent the historical architectural richness of Alnarach. Though the timbers and mud bricks of its first settlers decayed millennia ago, some of the city's sewers and catacombs still bear a trace of their footprints. Archaeologists the world over spend their lives searching for these traces.
The standing city is built around the Place of the Eternal Flame, the ancient stone and bronze monument plaza built on Shael's Hill. For the whole of the Second Age, this torch held the very flame continuously burning since fire was first given to mortals by the goddess Shael herself. The Idrus Dynasty-style colonnade and garden that presently surround the monument is a late-Second Age reconstruction of the deteriorating Asa-Dynasty plaza that preceded it. A blending of these styles comprises most of the city's Empyrean District, home to its wealthiest and most powerful families.

Geography

Alnarach stands at the eastern end of Lightbringer Bay, at the mouth of the Idamate River, where the lee and the fresh water create the ideal climate for settlement. The rugged terrain beneath it has been largely tamed by many centuries of excavation, reshaping, and the cutting, at last count, of at least 500,000 steps.

Alternative Name(s)

City of the Gift

Population

884,100

Inhabitant Demonym

Alnarachi

Related Historical Events

• 10001
  Founding of the Empire