Anoomenon (An-oo-men-on)

Anoomenon is the last of the seven foundation cities still surviving in the age we know as the Pax Helsporan. The city sits at the mouth of the red river Perque in lands that lie far to the east of Aberstone. At the height of its powers, it spread all the way around Perque Bay and far up along the main river channel on both banks but in recent times, Anoomenon has become something of a ghost city and the few remaining residents live in depopulated districts separated by abandoned and decaying zones that can only dream of the glories of earlier ages. The image at the head of this article showns the Old Dry Wall (sometimes called the Sun Ridge) at sunset. This bleak ruin is the outermost ancient city limit, lying well to the north of the regions shown on the map. It is the first glimpse of Anoomenon for any traveller aproaching the city by land from the north east.

Government

Anoomenon has had several distinct types of goverment over the period of more than three thousand years that it has existed, but it is presently ruled by the Neo-Traditionalists, a small group of artistocrats who strive to hold together the remains of society and good order in the almost empty modern city. More details about the long political history of the city can be found under the specific article conerning Anoomenon Governments.

Defences

In the relatively peaceful times of the Pax Helsporan, the city has little need of defences, which is just as well because it is no longer capable of maintaining one. In the event of any threat, it would be forced to look to the Protectorate of Tree'skivo for aid. There was a time, though, when it had a more than adequate military, capable of resisting the House of Thorns when the Thin Princes were at their most powerful. The lower and upper estuary forts were both involved in a famous successful defence of the city during the age of the Succession Empires

Anoomenon - Upper Estuary Forts by DMFW with Night Cafe & Stable Diffusion

Districts

In the year 3180 AF when the events related in the story of A Gift from the Sea take place, large sections of Anoomenon have been abandoned due to depopulation.

Anoomenon - City Reach by DMFW with Night Cafe and Stable Diffusion

The central zones on either bank of the river Perque beside the City Reach are known as the East Reach Bank and the West Reach Bank. Here is where the remaining government offices are sited and the vestiges of most of the more important aristocratic familes still live, including the Countess of Gess at Gess Palace (technically a little downstream of the East Reach Bank).

Anoomenon - Halcotte Island by DMFW with Night Cafe & Stable Diffusion

South of the City Reach, where the Perque divides into two is a zone known as the Cultural Quarter. Although relatively sparesely populated, it contains the important sites of Halcotte Island (the location of the Great Music Chamber) and the Anoomenon State Theatre, whilst a little further downstream on the west bank, we find St. Imylka's Overlook.

Anoomenon - St. Imylka's Overlook by DMFW with Night Cafe & Stable Diffusion

The Cultural Quarter is also the home of the Restorer's Guild on the main island in the river. The area around Old Port, where the Old Port canal meets the estuary, is the site of the Old Port Market. This is still a thriving commerical centre and the population density in the neighborhood is relatively high. The Thister-Arc Quarter which borders this zone to the north and east, was once called Merchants' View. The buildings here, date mainly to the ages of the Succession Empires and the Trade Wars and had been the homes wealthy families in their day, but the area was mostly falling into ruin when it was ceded to the alien colonists in modern times. The notable old townhouse known as the Iron Sentinel stands here on Ivy Street. Scattered human habitations can be still be found in the Quarter and further north on Highbrow Hill and on the ridge routes to the north of West Reach Bank. On the other side of the river, the district called Kings' Court was once the heart of Anoomenon when it was at the height of its powers. Faranteen Palace stands in the centre, built by the Grey King, Malador Faranteen between 2237 AF and 2241 AF. This was also the palace of the later Kings during the Golden Age of Anoomenon and it has been kept in a decent state of repair by the Restorers Guild, even though it is rarely used these days.

Faranteen Palace by DMFW with Midjourney

Lowgate Approach by DMFW with Night Cafe & Stable Diffusion

Elsewhere, though, it is a different story. The iconic skyline of Kings' Court still looks the same from the waterways of the Lowgate Approach but with the exception of Faranteen Palace, the other buildings, several even taller, stand on the edge of ruin and are seldom visited. Further east and south, the once important districts of Arelde, Elderbridge, Silverborough, Noom Heights and Slipforge (the site of the famous Solar Ovens of the Grey Kings) are almost abandoned. Only round Buttercastle Square and the suburbs of Fallen Landing and particularly the New Shambles, is there any significant population. The inhabitants of these areas, look to Oustone Barony for some measure of central governance. In the north and east, the Dead Spires region is a source of stone whch is used in repair and construction work throughout the city.

Guilds and Factions

The Restorers Guild has their headquarters on the main island in the middle of the river Perque in the Cultural Quarter. Their mission is to look after the many grand buildings, statues and artefacts of the city and attempt to preserve them against the ravages of age and decay.

History

In the early years of the Foundation Age, Anoomenon was a prosperous but relatively small city and not considered amongst the more important. That began to change in the sixth century when a program of construction began that over the course of the next three hundred years would see the creation of many of its most notable landmarks, including Oustone Barony and Gess Palace together with other public buildings which reflected its growing power and influence. In 1050 AF in the Foundation Age, sorcerer scientists working at Anoomenon discovered how to reactivate an ancient technology known as a fusion tap which provided a clean flow of accessable energy and light. The taps themselves were small and numerous and would blaze like the miniature suns they actually were in the day and the night. Almost at once, Anoomenon acquited the soubriquet of the Shining City. This was a critical step on the road back to gaining some fraction of the technical prowess once possessed on Earth before the Great Forgetting In 1511 AF Anoomenon became only the second of the Foundation cities to secede from the New Sophisticates. For the next six hundred years it would be ruled by the Law Council and the Prime Lawmaker under the first constitution. It was during the time of the Succession Empires that the city acquired a second title, almost as popular. After the fall of Paratomb in 1720 AF, Anoomenon holding a neutral status and attempting to balance itself between the other greater powers of the time, opened its gates to accept the refugees and became known also as the City of Exiles. In 1734 AF the city was besiged by the Thin Princes but it withstood the assault and emerged stronger than before. During the Trade Wars, Anoomenon made some small territorial gains but it never wielded as much influence as Aberstone, Modyran or Allport, the last of which came to dominate politics and commerce before it was destroyed in 2208 in the true military war known as the Mating Game that brought the Trade Wars to a close. The period between 2209 and 2530 AF is universally known as the Golden Age of Anoomenon when the city was at the height of its powers, a complex, arcane and glorious ascendency which made it the envy of Earth for three hundred years. The firing of the Solar Ovens provided a second reason to call Anoomenon the Shining City. Now the Grey Kings held sway, ruling with the aid of their subtle gene engineers. Contact with the moon had been firmly re-established and the treaties between the Princes of the Moon and the Grey Kings were elaborate, formal and ritualistic affairs. The more earnestly they were professed the less they were honoured. Yet there was peace for the most part and prosperity and progress. The Long Northern Peace continued after the Grey Kings had fallen in 2530 AF (succeeded by the Great Impartial Court) and Anoomenon had began to lose influence but that too, came to an end in 2617 and Anoomenon fell still further from the glory of its height during the murky machinations of the Role Disputes. In 2732 AF, after the conclusion of the Grammar Wars, Anoomenon became a refuge for a defeated faction known as the Bad Theologists, who built many of their distinctive towers in the city where they have continued their studies ever since. In 3000 AF, the city took in a group of Thister-Arcs, fleeing as refugees from a distant conflict and allowed them to settle in a quarter to the west of the Perque just below Highbrow Hill. Although Anoomenon steadily lost power and influence as the third millenium came to an end and the fourth one began, it still retained full independence until 3160 AF in the age of the Pax Helsporan when it was finally humbled to the point of petitioning to join the Protectorate of Tree'skivo.

Maps

Anoomenon City Map
The city of Anoomenon in the 32nd century AF

Founding Date

17th of Brightblossom, 40 AF

Alternative Name(s)

The Shining City. The City Of Exiles.

Type

City

Population

18372

Location under

Trass

Included Locations

Characters in Location

Anoomenon - Angry River by DMFW with Disco Diffusion

The painting Angry River is a huge canvas some 30 metres tall, which hangs on the tower wall of the Council Chamber of Anoomenon. It was a tribute to the might of the Grey Kings, specifically the 8th King, Prakadon Zold who commissioned it from the lunar artist Waldrin Sax. The exaggerated blood reds of the river and the abstract distortions and inconsistent geometry of the colossal buildings reflect the awe of mystery and arcane power which the city cultivated and projected during the age of the Long Northern Peace.