The Lost City of Taxl gra Alakha

You wouldn't know it looking at their villages today, but two thousand years ago, my people were at the leading edge of "civilization" on Cartyrion. Five great cities - five cities that would make even Endmere in all its glory blush in shame - existed. Today, they all lie in ruins, or have disappeared entirely. Two months I spent searching for what remained of Taxl Alakha, but apart from a few stones, I could find nothing.

— Khala the Traveler, excerpt from notes for "The Traveler's Guide to the Feywood"

When the gods brought their clashes to the world and the Great Strife began, the Taxlatl were a powerful people on Cartyrion. The reach of their civilization and culture was global. But the devastation and loss brought about by the god-war was particularly cruel to the Taxlatl, whose powerful priesthood had chosen to align the civilization with the The Gods of Coercion. Along the road to defeat, saw their civilization all but obliterated for the second time since their Awakeneing.

Before the Great Strife, there were five great centers of Taxlatl civilization. These were five large cities where magic and science were studied side-by-side, priests and people revered the gods in awe-inspiring temples, and where talented poets, bards, and other performers entertained the people. Great libraries held records gathered or penned by historians, sages, and philosophers. poets, bards, and other performers. One such city was located in the heart of the Feywood. This was the City in the Trees - Taxl gra Alakha.

History

First Rise and Fall

The first great Taxlatl civilization collapsed over thirteen thousand years ago, shortly after the lizardfolk had their first contact with the Humans that had been expanding their reach since Awakening. The few Taxlatl records that remain suggest that the Humans brought with them some disease that, while not necessarily damaging to them, was virulent and usually fatal when passed on to a Taxlatl. The population of their capital, Taxl gra Kalahrassa, and that of nearby smaller cities crashed, and with it the civilization that was centered in them.
But the Taxlatl are resilient and determined. They immediately began to rebuild what they had lost, a task aided by the records of their predecessors. Eventually, a second great Taxlatl civilization emerged. But there were differences. The second civilization was essentially a theocracy, ruled by priests who had convinced the people that the gods, and the priests that communed with them, were all that stood between the people and death.

A Vision of Dominance

The priests were acting on the will of their gods, of course, and that will was to dominate Cartyrion. Rather than an aggressive expansion, though, the gods encouraged a more subtle "seed and spread" approach. Thus, even as TAxl gra Kalakhrassa was being restored to its former glory, four other "great cities" were envisioned. These would be spread throughout the world, and Taxlatl culture - and power - would then grow outward from five sources rather than just one.
One of the four new city centers would be placed in the heart of the forest called the Feywood. It would be called Taxl gra Alakha, or the City in the Trees. The Taxlatl hoped to tap into the magical energies that - obviously to them - flowed there. A site was chosen several days travel north of the only other settlement of Folk in the forest: the Alev enclave called Feyhome at the time, and now called Fey Haven. It was near the joining of several rivers and not far from a vast lake.

A City Built

The mountains that ringed the Feywood were filled with deposits of limestone and marble, which the Taxlatl quarried and carried to the city site to build its greatest structures. It took many years and much labor, but eventually, the four significant structures that were a planned part of every Taxlatl city were completed: the Tower of Science, the Tower of Magic, the Tower of History, and - in the center - the largest of all, the Tower of the Gods. The equilateral triangle formed by the first three towers was a plaza paved with limestone; the Tower of the Gods rose from the exact center of this plaza. As for the rest of the city, while some additional modest structures were crafted of the limestone, marble, and other stones quarried in the mountains, most were made of wood harvested from the Feywood itself to make room for the city.

A City Lost

When the Great Strife came, the heart of the Feywood was spared violent combat, but it was not completely untouched. Partly in retaliation for the unleashing of the Wasting by the Gods of Coercion, and partly to hobble the enemy and hasten the end of the war, the forces backing the Gods of Consent devised a strategy to remove the Taxlatl forces from the war by removing their civilization centers from the map.

The annals kept by the Duagans of the Lonely Delve claim that no fewer than three hundred Stonepriests, guided and protected by the Alev of Feyhome, quietly made their way to to form a ring around Taxl gra Alakha. Working their magic in unison, they destablized the land beneath the city, causing it to soften. The rivers flowing through the region quickly spread out to turn the ground into soft mud - into which the city of Taxl gra Alakha sunk in the course of a single day. When the ritual was complete, the vast plaza and surrounding city had taken on the appearance of a new large lake, though it was only inches deep in most places. Only the peaks of the limestone towers remained above ground. Within a few hundred years, vegetation quickly took hold in the mud and shallow water of the sunken area - an area that is now known as the Feywood Fens.

Legacy

Today, the Taxlatl still have a presence in the region where the city once stood, though it is one that bears little resemblance to the alleged splendors of the lost city. A village of crude wooden homes is surrounded by a wooden stockade fence to guard against raids by the aggressive boggards that claim most of the fens as their territory. The name of the village - Axl Alakaa, or "Village in the Trees" - suggests that its inhabitants retained some memory of lost greatness. The village's Past Singer, or keeper of lore, does have some songs and tales that recall the glory of the lost city, but the villagers regard these almost as fairy tales. On one level, they accept them to be recountings of what the Taxlatl had and lost, but they long ago lost the desire - or the time to spend - to seek out any remnants that linger totay.

It is Taxlatl sages from other parts of the world, and Adventurers of all types, that show an interest in Taxl Alakha today. Every now and again, attempts will be made to locate the lost city and see what wonders can be recovered from its lost towers of learning, experimentation, and worship.

The Duagan records from the time suggests that thousands of Taxlatl perished when the city sank. There were very few survivors (as is evidenced by the meager population of Axl Alakha today). Sages - and adventurers - believe, though, that the abrupt and rapid sinking of the towers essentially turned them into time capsules of sort. They envision records of the scientific, alchemical, and magical study being preserved within the towers, waiting only for someone to find them.

To this day, nothing of significance has been returned from the lost city to the light of day - at least nothing that is known to the general public.

I can only pray that some day, Taxl gra Alakha will be discovered intact beneath the fens, and the world will see the greatness that was my people. The other four cities were destroyed when the stonepriests made the ground tremble beneath them, so Taxl gra Alakha is the last hope of my people to regain the knowledge that was once theirs.

— Khala the Traveler, excerpt from notes for "The Traveler's Guide to the Feywood"

Credits

Heroforge images in side panels by RPGDinosaurBob using HeroForge™
Banner image by RPGDinosaurBob using Flowscape