Odin/Gorot

Gorot, the City of the Wall

Far out onto the Northwestern steppe lie the remnants of a gigantic wall, nearly a hundred feet high, with another fifty feet underground, and almost a mile thick. The Wall extends for hundreds of leagues to the East and West, though all but a few scattered bastions lie in shattered ruin with barely one stone atop another. It is said that the wall was built by the ancient Solar Deliberative to hold back some long forgotten threat, and was shattered to rubble by it’s Solar rulers during the Usurpation. Regardless of it’s origins, the great wall still has one sizable section left standing, a span of fifteen miles between two great towers nearly a thousand feet high.

This is Gorot, the City of the Wall, and one of the last large cities of the Northwestern edge of Creation. Taken over by refugees fleeing the tides of the Wyld after the Great Contagion, Gorot became a safe haven from the later ravages of the Varajtul. Now the Wall is a thriving city, surrounded by small farming villages trying to eke out a living from the swampy ground. The top of the Wall is also farmed, providing much of the city’s grain and food crops. Such terracing would not be possible if not for enchantments placed on the paving stones beneath the earth of the Wall’s top that keep the stones warm year round, a spell originally meant to keep the elevated streets clear of winter snow. Massive effort was put forward to expand the garden terraces and parks of the Wall’s top into the sprawling fields of cropland that grow today. The fertile swamp soil and heating stones give Gorot a growing season nearly twice that of most Northern farms, allowing the city to survive despite the harsh climate.

The people of the Wall mostly dwell in the thousands of apartments abandoned during the contagion, though the well to do tend to have larger apartments closer to the outside edges of the Wall, allowing for the rare window or balcony overlooking the steppe. Several stores of First Age weapons were found in the city, though most have fallen into disrepair over the intervening centuries. Many of the original armories and barracks are still locked with complex devices and enchantments that have remained impenetrable thus far.

The city is governed by the Triumvirate Senate, a senate consisting of three senators from each of the Wall’s three great districts, Eastower, Westower and the Wall Proper. Each of the senators serves a life term and is replaced by a designated heir upon death or resignation, though the populace theoretically has the right to veto any successor’s claim to the seat. Due to the extreme corruption and nepotism of the Senate, few appointments are actually protested. Despite the self serving nature of their chosen rulers, most citizens of the wall are happy, mainly due to the sense of security provided by life in such an imposing fortification.

Despite the nigh impenetrable walls and steady supply of food and water from within, there are dangers within the Wall. The deepest cellars and basements of the city have never been fully explored, and it has long been said that some unknown horror stalks the lower levels. Whether the creature is some long dormant defense mechanism, a lost weapon of the Fair Folk or some trapped horror from the Underworld none can say, but a steady stream of explorers go into the tunnels each year, most to never return. Another more immediate danger to the residents of the two tower districts are the thousands of hungry ghosts created by the massive sacrifices that fueled the destruction of the Wall. At the base of each tower, in the ancient assembly amphitheater, lie mountains of skulls, the last remains of the original inhabitants of the Wall. Efforts have been made for centuries to properly entomb the bones in ossuaries beneath the city, but for every thousand skulls interred a new cache is discovered, a new nest of spectral horrors disturbed. If not for the massive salt mines to the Northeast and the efforts of hundreds of dedicated ghost hunters, the towers would have devolved back into minor shadowlands decades ago.

Comments

Very neat! Something I'll note is that, according to the warding rules in the Player's Guide, salt-based wards are solely a Southern rite. Presumably there would be different ghost-warding methods used in the North. What might they be? - Quendalon

You know, I never really thought about it. Probably runes or ornately carved bones, since the Northern societies seem to be very Norse and Slavic in nature. - Odin

By the way, I'm stealing bits of this for my game! - Quendalon