TheNexusProject/AbattoirRise
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Abattoir Rise
by EJGRgunner
- "One day I'm going to have a nice house with a chimney and a door and windows, up on Abbey-Tar Rise."
- Lokara, the simpleton.
- "I was once offered a job up there. But with all that black smoke rolling up the hill every day, it'd be impossible to manage a tidy household. I ended up taking on work at the house Filos Nerrem. ... That reminds me, did you hear what Mammy Ramla said the other day about kidney pies?"
- Dohna Silkloom, renowned governess and harpy.
Nestled atop the low hill that divides Nighthammer and the Nexus district, Abattoir Rise is a relatively quaint neighborhood that is abnormally gentrified for Nighthammer, but still too decrepit to belong anywhere else. Residences on the Rise offer a somewhat breathtaking view of the Night Market down the Nexus slope and sooty vista over Peleps Dekna's Iron Foundry down the other. Relatively small, the entire Rise covers roughly five square miles, and the peak elevation is only one hundred and fifty feet above water level.
Abattoir Rise is centered around an abandoned mercenary camp, and most of the low-rise houses there are converted barracks or guard posts. Decrepit fortifications lend a "gated community" feel to the place, driving violent elements out and property values up. Primarily, the Rise is inhabited by moderately successful blacksmiths, tavern-owners, and brew-masters who desire a safe haven from the typical Nighthammer violence, but don't want to (or can't) move too far away from their businesses. An overwhelming number of homeowners in Abattoir Rise feel safe at night with just a sword by the night-stand, but crime is still a problem, as proven by the Mole-Spider Thief.
Rumours
- Seventh Tomb supposedly lives on Abattoir Rise, for some inscrutable reason, and commutes to Firewander six days a week through a secret subterranean route.
- Some people say that living on Abattoir Rise makes you immune to the Black Lung condition that most of Nighthammer's other denizens suffer from.
Secret
- The name "Abattoir Rise" has a strange origin. The hill actually lies atop the detritus of an enormous temple/coliseum used by Exalts during the early days of Hollow for ritualistic monomancy. During the Usurpation, a tremendous number of mortal Solar loyalists (including many Half-Castes and Beastmen) were taken to the coliseum and were made to engage in gladiator combat, or were simply executed. However, the name "Abattoir Rise" is not a direct reference to the coliseum or the slaugher during the Usurpation. In fact, "Abattoir Rise" is an allusion to a Twilight artisan, Ashen Hand of the Sun, who felt too constrained by "non-organic" media. Ashen Hand moved to this area of Hollow after monomancy had largely fallen out of fashion and the temple was being used more as an public gladiator arena. Using dying gladiators for practice, the artisan perfected a technique that preserved living tissues embedded within marble. Most typically, users would "capture" some feature (eyes, lips, brow, hands, etc.) of a mortal lover in stone, as in the famous Odalisque of the Perpetual Gaze.
