TrithneSetting/Dehassias

D'ehassias

Location: About 120 mi. East-South-East of Sijan, in the middle of vast fields of wheat.

Population: Approx. 300,000. Much of the population is transient, and it peaks at nearly half a million.

Industries: Trading, huge grain product exporter, and many mercenary groups are based there.

Politics: Rule determined through Trial By Combat, between representatives of three Great Houses.

Ruler: Currently ruled by Maravance, of House Maranue.

D'ehassis is the third city to be built on a particular patch of land in the east. It was built in the First Age, then called Lihalsa, by a Twilight Caste Solar, to act as her research facility. At the time, the vast areas of flat land around it were populated only by horsemen, and she chose the location so that she had plenty of room to test her developments. Over time, an entire city sprang up in it's place, always sparsely populated, but considered an excellent place to be for studying Essencetech. One day, however, for reasons unknown, the Solar, in a fit of pique, set her ultimate development upon the city, and destroyed much of it, leaving it a ruin, shortly before the Night of the Long Knives.

During the Shogunate, the city was rebuilt, but they built on top of the original city, which was seemingly little more than a ruined pile of rubble. Thus the first city formed the foundation of the second. When the Great Contagion came, the city become a ghost town, devoid of life. As the Baalorian Crusade washed over Creation, the city was converted into a fortress, huge walls constructed and defense batteries installed that helped them not at all. The Fair Folk devastated the city, and were soon pushed back by the Empress activating the Realm's Defense Grid.

A hundred years later, a plateau in the east was selected as the site for a new city by enterprising builders. After they'd built their city, and many people were lviing there, they uncovered the second city while digging into the plateau for their sewer system. After the Fair Folk had fled, the city had somehow become buried under a mountain of packed dirt. They put their sewers through where they could, while keeping as much of the undercity sealed away as was possible.

D'ehassias is ruled by three Great Houses, one supposedly descended from the City-god, house Lihal. Another is of Dragon-Blooded lineage, although they've had no exalts in a hundred years, house Tokiha. And House Maranue is mortal, descended from traders and the city's builders. A king rules until his death, and sucession is determined by challenge. Anyone from one of the houses may challenge the King to a battle, and the victor takes the throne. In the event the king dies outside this ritual, each house willing to participate puts forward a contender.

D'ehassias is a large trading hub, dubbed "North Little Nexus" by some. Many merchants stop by there on their way to Halta and Linowan, but many more are simply based there, as the Guild has little influence there, something they are highly jealous of and have been trying for some time to change. A great many mercenary companies operate out of D'ehassis too, a source of much of the city's income, as they charge the groups for housing. But entire sections of the city are set up just for these mercenaries.

The Undercity of D'ehassias is easily enough found, sometimes walking down an alleyway can end you up in the streets of the second city. The Undercity is in relatively good condition, dirty and dilapidated, but still intact. The streets and buildings are still there, and people even live there. As you wander around the levels of the city, however, they become steadily more and more broken down and dangerous. The inhabitants slowly give way to all manner of wyldspawn, a leftover of the Fair Folk's invasion.

The lower levels of the Undercity are the original First Age buildings, nearly all laboratories and factories. Automata still remain here, defending their charges, and innumerable artifacts could be found down here, including the cause of Lihalsa's first destruction, a seige weapon -slash- pet built by a mad Twilight. An automata wolf standing 30 foot at the shoulder, with essence-powered weapons upon its body, it now slumbers at the bottom of the Undercity, waiting to be activated again by anyone who finds it.