Post by 月老 on May 25, 2015 18:47:53 GMT -6
SHAM BALA
OLD NIBIRU
The skeleton of a decayed city, crumbling sandstone and the inky eyes of gods and goddesses still watching in the walls. Tunnels—barren, thin pipelines in disrepair and dry as a embalmed husk; water-less—weave underground, ending at the river that cuts Shambala in half through Shangdi. Jewels have been plucked from statues, coffins, and vases. Its gold trim whittled away by peddlers and thieves. Nothing remains, except vagrants and the homeless nomads in Nibiru.
AHMOSE, THE MOON'S TEMPLE
A fraying temple created in the likeness of a half-moon. Banisters—torn asunder by wind, rain, and sun over five centuries—creep up along the edges of the mountainside, and a gaping doorway sits behind a statue of a thin woman with the head of a black cat. It opens to a circular sanctum where light streams through a hole in the rounded ceiling, and patches of broken stone and crumbling architecture frame a sea of hand-drawn calligraphy.
RICH MAN'S GRAVEYARD
Two slabs of rock, thirty men high, and leaning against one another. The mountain seems to crumble here, status of princes and heroes carved out of the rock and lining the clumsy pathway that cuts through the cliffs. Each is a marked grave, belonging to the royal family and the government, and are carefully attended to by sorcerers to keep rain and sun from eroding them away.
LION'S DEN
The bed of thieves, black marketeers, wayward explorers, and other shady types that often escape the capital after nightfall. A village built into a grotto under a waterfall of sand and dust, it peels back to layers of sandstone houses, stores, and meeting places clustered together above sturdy wooden bridges. Serving as a haven from the rules and social expectations of greater Ba'al, people of all backgrounds are allowed to mingle here, and no government lays claim to it.
AKMET
Hollowed deep inside the ground, Akmet is the name given to the walls that grasp for the chains that connect to Ba'al. Anyone taken from Old Nibiru or the tribes outside the capital work in the tunnels that vein the bottom of the pit under the floating city, and live in makeshift sandstone buildings that balance—precariously, like little toy houses—on the face of the rocks. All the men, women, and children of Akmet are in the service of the Caliph, and earn their citizenship by mining precious metals or refining gold, copper, and silver.
VULTURE'S EYE
A true wonder of the world, the Vulture's Eye is a bizarre sight where cool browns brighten to red, blue, and yellow swirls on the cliff sides. Minerals and pockets of chemical and magick have burned patterns into the earth—put there by alchemists as part of a cultural festival. Their designs curve and open, reaching over the plains like the wings of a vulture. A strange golden ring is centered in the creature's head, dotted with black and gray, and many call it the Goddess's Eye.