The Capital

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Out-of-character information

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The city is the capital of the Aerai people, and they are Sharyrdaes' primary occupants. Since the start of the Second War, however, many different peoples have migrated to the city in order to answer the growing threat. This largely consists of combatants, who may or may not decide to remain in the city. But this also includes a number of other people, some of have established businesses and taken up more permanent residence. As a result, Sharyrdaes is currently home to not only the Aerai, but humans, elves and dwarves from various nations, as well and orcs and others.

The city of Sharyrdaes holds tremendous religious significance to the Aerai elves. Because this is the place the Shorai itself is home to, it is seen as a holy place and paid a great deal of reverence in its own right. The Temple is said to be the first structure ever built in the city, and it is the place where the hallowed crystal can be found.

Due to this significance, the city is constructed to be of ornate, even luxurious and grand design. As well as this, it is also designed with fortification in mind, with various defensive features.

The city is visible from anywhere in the encompassing south-western valley, sprawling out before an encroaching mountainside, and built onto it. The city is divided by a series of tiers built into the mountainside, each one encased and retained by enormous stone walls identical to the city’s outermost wall. Giant gates made of stone and powered by magic hang by unseen forces in each of the city’s large gatehouses.

The city itself, much like the walls and gates that defend it, is built of stone. All of it too is built in a fashion that seems to be far larger than necessary, with even more humble dwellings being very large structures, with tall archways. Tall spires, and other large buildings frequently stretch high overhead. Main roadways are often quite wide with a raised median, and many streetside lanterns on either side and down the center. Side-streets, though not nearly as large, are hardly encroaching, and lit in a like fashion. And though there seems to be no vegetation, the damaged aqueducts throughout the city allude to a once lush environment.

Each of the city’s tiers more or less resemble one another, aside from the fact that each tier is significantly smaller than the last. Because of this, the upper tiers are home to more of the city’s taller structures. The exceptions to this are the city’s fifth and sixth tiers. On the fifth tier, there are the Undercity Archways that lead to Sharyrdaes’ sister city underground. On the sixth, there is the Temple Shorai’s main entrance, and before it is a large plaza leading onto the Temple’s main archway, resembling the city’s grand plaza.

Entering the city through the main gates, one comes to a wide-open plaza with a carefully laid stone under foot. At center stands a large and ornate pyramid structure. At each end of the longer-than-wide plaza, various storefronts and taverns remain alight at all times, seemingly always ready to accept customers. Dotted throughout the plaza's vast footprint are rows of wagons or tents.

Built within the minor mountain range that Sharyrdaes is built atop, is what many call the sister city. Up on Sharyrdaes' fifth tier are two vast and intricate archways, each one sealed by the same magic stones that guard the city's outer walls. Within each is a long and wide corridor, which eventually leads to sister city which, over time, has come to be known by its own name, inhabited by its own people with their own culture and traditions. This society works and lives in tandem with the Aerai, all while remaining underground.

It is said that when the Patriarch discovered the Shorai, it stood proudly upon a great plateau that sprung out from the mountainside. It was in this place that he and his followers, whom he called Aerai, laid the foundations of their great temple, named after the great crystal itself, and then all Sharyrdaes.

The temple is an impossibly vast structure, both tall and wide. Of Sharyrdaes’ seven levels, the temple makes up much of the upper two. It is made up of first a singular, expansive structure, with several smaller (albeit not by much) portions built directly from that. At its rear, it marries into the rockface seamlessly and its interior carries on into underground construction both behind and beneath the temple.

The temple serves not only as a place of worship to the Celestial Pantheon, whom the Aerai observe, but it serves also as a place to visit and dwell with the heart of the Shorai. More than this, the temple also serves as the home of the council and the Conclave, and it is here matters of state are decided. While at one time the council met in the enormous and tall tower that once stood from the temple’s peak, this tower now lies in ruins, strewn across Sharyrdaes as rubble upon where it had come crashing down. The council now convenes in a great chamber beneath the temple.

Aeraesar’s most hallowed artifact, the Shorai is nestled deeply within the safety of Sharyrdaes’ temple. Though to outsiders it would have perhaps little use as anything other than a wonder, to the Aerai it is a most sacred thing to be cherished, respected, and cared for with admiration.

The Archive is a place lost to the Aerai, the memory of it having been stolen away. Unbeknownst to them, its place is deep beneath the temple, sealed away by some dark force.

The Aerai of today speak of their Archive, but mistake this for the respectably vast library they retain access to. While this library is a font of great knowledge, it is nothing compared to what is hidden from them.

[W. I. P]

[W.I.P]

In the Listless Night - Ánië and Raëlta experience the return of the Shoraes together.

___________ -

Remembering What Might Have Been - After months of having been alone and stricken with amnesia, Ánië is at last found by some of her kind, but unbeknownst to her, something is amiss.

Two Parts of a Whole - The ancient demons Arkhivom and Lina attack and conquer the city.

Sometimes all it takes... - Erën and Caliane visit Sharyrdaes through the lucid, collective dreaming of the Aerai people.

Friends of Old - The Sharyrdian Order send Erën, Aidathin, and Te'leis to greet and escort an envoy from one of the Order's long standing and most kindred allies to Sharyrdaes - The Knights of Anathaeum