Aht Urghan

By: Levuica

Traversing the crowded public streets of Aht Urghan Whitegate is a most troubling experience of one's day. From flour and corn monger Rubahah to the jobber and even the Immortals themselves, such a daily task is laborious unto itself in ways other folk cannot begin comprehend unless they traversed the streets themselves. True it is that the streets are decorated in a most peculiar and fashionable way unlike the anfractuous spirals of those in the duchy. Rather a simple and elegant pattern of aligned tile outlined with an opposing brick edging that leads the way to the market and the auction house.

I thought I'd fancy a trip to the town square and see two of the merrymakers themselves performing and serenading passersby's exploits with singing and playing on the harp and flute. Tsih Kolgimih wearing a full Yigit outfit smiled at me as I passed by her. She beckoned for a round of chai at the Shararat Teahouse before noon and as always I agreed to her. Such a beautiful Mithra lass, her radiance permeates through her clothing and jumps out at you. Her harp is simply divine and at least once I have to pass by to soothe my soul from the influx of adventurers that recently arrived. Although it does good for commerce, nothing good comes of crowded living conditions. People shout in the streets, throwing fireworks haphazardly into the air, they carry weapons and parade around in foreign clothes and armor as if they owned the nation. The humble Empress must have surely lost it to hire such lowlifes to assist the elite guards in protecting the empire.

The lower ward, Al Zahbi, is always under constant attack. The Astral Candescence is the target of three brutish armies that constantly attack the city with strong armies and creatures. Each clash results in many losses for both sides, but neither is willing to give an inch into peace negotiations or mutual resolution to the hostilities and bloodshed of open war. It is not uncommon for merchants to be ripped from their homes and dragged into prisons at the enemy of camp. Oh the horrors of it all! The most cruel acts are done to them while in captivity. Some are fed to a great beast called the Hydra. Others are experimented on and become mindless servants in the ranks of the Undead Swarm. Still others captured by the trolls are brutally tortured and tossed into the pits of lava in Mount Zhayolm, few survive to be rescued by heroic adventurers. The plight of those living in Al Zahbi is always dismissed as a factuality of life, but for them it is fighting the inevitable fall of the ward to the beastmen raids. Though it is a fate worse then death and a shame which no honor returns to, for playing a coward's role in defending Al Zahbi's Astral Candescence.

Oh city of the world! Hear thy call of a thousand lives! Awaken great destroyer and great protector, free the righteous people from their plight and deliver swift and brutal means to end the war once and for all! As depicted in art and legend! Arise Alexander and purge Aht Urghan of the impure and quell the quarrel of the lost and forgotten souls that undo suffering upon the world! For until that day of greatness comes I shall walk the streets with another thousand lost souls doomed by the strings of fate, forever searching to find a life within the walls of Aht Urghan. Heaven and Hell. Prison and Paradise. Forever.