THE SILENT CITY
Location:
The Re-Restize
The Kattse Plains
"Marquis!"
The former adventurers rode over on horseback.
"Did you see it? Do you feel it?"
At the front of the adventurers was their leader, a paladin of the Fire God, Boris Axelson.
Within his voice was a thrill of fear he could not hide.
Raeven could not speak. Gazef understood why.
Murmurs of disquiet were rising up from the adventurers, and the massed armies gathered here.
This was no longer a time for etiquette. Gazef spoke to him.
"—Tell me! What is that? No need to greet me! Please tell me everything you know, now!"
Boris clutched the holy symbol that dangled around his neck. It was a gesture of warding.
"...We can't be sure, but we believe the creatures they ride are legendary monsters known as Soul Eaters. They are undead creatures that hunger for the souls of the living. According to the tales, they once appeared to ravage a city of the Beastmen Kingdoms."
"Then… how many casualties were there?"
In the silence that followed, Boris' quiet words carried a long, long way.
"—One hundred thousand."
The breath caught in Gazef's throat.
"...A mere three Soul Eaters devastated the entire city they appeared in. Ninety-five percent of the people who lived there, over one hundred thousand people, were killed. It was abandoned and entered legend as the Silent City."
A heavy silence fell on the group.
"...And there's five hundred of them out there?"
The Beginning
200 years BA (Before Ainz)
The Silent City wasn't always known as The Silent City, only human and demi-human slaves call it so. The City true name was not well known to all, save for a few hundred beastmen tribe scattered around the continent of the New World, partly because the human invaders who overtook the city and enslaved its inhabitants considered the city as their greatest shame and defeat. However for the beastmen tribes, The Silent City is considered sacred ground and its name are kept throughout the living generation.
In the beginning, the City was known by another name: Shulva-ris, and it was a jewel to behold. Shulva-ris was city where many of the beastmen tribes came together to learn, to trade and to empower their clans as well as making new one. When walking through the gate of Shulva-ris, a traveler would be met with two titanic statues, one of a lion-men and one of the Bird-men. The two statues face each other, crossing sword overhead the pathway. A little further in, the pathway goes up a cliff, heading into a corridor of an indoor aquarium. There, mermaid and aquatic beastmen swim about and frolicking in the water. It was quite a sight. The streets are paved with the finest marble stones delivered on the backs of the yak-men, whom from the cold northern mountain ranges. The lion-men of Yujirak patrol the city, keeping order. While the White-Wings soldier fly about the city freely as though they were swimming in the air.
If one were to continue to walk, they would found themselves soon in the city garden, with gigantic glass dome overhead and cool air gently breezing about. Six platform made of white marble surround the garden forming a circle. The grass was green, here is it the most well kept patch in all of the city, maintaining it are the Muntjac, beastmen that resemble a bipedal deer, whose favorite foods are grass. The garden was green but within it also lies various small plants, whose true color only shown under the moonlight of the night. The city garden is the only place in the city where fires and torches are forbidden, the reason is because that at night, the plants glow with breathtaking colors; green, violet and whitish blue. Here was the Heart of the city where the leaders of the six great clans met to governed the city. Shulva-ris was a rich city, everyday wonderful goods coming in and out of the city, and merchant who find themselves invited to the city would procure great profit and unique wares found nowhere else. However, the dark side of the city is something to be worth mentioning, as it was one of the many factor that eventually lead to the city's demise.
If a human were not invited at the behest of the clans that make up the city upper class or a merchant affiliated with the Merchant Guild, that human would be apprehended by the city's guard and imprisoned. After five days, the unfortunate human would be shipped off to Shulva-Ris stables and farms, unless someone would come in and vouch for that human.
An unfortunate human male would find themselves to be used as slaves or meats to be chopped up and sold in the city Bazaar like pigs, cows or chicken. Human female would probably fared no better, they would be delivered to the city stable where they would live out their lives as cow to be milked and relieving lust of the city male population, and eventually slaughtered and eaten once their usefulness is gone. Their offspring would be born half breed which would make up the 40% of the city work-force and as second class citizen.
A famous beastman once said: "Do Not Waste A Human, A Human Is a Precious Resource. Their Hair can be made into ropes, Their Flesh and blood are full of nutrition, and their shit and piss are the finest fertilizer for our farm field. Their Female gives us milk and breeds us our work forces, A Human is of equal value to that of gold!"
There are many things that plagued men, however one of which has more power and grasp on men than any other. It can turned men against their own, it can make kings and build nation, it can turned men into cold and heartless creatures that capable of great and terrible cruelty. Under its influence men would burn and raze forest, polluted lakes and the ocean, as well as ignoring the pleas of the innocent. Its name is Greed, endless Greed.
The wealth and riches of the Shulva-ris spread far and wide, reaching all the way to the human nations, one of which is the known as The Slane Theocracy, followers of the six great gods, purger of all that is not human. For years and years, The Slane Theocracy did not go into war with Shulva-ris because it was for one simple reason; internal affair.
The Slane Theocracy at the time was dealing with some internal problems, and naturally with any regime, there would be opposition. Now, as a nation that advocates human superiority, they can't go about murdering people just because they don't like them, and there's also the human's right group. So, in order to get rid of their opposition, they would have them sent off the beastmen territory under the pretense of "peace and spreading the teaching of the gods" but in reality, the upper echelon would have these sent-off parties travelled about Shulva-ris territory. Naturally, Shulva-ris would received words from the Slane Theocracy about these parties and would go about of "escorting" them to safety, which basically mean killing off the human and turn them into an all you can eat buffet.
While Shulva-Ris forces enjoy the occasional human feast. The Church of Slane Theocracy was slowly building up ammunition to use the beastmen's action and savagery as propaganda for war to increase their political power. They've sent their opposition into Shulva-ris territory to deliver "peaceful message", now what would the public opinion be if the people find out that these pilgrims were murdered and eaten by beastmen? The Slane Theocracy maybe a religious nation, but the strongest political powers within the Theocracy does not lie in the hands of the Archbishops or the ruling government, at the time anyway. The real power lies in the Nation population's opinions and the representatives of the territories. When the news finally broke, the populace immediately called for wars, and the church's power rose greatly while the territory lord's power plummeted.
May the Spirit of Creation have mercy on men and beastmen for their sin. The Beastmen took the invading human armies of the Slane Theocracy as a welcoming meal, but little did they knew of the various magic caster, the endless number of angel summon, and of the Scriptures. In times, even the strongest wall would break, if one hit it long enough. The Beastmen were strong, they were fast, four times that of a normal human, but even they could do naught against the wave after wave of summon angel of the Theocracy magic caster. The Beastmen sin of pride was their downfall.
The war and siege of Shulva-ris rages on for more than ten years. Eventually, Shulva-Ris fell to the greed of men, and while the human slaves and livestock rejoiced and danced of celebration, none can be said the same to the beastmen population that remain in the city. The beastmen who stay was either could not leave because they have nowhere else to go, or because they believed that the invader were just "weak, mere human".
The Merchant are untouched however, because the Merchant's guild influenced all nations alike, they generally stay a neutral party of course, punishing the merchant would only hurt the Theocracy's wealth, and a single word of the Merchant's Guild can spell total economic collapse for a kingdom. Then it would be only a matter of time before said kingdom would be divvy up into pieces by the surrounding kingdoms or nation.
The Slane Theocracy took full control of Shulva-ris, its inhabitant were made into slaves or beheaded, and their pelt made for trophies and rugs. The beastmen slaves are worked to the bones, their overseer care not whether they lived or died, only saw them as materials if they died or labor if they lived. Beastmen's children would be made into pets, or eaten as delicacy by some of the human's upper classes.
Shulva-ris suffering continues nearly ninety-nine years before the arrival of a certain beastman; to the human he was considered an Evil God, A devil of the purest darkness, while to the beastmen he was a savior, a god worthy of respect and admiration. To this day, a few hundred tribes still carry his name, bestowing his name only to the strongest warrior champion of their tribe.
Most human does not know of him, but the beastmen call him…..Ulbert Alain Odle: The God of Catastrophe.