whitescar [Lore] Heil

[SteelEagle]

HEIL - HAMMER-WROUGHT CITY OF KINGS

 

Heil, the city of stone and flame, is built into an active volcano. Along its causeways and down side streets roll tightly controlled lava flows that give off a heat that can be felt no matter where you may be. Large stone buildings house whole family units of caribou as well as huge state-run factories that produce the weapons and the materials that the caribou use for war. All of these buildings have small lava streams actually channeled through them where lava-safe glass allows those inside to look as the dark light provides a camp-fire like atmosphere inside. Heil is the city of flame as a result of this never-ending, omnipresent light that filters down to the smallest house and home. This same model is used in the palace of the High King.

 

Built into the very side of the volcano, it is from the High King's palace-fortress that the lava flows. The entire stone structure is cracking and in a state of repair constantly. As one goes deeper into the palace and past the battlements and statues of great heroes and conquerors the heat only grows and grows. When one reaches the High King's Chambers, Assembly Hall, Grand Meal Hall and other spaces a dignitary may visit, the heat is sweltering and sweating is constant. Around the chamber itself is the stone bow of the once-living Caribou Golem Longship that according to legend carved this cavity in the active volcano by ramming it when it refused to obey its commands. This bow has been transformed into a throne, the High King's throne, and it is here that the ambient heat is at its worst. Throughout the city but most vehemently there the heat is a reminder of the rough and tumble blood that flows in their veins and necessity of being aggressive. A giant stone wall extends from this fortress around the whole city, with giant causeways turning into moats of lava. This gives the city an intimidating glow at all times.

 

The caribou inhabitants of the city are as vicious and aggressive in their mannerisms as the rest of their kin, but it is here that what art and culture is exportable is to be found. Caribou artists chisel their statues in forged runes on lava-hardened rocks or use the most resistant of paints to decorate the walls. Blacksmiths and artists alike use the lava flow to forge their creativity, with the blacksmiths producing the most finely crafted and worked weapons in all the land. Commerce and trade may not be as hectic as it is in Barn but with diplomats of all major nations having some sort of influence here, it has the most organized multicultural flourish. Playhouses, opera houses, and other buildings exist even if they are indeed rare, their giant cavernous stone construction and the bombastic and aggressive caribou legends taking the place of a newly banned Caribou past time. Arena combat is still wildly popular in all other cities and areas, but the High King, in his effort to civilize his nation, has banned the violent gladiatorial combat. It is in the former arenas that caribou 'culture' is best displayed to foreigners, even if natives still tend to flock to the underground gladiatorial combats that are now hidden in large caverns in the mountainside and wherever else they may slip some mead into the hooves of a willing guard.

 

For all of the aggression inherent in the design of the city and its inhabitants, nowhere else in the lands of the caribou may a foreigner be more safe. The clan of the High King are loyal to his larger mission and view any foreigner willing to brave the harshness of the environment outside the city as worthy enough to join them for however long they desire. In the winter, massive snowstorms roll across the Whitescar but Heil is kept nearly snowless. Such is the heat produced by all the lava flows that it becomes a warm oasis in a sea of snow, prompting travelers and nomads the nation over to crowd the city, leading to cramped space and hot emotions. The ensuing seasonal clash of steel and teeth, hooves and muscle, brawn and brain is as part of the DNA of the caribou as it is a result of the geography of Heil. There, some like it hot.

- A Journal Between Lovers: My Travels and Travails, by Flowing Stars