Corona

The Corona - sometimes called the Crown, although that more properly applies to the great hill, while Corona is given to the region and its authorities - is the literal centre of the World. Once the island of Ar Ladon, where the Draconic capital of Ladon sat, a jewel in the land-locked Ladon Sea, it now stands tall on the west coast of the Horn of Cathlaea. It is a towering peak, its flanks studded with ancient draconic ruins. On the north, east and south it slopes down to the mainland, and on the west to the sea.   At the summit of the peak stands the broker shell of Tore Ladon, the ancient heart of old Ladon. This once colossal tower still stands three storeys proud of the summit, though its walls are ragged-topped. The foundations of the tower burrow deep into the peak, delving well below sea level. Far more extraordinary, the upper storeys of the tower seem to float a hundred feet above the broken walls, and to extend upwards, almost without limit. Some say that this gravity-defying edifice - called the Gnomon, for the way its shadow sweeps around the crown throughout the day - is nothing less than a direct link between the world and the Firmament.   Not far off the coast at the base of the peak, the long reef and elaborate minarets of Coronaea - capital of the Sea Kingdom of the central oceans - rise from the waves. For each palace, shrine, shop or house on the upper reef, two similar structures exist below the waves.   On the eastern slope stands the Crown Observatory. It stands taller than the broken base of the Tore Ladon, supported by a great flying buttress that anchors the upper courses of the observatory tower to the upper slopes of the hill. The summit of the slender tower flares into a great sphere, in which some of the finest telescopes in Ainos are housed.  

Historic Occupation

The Crown has long been a point of interest to the cultures surrounding it. Some have plundered it, some have sought to avoid it, while still others have endeavoured to bring down the Gnomon to unknown ends. In addition to those who control the land, there have always been Dragonborn and Kobolds in the buried levels of the tower.   After the Cataclysm, the area around the Crown was deserted, until the Second Creation saw tribes of Humans and Petari arise in the region. It was a human tribe that claimed the Crown and occupied the lower storeys of the Tore, and a human kingdom that used the strength of this position to establish one of the first states in central Cathlaea. Some accounts call this state Zingra and name its traditional rival Katraxi, but others have it the other way around.   Whether the Lich King was a prince of Zingra - or Katraxi - or not, it was in the area of the Great Delta that he established his kingdom. He never occupied the Tore, however, instead raising his dark tower on the north shore. He sent his forces against whichever state held Corona and succeeded in slaughtering the royal line, but his undead were unable to sieze the Crown and in­stead formed a garrison around the base of the hill until the Zingrans were all starved or retreated into the lower floors. The Lich King's domain held off all the military and magical power of the Regime, until at last his failed attempt at ascension left his cult in tatters. After that, the Regime seized the Delta Coast, but were kept from Corona by the seige of the Lich King's tower in the north. It proved as resilient as the Crown, and its stubborn defenders did not starve.   Despite several attempts by the Legions to capture the symbolic heart of Ainos, the Crown ultimately fell into and remained in Regine hands until the Rise of the Ophionic Empire. The majority of the Crown's actual residents belonged to tribes subjugated by the Regime, and when those tribes fell under the sway of the Three-Headed Serpent it was not long before indentured servants became an unstoppable fifth column. Once taken, however, the Yuan-ti avoided the Tore, and commanded their slaves to do likewise. They fortified the hill and established an order of mystics in the Crown Observatory, but all in the service of keeping the Tore itself sealed off.   During this time a group of sonva took residence in the Gnomon, establishing a sort of espionage centre-cum-postal depot in service to the Windcatches' Guild, the original messenger union from which all modern featherfolk courier services descend.   While the north shore of the delta passed from the crumbling Regime to the Mage Sovereigns, the Empire retained control of the southern shore until the emergence of Benefice Zernazeri. This great polity of ash elves emerged from the Underhollows over a period of about nine years. They first appeared from tunnels under Asthissia, seizing the city with the support of a slave uprising and renaming it Hezerai. From here, rebellion and insurgency spread out, isolating and eventually seizing the Crown Peninsula and Corona itself.   The peninsula lies in the territory of Civic Sept Inzeri, rulers of Tsizzenai at the mouth of the Delta. Control of the Crown itself was passed to the Hidrekazai, who attained high sept status from the charge.