City of the Dead
The City of the Dead, nestled high in the Sun’s Throne Mountains of Har’Akir, is a haunting necropolis carved into the face of eternity. Here, the dead rule in solemn silence—heroes, priests, nobles, and pharaohs of a forgotten age laid to rest in caverns and crypts carved into sun-bleached cliffs. The city stretches like a winding ribbon of sorrow up the mountain slopes, culminating in the golden, idol-like peak known as Pharaoh’s Rest—a monument so vast and resplendent it can be seen for miles across the desert.
The City of the Dead is more than stone and silence. It is a monument to memory, a place where the line between life and death blurs, and the past waits—not peacefully—to be remembered. Those who enter its shadows must walk with reverence, for the dead are watching, and not all rest in peace.
Demographics
The City of the Dead is sacred, a place where the souls of the worthy are said to rest and the unquiet dead stir with unfinished purpose.
- Pilgrims from Muhar and distant settlements visit to pay respects to ancestors, leave offerings, or seek prophetic dreams.
- Anointed caretakers, known as the Shroud Wardens, maintain shrines and chant rites to soothe the spirits and keep the city asleep.
- But when the moon is full, strange lights flicker among the tombs and echoes of long-dead prayers rise on the mountain wind.
Infrastructure
- Earthquakes have opened new, undiscovered tombs, and with them, old curses.
- Factions of tomb robbers, scholars, and cultists have crept into the necropolis, vying for secrets, relics, or power.
- Awakened dead, disturbed by greed or sorcery, begin to walk the stone causeways again, seeking vengeance or release.
Architecture
The City of the Dead is not merely a graveyard, but a metropolis of mausoleums, terraced tombs, and towering statues, all carved from the living rock of the Sun’s Throne. Time and the harsh wind have not dulled its grandeur, though sand and silence have claimed its streets.
- Stone Causeways wind precariously along cliff faces, lined with monumental statues bearing the faces of the entombed. Each face is expressionless, their eyes gazing toward eternity.
- Grand Sepulchers bear intricate friezes and curses in ancient hieroglyphs, warning the living to respect the sanctity of the dead—or suffer eternal consequences.
- Tombs-within-tombs burrow deep into the mountain, secret chambers guarded by stone jackals, magic wards, and puzzles none remember how to solve.
Towering above all is Pharaoh’s Rest, a sculpted peak coated in gold leaf that catches the light at dawn and dusk, creating the illusion of fire crowning the mountain. Within, legend says, lie the sarcophagi of the first kings of Har’Akir, watched over by their undead legions and a forgotten god’s wrath.
- The entrance is a golden arch flanked by twin statues of a divine monarch seated on a lion-headed throne.
- The Sanctum of Scepters is a fabled inner chamber said to house the death-masks and regalia of ten ancient dynasties.
- No explorer has returned from Pharaoh’s Rest unchanged—if they return at all.
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