Ralsimoor

Mining and quarrying in the Ralss Hills was the original reason for the foundation of the city and it continued to be an important industry in later years. Metal working of various kinds followed on naturally from the mining and Ralsimoor became the home of the finest smelters, crafters and metallurgists for many ages of the world. Important techniques were researched and developed here, leading to numerous advances in the development of alloys and refinements in the working and tempering of subtle bronzes, steels and more complex composites.   During the time of the Trinity Moon Triple Enfolding Ralsimoor also became known as a centre for unorthodox arcane studies, and whilst it was much less important in this respect than the Enfolding or the Kingdom of Snowborne, it still attracted a significant group of dissident magic users with their own independent traditions who helped the economy of the city.   The Ralss Hills are fertile and specialist crops could be cultivated there. Ralsimoor served as a market place for this local cottage farming community, but it also imported food in greater quantities from further afield, mainly the well developed agricultural lands around Pale to the west.

The Silver Stream district was a wealthy residential suburb, high in the hills. A stream of the same name flowed through an artfully gardened valley and the properties of some of the richer residents of the city opened out into this shared vale with its carefully manicured "wilderness" which was reserved for their communal private access. The district had many beautiful viewpoints looking down to the point where the stream cascaded over a waterfall to flow into the sprawl of the lower city. The elegant and expensive hotel "Hylacon's Rest", which catered for affluent travellers at the start of the fourth millenium APC, itself overlooked the Silver Stream vale.

The city of Ralsimoor was founded early in the age of the New Kingdoms as a centre for the development of important mining and quarrying sites in the Ralss Hills in the east of Myruthea. At this time, rapid population growth and the development of magical agencies and powers were gradually transforming the organisation of the monolothic city states that had hitherto characterised the civilisation of the Painted Peoples. For the first time, divergent cultures could exercise unified authority over relatively wide regions and build kingdoms and nation states. This was the era also, when both Tinturbean and Punjuki were colonised by exiles and adventurers of various kinds who were unhappy with the complex cauldron of politics which kept Myruthea bubbling and saw their chance to take new opportunities in new lands.   Ralsimoor grew slowly over the first two thousand years of its existence, during which time it offered allegiance to three different successive regional powers which laid claim to the territory. The Potentate of Asharoth gave way to the Kingdom of Eldoria and then the Sun Rise States Alliance, before the city itself assumed control over a large part of the east and south, ruling under the name of the Ralsimoor Authority. At this time the Trinity Moon Triple Enfolding had become the largest government the world had yet seen, ruling lands on three continents from its capital of Goolsyn at the heart of Tinturbean. But around the edges of the Enfolded One's control there were still numerous smaller countries, kingdoms, baronies and cities which retained their independence. The best known of these was the Kingdom of Snowborne on Zisleth but the Ralsimoor Authority was another example of those peripheral states which held out against integration into the Enfolding.   After the Sundering, Ralsimoor was perhaps the most sophisticated and largest surviving settlement on Myruthea and at the start of the Long Thaw it was scholars from the city who compiled the Book of Ages, which helped to preserve the knowledge of the ages (and languages) before the terrible unnatural glaciation. As the world warmed and Myruthean civilisation returned, Ralsimoor was always a beacon of culture. The city was one of the twelve centres of power who appointed representitives during the age of the Twelve Wise Ones, and the still later, it was one of the three main powers in the Myruthean Unification Wars. The Treaty Of Pale, which was signed between Ralsimoor and Klaractazum on 13th Kerax, 4640 BPC, is now considered an important precursor to the development of the Old Pale Empire. Ralsimoor was not only a founding member of that long lasting empire, but a city with a legendary status within it. Whilst it may never have been the capital, it provided many of the soldiers that supported its conquests, a number of famous mages and several emperors.   In the years leading up to the Planar Conformation, the prophet Hylacon chose the city to preach his message about the impending catastrophe, and it was here that the Hylacon Peoples were strongest.   After the Planar Conformation, Ralsimoor was perhaps of less significance to the recovering world order than it had been in earlier ages, except that it was the home to the Society of Arcane Adepts who kept alive the knowledge of the Hylacon Peoples for later generations.   During the Time of Terrors, the mage Pezulruth Veld took control of Ralsimoor and used its armies to wage war on the city of Nephatar in an attempt to gain control over the Net of Pruth at the Battle of the Rising Deep in 3324 APC.   The city was ultimately destroyed in 5937 APC when the mad mage Ixthamon undertook his campaign to overthrow the Jewelled Queendoms. His magical assault against Queen Jayne II, the last queen of Ralsimoor, inflicted the Melancholia over the city and all its surrounding regions, rendering a huge swaith of land uninhabitable to this day and leaving the once proud city with all its glorious history as no more than a ghost of a ruin.

  The Scholars Vault was a fabulous library and museum which attracted academics and magic users in particular from all over the world. It was the home of the original copy of the Book of Ages and for all that anyone knows, it may still be so.   Arelha's Gate was one of the earliest formal archways built to provide a grand entrance to the city. In later years it was incorporated within the expanding city limits, but is here shown as it was during the early years of the Thousand Year Alliance long before the Sundering.     The Diamond of Ralsimoor which was once set into the top of this archway is the oldest of the Fate Stones and has played a role in many stories.