The City of Illith

The City of Illith lies across half a continent on a world now known as Alth Major in the Illith system. It is a long lost remnant of the Second Empire, abandoned by its rulers at the time of the Great Migration. The Kean Princes who had built the the city and dominated the servitors and slaves who served them there vanished - along with all their kind - leaving the population without leadership or guidance.
  The city was constructed in layers, as many of the Kean cities were, with a deep underbelly and miles upon miles of tunnels, halls, staircases, rooms, atriums, service ways, living complexes, and service centres underpinning the lofty towers and opulent palaces that topped its intricate construction.
  In the year of the Migration many of the lower levels - home to laboratories, workshops, automated factories and strange machines, were shut down and sealed. The middle levels, home to the servants and servitors, became a place of civil war and conflict as the abandoned inhabitants struggled to survive and escape (particularly from the animals and creatures that had been released when their cages were opened and they ware able to wander free). The luxury of the upper levels were a lure to those below, but were protected, trapping or killing those that initially ventured there.
  Illith was maintained as a pleasure system, not a military or commercial one. The few ships that remained after the Keans abandoned it were set adrift, or simply sat empty in orbit - and the Node station was abandoned, its servitors seeking refuge and resources planet side, or perhaps fleeing through the Node before it closed. The Node closed , and - for whatever reason - - the Third empire never opened it, except, perhaps to assess, early on - that nothing of interest to them could be found there.
  They were wrong, but no-one would know until long after the Third Empire fell.
  In the meantime, the once beautiful city crumbled and fell into decay. A failure in some of the city’s support systems resulted in an environmental disaster - a flood of mud buried parts of it, fire swept through several sectors, and conflict among the inhabitants destroyed (or sealed off) other areas. The survivors fled to the outer wild lands, where they scattered and became conflicting tribes. Local kingdoms rose and fell over 15 hundred years, the city - and the memory of the city - becoming a place of feared ghosts and fearful legends. Jungle grew up over and around it, and while the early tribes looted some of the outlying estates and structure, the City of Illith itself remained hidden.
  Until, in the early day of the Restoration an young academic (who was to later train the similar youth who became Aston Kimmler) found and translated a Kean data cube, uncovering three lost and unknown Node melodies - the middle one of which lead to the Illith system and the rediscovery of the city.
  The tribes on Alth Major, decendants of Manuan slaves had slowly - and through innumerable conflicts - blossomed from survivors and barbarians into a group of loosly allied feudal kingdoms, Some of those welcomed the Commonwealth explorers that appeared in their skies. Others initially resisted what they saw as an alien invasion. The planet is now a full member of the Commonwealth, but it took several generations to unify the inhabitants, and many still live in the old tribal and kingdom ways. Meanwhile, teams of scholars and explorers began to investigate the ruins of the city.
  Barely a third has been excavated, and while some of the sights are now open to tourists, much of it is still unknown and regarded as dangerous. Despite that, it has become a 'must see' stop on the Commonwealth's Grand Tour, and the planet has greatly benefitted from regular trade, alongside the interests of historians, archaeologists, and fascinated visitors, who get to see glimpses of life under a Kean Prince in the Second Empire.
  Tourists are housed in one of the Upper palaces, one much restored and re-fitted to meet manuan needs. Only one of the other palaces has been fully excavated, with a restoration that aimed to preserve the Kean specific features and facilities. Guided tours give visitors a blurred glimpse into the lives of a vanished race, although the understanding of the Keans - legendary Princes who were akin to gods - remains a barely unravelled mystery.
  It will be a long time before the City of Illith gives up all its secrets. But among the many artifacts and strange technologies which have been unearthed there, are a number of etched metal tables which are probably the oldest known version of the Kea-lataran. Illustrated with strange designs and closely etched with a dense and ornateed text, they are now securely display in the Palace hotel. Academics have worked on translating them for years, adding to knowledge as new tablets have been found, and other versions surfaced. Aston Kimmler spent his life working on them, matching the text they contain to other versions found in far distant systems.
  And :Alessandria Casterian took part in his last expedition to the city, which took place barely a year after her return from her own Grand Tour.