Halcyon City
This one!
Here, here. The language is too old, we don't know what it says, but we see this symbol of a nesting bird whenever we see this city. But the illustration here, of the crystal spires rising from a verdant valley, that's the key. It's not always this, no, not the valley or the crystal. Sometimes it's a hill, or a shore, and sometimes it's trees or metal rising up. But the shape of it remains, eh?
You see it, right? Here, in this one - this map. Right there, the symbol, see how it lays right over the picture here? And this sketch, of an elven ceremony, see how the trees line up with the spires? It's the same shapes. It's all the same place.
That was the perfect city, the Halcyon City, back when the Scopulae were still immortal ages before this. They achieved perfection, and the world turned against them and brought them low.
But the city still exists! The desert swallowed it when the elves fell, but that kept it sealed off and safe, not destroyed. One of the Scopulae has found it! They were lost in the waste during a sandstorm, and they wandered for days before finding shelter from the storm, a sturdy building mostly buried under the sand. He did not know what it was, but he sketched out the symbols on the walls, and it was the shape of the city!
I got the map from him, intending to organize an expedition to uncover the city, but my father has fallen ill. I must return to him, to care for the estate, and I need money to do so. I'm willing to sell the map to the city for a fraction of its value - I would simply give it away if I didn't need the money for father's care.
History
The city is as much myth as history at this point, having existed in an age long lost. There are books from previous ages that refer to the city as coming from an age before them, although which age is unknown. The few times a calendar has been associated with the city, the dating system has called it out simply as the "New Age" era.
The generally accepted history of the city begins with its founding early in the age, shortly after a Shattering ravaged the world. A group of elves found a fertile valley that had escaped the destruction and established a small settlement away from existing power structures. The city's exact location is unknown, although it is thought to have been on Hellonde. Whether that is the assumed location because the elves are called Scopulae, or if the elves are called Scopulae because the location is thought to be Hellonde is also unknown, and a subject for debate among those scholars who discuss it.
Even the size and construction of the city is unknown. Trees are often associated with the city, although whether that means the buildings were made from or in trees, or if the city just had an abundance of them, is also unknown. Another common description is as a crystal city, the buildings created by artificers and mages working together to grow the buildings from base elements. Whether the city is described as being built from crystal, metal, stone, or living wood, the silhouette of the city remains mostly constant. Simplified, the city rests in a flat area with slopes rising off both sides. The city itself always shows a central spire surrounded by three slightly smaller replicas in the middle of dozens of shorter structures. These buildings link at the top through interconnected branches, walkways, roadways, or other methods.
The city grew throughout the age, a beacon aligned with peace and nature. They shaped the continent around them, ensuring the various nations existed in harmony with the natural world and helped usher in an era of peace. They soon became the dominant power of the age, tilting the balance towards the green Ecologus. Cults devoted to the Mothers grew in the city and spread throughout the continent, leading many nation-states to dissolve as the people abandoned settlements for a nomadic life.
As more cities collapsed, the cults grew stronger and eventually turned on the remaining cities, including Halcyon City. The cults roused the nomads into an army and brought the city down. They took to burning and salting the ground around the cities, destroying any capability for agriculture. This eventually led to an environmental disaster that turned the fertile lands into a wasteland and renewed the cycle of shatterings.
RUINED SETTLEMENT
900 New Age
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