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Cynwäll Ruins

"The ruins of an ancient Cynwäll city... they discovered the ruins and decided to settle there, hoping to unearth timeless artifacts left behind by the elves."

The buried elven city that Cadwallon is literally built on top of. When the Dogs of War arrived, they found the abandoned ruins of the Cynwäll Elhan's city and settled in them. Today the Upper City sits in the old citadel; the lower city sprawls outside its walls; and the deep ruins below remain a hunting ground for shrews seeking elven artifacts — guarded by ancient defenses and watched by the Cynwäll themselves.

The City That Was

Elhan and his followers, exiling themselves from the elven schism, settled the Lanever peninsula and built a stronghold at the mouth of the [[Ynkarô]] and [[Leâk Shear]]. Calling themselves Cynwäll ("the exiled"), they raised a city that became the great neutral trade-post of Aarklash — the one place foreign nations could walk Lanever's soil without provoking Cynwäll wrath.

The city's original name is forgotten (the Cynwäll, characteristically, refuse to say). It prospered, then fell: the necromancer Sinlis Mantis led an undead horde up through the old Ophidian tunnels, and though the threat was repelled, the lake filled with corpses and plague emptied the city within days. The Cynwäll abandoned it. Centuries later, the Dogs of War moved in.

What Survives Below

The Cynwäll ruins are the layer directly beneath modern Cadwallon — the foundation the Cadwës built on:

  • The quarries — old Cynwäll stone-quarries, now the most densely populated slums of Soma (dwellings stacked in the cuttings) and the access points to deeper ruins
  • Glory-Hunt — the Circle of Explorers base camp opens onto the foundations of the old Cynwäll city; "night rights" buy access past the militia portcullis
  • The Walled Library — a vast Cynwäll archive carved from living stone, guarded by an Earth Elemental, accessed via three gates in The Automaton, Drakaër, and The Rampart
  • The original sewers — the Cynwäll wastewater network the Dogs of War adopted and the Architects later extended (see The Sewers)
  • Timeless artifacts — elven work that "escaped the wear of time," the prize the Dogs of War came for and the shrews still hunt

The Watchers

The Cynwäll still claim it

The Cynwäll could reclaim this territory at any time — it is their ancestral city. They don't, because they consider the land cursed (the Desire-presence they sense but cannot name) and stay no longer than necessary. But they watch: Dyrsin's tower oversees the city, and Cynwäll spies permanently monitor the Circle of Explorers to see what the shrews bring up from the deep ruins. Anything touching the Sphinx legacy, the Labyrinth, or the Ophidian layer gets confiscated or bought back. The Cynwäll do not want certain elven (and pre-elven) things leaving the ground. (see Circle of Explorers, Dyrsin)

What lies under the Cynwäll layer

The Cynwäll built their city on top of the Sphinx vestiges, which sit on the Ophidian temple, which sits on Desire's prison. The deepest Cynwäll shafts open into Sphinx ruins; the deepest Sphinx ruins open into coiling Ophidian tunnels; and below all of it is the Labyrinth. The Cynwäll know this. It is half of why they call the place cursed and keep their distance — and why Elhan's spirit, merged into the construct above the Automaton, still watches over his abandoned city. (see Elhan, The Automaton)

Relations

The timeless artifact

A shrew surfaces from the deep Cynwäll ruins with an elven artifact that "escaped the wear of time." Within a day, Cynwäll agents make an offer — generous, then less generous, then threatening. The artifact does something the Cynwäll very much do not want demonstrated in public. The league holds it. What does it do, and who else wants it?

See Also