GLASS-WALLED JEWEL: SOME CAMPAIGN NOTES ON ALDA CHUR It would tax even the tongue of Donandar to hymn these glassy pastures;
What iron saw far sank its teeth to mine such mastery?
Mark Galeotti asked for some info on Alda Chur. There isn't much official at present, apart from the references in KOS that Mark has already mentioned. Here are some personal thoughts, cribbed from my notes for the Far Walker campaign detailed in Questlines I. They are a bit rough round the edges, but may serve as a catalyst for ideas.
Alda Chur is built around an ancient Youfish city recolonised by the Far Walkers in the 1350s, a single generation after the formation of the Tarsh tribe. Situated in the tula of the Vantaros tribe, it has always been dominated by Vantaros and Princeros clan politics.
Enriched by trade contact with Tarsh and the Lunar Empire, Alda Chur has grown from a Youfish ruin to become a sophisticated outpost of Empire, a powerful trading city, a centre of Solar learning and ritual, and host to the Lunar Quartermaster General's southern supply base.
The present city is based around an ancient complex that may or may not be the Youfish city of Auld Salor. It is renowned for its soaring draconic-influenced architecture, and for its ancient walls, sections of which are pure glass. (Both of which bear evidence of burning and melting from more recent events). Physically, Alda Chur is a small and crowded city, with nearly a third occupied by the palace/temple complex named the Place of Bronze.
(I tend to emphasise ruins in northern Sartar more than most: Kerofinela has
been almost continuously inhabited for thousands of generations, from pre
Heortling hordes in the Golden Age through the Storm Age and Darkness, two
great empires to the present Sartarite and Far Place tribes. This often gets
overlooked.)
Taroskarla (QL 1) records how Vantar, son of Taros Ridgeleaper, drove half-beasts from the ruin at the Three-Eyed Beast Battle.
"At the Three-Eyed Beast Battle, Vantar and his thanes drove away the half-beasts that dwelt within the ruined city. To mark his victory, Vantar re-dedicated the Blue Fire Temple that was its heart. The spirits of Alda Chur stirred from their ancient sleep, and the False Sun lusted after our land once more.
The fire worshippers and the earth-reapers toil on the southern plain still, but they have nothing that we want."
That main temple is now dedicated to Yelmalio. The city is governed along
(liberal) solar lines. Another Lunar temple is being built from public
subscription, yet it has become increasingly associated with the ambitions
of Harvar Ironfist, Prince of the Far Place.
Harvar has rediscovered the Bigger Wind, and has used his worship of this little-known god to drive his campaign against the Orlanthi and Elmali clans of the upland Far Place. The Orlanthi believe that Harvar is following the Lokamayadon path, and that his god is the same Bearded Storm of the ancient enemy. The appearance of new breeds of magical sheep among the Vantaros only confirms this to those who know the ancient sagas.
Dominating the main trade road linking the Empire, Tarsh, Sartar and beyond, Alda Chur is the richest city in Sartar. It is a Lunar showcase city, teeming with traders, travellers and army personnel, struggling against an acute shortage of space, and still dominated by solar tribal politics and Exile consciousness. The shadow of kinstrife falls heavy on the city, and the ghosts of the Righteous Wind are still present.
Alda Chur's population has fluctuated wildly in the last fifty years. Since the Lunar occupation, it has grown beyond its capacity to provide adequate services. In 1625 the permanent population of Alda Chur is approximately 3,500 adults, and in certain seasons the city will also host several thousand more travellers, troops and traders.
Yelmalio is the city god, and has been ritually married to Ernalda. In the season Ironfist took power, an earthquake severely damaged the former Wind Temple, while leaving Yelmalio's dwelling unharmed. This is taken as a sign of the Earth's approval.
Just outside the city is the Field of the Tents of Silver - the Lunar Quartermaster-General's supply base and training camp. The presence of the camp, with its constant flow of contracts for food, goods, weapons, crafters, supplies and transport adds much to the economic life of the city.
The central palace complex - The Place of Bronze - is in one aspect an armed camp, in another a combination of theatre and temple. Its roof is tiled with thickly-gilded bronze, and its towers are beaten gold. Its public areas include a vivarium, a sacred zoo, an arena, and an open air academy for teaching and debate.
The cities quarters are strictly divided along tribal and religious lines. So crowded is the Orlanthi quarter, with its rudimentary lodges lacking in windeyes, that its inhabitants are contemptuously described as the 'dark men'. (No Uz are permitted within the city walls).
The Hall of the Emerging Sun, whose central nave is one hundred and twenty metres long, eighty wide and forty high, serves as meeting house, stock and contracts exchange and as a tribunal for the hearing of commercial cases.
There are many ancient cisterns beneath the city. Some are now empty; the home of the poor, spirits and worse. Blocks of houses built over these cisterns have a tendency to collapse!
Solar roof gardens a distinctive feature of the city. Every noble man must work the earth.
Solar cremation memorials will be inside or outside the city according to rank.
The Scaler of Weights and Measures an important political post; and the centre of continual political struggle.
Alda Chur Beyond-The-Walls is a ramshackle collection of huts and grass markets some eight hundred metres beyond the Sartar gate. It houses the Uz quarter. Technically not part of the 'pure' city, it is the only place theatre or public storyteling are allowed, and serves as a sprawling 'red light' district for Lunar troops and travellers.
The Sharl Plains centering around Alda Chur are densely populated and well cultivated. The tribes that dwell upon the Plain and among the gentle hills of the south and east (the Vantaros, Princeros and Dinacoli) are predominantly Yelmalian farmers, and are prosperous and secure. Most farms are small, run by several generations of a single extended family or bloodline. The steads themselves are elaborate and well-constructed, typically comprising several wings with separate byrnes. Crops of maize, barley, oats and rye predominate, supported by the herding of maned cattle and fat tail (milking) sheep. A proportion of most crops are sold at market, and so the use of metal coinage is common.
Cheers
John
nysalor_at_primus.com.au John Hughesjohnp.hughes_at_dva.gov.au
rolling down in big drops, the water is falling,
like a sword made of drops,
like a river of glass that tears things,
it is falling, biting, beating on the axle of symmetry, knocking on the
senses of the soul,
breaking abandoned things, soaking the darkness.
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