City overview
Door: Michael van Gemen
Blijf op de hoogte en volg Michael
31 Augustus 2017 | Filipijnen, Kalamansig
What was once a vibrant, cosmopolitan city built miraculously above the 15,000-foot mark is now a desolate ruin of cyclopean proportions.
Still mindboggling in its scope and grandeur at first glance, on closer inspection it is a mere shadow of its original glory.
Only with recent events have the ruins of Xin-Shalast begun to come to life once again. With the stirring of its former master in the spires upon the mountain above, this haven of evil has begun to attract the descendants of those who once owed him fealty.
Though the city is still vastly underpopulated and largely deserted, new dangers roam its echoing streets and forgotten passages in addition to the natural hazards to be found in this bleak locale at the edge of the world.
Even today, the most striking aspect of the Lower City is its epic size. Everything about it is massive, designed as it was to house hundreds of thousands of citizens in close quarters, a sizeable portion of them Giants.
Buildings tower to great heights, byways are wide and lined by massive columns, doorways are cavernous openings, and building interiors are composed of great hollow chambers like the naves of primeval cathedrals.
The Lyric Thaumaturge (Bard, Barthel), Master Thrower (Spellthief, Sagerius), Stormlord (Favored Soul, Finn) and Initiate of the Sevenfold Veil (Mindbender/Fatespinner, Fletcher) enter it from the south, using the great causeway.
"
The tableau defies belief. A narrow mountain pass opens into a glacial valley extending north and then turning to the west at the base of the vast mountain at the far end. Filling this valley is an icecapped city of enormous proportions. The near end is mostly blocked by a huge fortress of smooth black stone, with multiple towers rising from its high walls. Exiting the bailey of this fortress is a massive causeway of gold that dominates the city as it travels down the centre of the vale.
Enormous towers and spires of many-colored stone pack both sides of the central thoroughfare, rising to prodigious heights and giving the illusion that the road itself is a valley.
The eastern slope has been partially subsumed by an ancient volcanic flow, nearly a quarter of the city appears to have been so buried.
That section is now little more than a great mass of ice, with the jagged angles and peaks of ruined structures poking through its topmost layer here and there.
Where the valley curves slightly to the west, the structures, if anything, grow even larger, becoming truly gigantic as they climb up and over the rocky spur.
At the far end of the valley, the city abuts the lower slope at a truly massive peak. Yet the city builders appear to have taken no heed of this change in slope, for the great causeway merely elevates at a steep angle and continous to climb the incline in a nearly straight line, transforming into an immense stairway.
Additional buildings cling precariously to the mountain face alongside the causeway, growing even larger and more impressive as they asend.
The gigantic buildings finally give way a few thousand feet above, but the mighty road continous to wend its treacherous way to just below the peak.
There, a spired citadel looms, its size and proportions magnificent.
It, too, fails to submit the mountain, instead its topmost spires end just below the dominant face of a stern man, carved into the peak of Mhar Massif and surveying the city below.
"
The Lower City is divided into seven districts, each which had its own consul appointed by the Harridans of the Mountain during the city's height.
The Artisan District, Slave District, Entertainment District, Temple Row, Jotunburg, Rising District and the Hypogeum.
The elevated stone causeway (Golden Road) is 75 feet wide and runs nearly a hundred feet off the ground in places. This elevation is not immediately obvious, as huge buildings and towering structures constructed along its entire length give the illusion that the causeway remains at ground level. This illusion is broken somewhat where small 'feeder alleys' branch off from the main course to descend into the various districts.
Though the bricks of the road are of basalt, they do in many places retain gold plating that once covered the entire run.
In areas abutting the Slave District, the Golden Road is often bordered to the east by the lava flow and in many places has been destroyed or overflowed by it.
Other sections actually open into the deeps of the Hypogeum and the lairs of creatures dwelling there.
The thoroughfare remains the most heavily traveled route in Xin-Shalast..
Still mindboggling in its scope and grandeur at first glance, on closer inspection it is a mere shadow of its original glory.
Only with recent events have the ruins of Xin-Shalast begun to come to life once again. With the stirring of its former master in the spires upon the mountain above, this haven of evil has begun to attract the descendants of those who once owed him fealty.
Though the city is still vastly underpopulated and largely deserted, new dangers roam its echoing streets and forgotten passages in addition to the natural hazards to be found in this bleak locale at the edge of the world.
Even today, the most striking aspect of the Lower City is its epic size. Everything about it is massive, designed as it was to house hundreds of thousands of citizens in close quarters, a sizeable portion of them Giants.
Buildings tower to great heights, byways are wide and lined by massive columns, doorways are cavernous openings, and building interiors are composed of great hollow chambers like the naves of primeval cathedrals.
The Lyric Thaumaturge (Bard, Barthel), Master Thrower (Spellthief, Sagerius), Stormlord (Favored Soul, Finn) and Initiate of the Sevenfold Veil (Mindbender/Fatespinner, Fletcher) enter it from the south, using the great causeway.
"
The tableau defies belief. A narrow mountain pass opens into a glacial valley extending north and then turning to the west at the base of the vast mountain at the far end. Filling this valley is an icecapped city of enormous proportions. The near end is mostly blocked by a huge fortress of smooth black stone, with multiple towers rising from its high walls. Exiting the bailey of this fortress is a massive causeway of gold that dominates the city as it travels down the centre of the vale.
Enormous towers and spires of many-colored stone pack both sides of the central thoroughfare, rising to prodigious heights and giving the illusion that the road itself is a valley.
The eastern slope has been partially subsumed by an ancient volcanic flow, nearly a quarter of the city appears to have been so buried.
That section is now little more than a great mass of ice, with the jagged angles and peaks of ruined structures poking through its topmost layer here and there.
Where the valley curves slightly to the west, the structures, if anything, grow even larger, becoming truly gigantic as they climb up and over the rocky spur.
At the far end of the valley, the city abuts the lower slope at a truly massive peak. Yet the city builders appear to have taken no heed of this change in slope, for the great causeway merely elevates at a steep angle and continous to climb the incline in a nearly straight line, transforming into an immense stairway.
Additional buildings cling precariously to the mountain face alongside the causeway, growing even larger and more impressive as they asend.
The gigantic buildings finally give way a few thousand feet above, but the mighty road continous to wend its treacherous way to just below the peak.
There, a spired citadel looms, its size and proportions magnificent.
It, too, fails to submit the mountain, instead its topmost spires end just below the dominant face of a stern man, carved into the peak of Mhar Massif and surveying the city below.
"
The Lower City is divided into seven districts, each which had its own consul appointed by the Harridans of the Mountain during the city's height.
The Artisan District, Slave District, Entertainment District, Temple Row, Jotunburg, Rising District and the Hypogeum.
The elevated stone causeway (Golden Road) is 75 feet wide and runs nearly a hundred feet off the ground in places. This elevation is not immediately obvious, as huge buildings and towering structures constructed along its entire length give the illusion that the causeway remains at ground level. This illusion is broken somewhat where small 'feeder alleys' branch off from the main course to descend into the various districts.
Though the bricks of the road are of basalt, they do in many places retain gold plating that once covered the entire run.
In areas abutting the Slave District, the Golden Road is often bordered to the east by the lava flow and in many places has been destroyed or overflowed by it.
Other sections actually open into the deeps of the Hypogeum and the lairs of creatures dwelling there.
The thoroughfare remains the most heavily traveled route in Xin-Shalast..
Reageer op dit reisverslag
Je kunt nu ook Smileys gebruiken. Via de toolbar, toetsenbord of door eerst : te typen en dan een woord bijvoorbeeld :smiley
