Nibenay

The city of Nibenay is named after its founder, the sorcerer-king Nibenay. Called the Shadow King by his subjects, Nibenay is a bizarre and enigmatic figure. His subjects see him so rarely that the city is constantly filled with rumours that he has died. Whenever these rumours result in a civil disturbance, kowever, Nibenay appears long enough to impress upon his subjects that he is still very muck alive — usually by singlehandedly crushing the rebellion.

The Shadow King lives inside a walled sub-city located in the centre of Nibenay. No free man has ever seen his palace in person, but according to rumour it sits atop an artificial mountain of stone slabs. the palace itself is supposedly a giant bust of Nibenay's head. the front of the castle is carved into a stone relief of the Shadow King's face. the sides and rear of the palace are covered with life-sized representations of dancing women, strung together as if they were locks of his hair.

Nibenay's templars are all women. It is unclear whether they are all Nibenay's wives, but it seems entirely possible. Only the templars are permitted to enter and leave the sub-city in which his palace is located. Otherwise, the rest of the city is composed entirely of slaves dedicated to making the lives of Nibenay and his templars comfortable and secure.

Some say that many of these slaves are sculptors who are kept busy carving reliefs of each templar into the locks of Nibenay's hair covering the side and rear of the palace.

This is completely feasible, as strange tastes in architecture seem to be the norm in Nibenay. Every building is carved with stone reliefs. Although the craftsmanship is flawless, the subject matter is peculiar. Often, the relief portrays the self-satisfied smirk of a wealthy noble—usually the person who owned the building when it was first built. Sometimes, the building is carved with the figures of the builder's entire family, all engaged in some sort of strange dance. In other instances, the building is decorated with fantastic reliefs of various monsters in the superstitious belief that if the city is visited by one of the terrible beasts it will be flattered by the depiction and leave the inhabitants in peace.

Nibenay sits just outside the northern edge of the Crescent Forest, atop several hundred acres of bubbling springs. the nobles each own one of these springs, which they use to irrigate the fields of rice that feed the city.

Nibenay's merchant trade is based on the sale of weapons made from wood obtained in the Crescent Forest. Nibenay's craftsmen are busy day and night felling agafari trees and shaping their extremely hard wood—the next best thing to bronze — into shields, spears, and clubs. this is the basis of Nibenay's rivalry with Gulg, for the hunters and gatherers of the forest city fear that if left unchecked, Nibenay's devastating practices would soon leave them without a home.

The core of Nibenay's army consists of a thou- sand half-giants armed with agafari lances and clubs.

Life and Society
If a citizen or visitor breaks a law and can’t afford to bribe a templar, then that citizen or visitor is going to end up in Nibenay’s slave pens.

Government and Politics
The sorcerer-king Nibenay stays behind the scenes. He is called the Shadow King because he rarely leaves Naggaramakam, his walled subcity. His templars, who are all female, run the city with skill and great care.

The average free citizen could hope to see King Nibenay once or perhaps twice in an entire lifetime. He allows his templars to deal with the daily business of government, while Nibenay attends mysterious scholarly pursuits that occupy his time - not that this is public knowledge.

Nibenay’s military might was never a question, but it also was never a major concern of the Shadow King. While the city appears to be secure in its own position, it also seems to be gearing up to battle an enemy that only the Shadow King knows about.

Nibenay’s nobles care for and maintain the bubbling springs that surround the city but solely for the purpose of improving their own positions.

Power Groups
Poortool’s Horde: Lead by the half-Elven preserver Poortool (LN male half-elf), the Horde is a raiding tribe to the east of Nibenay. Poortool is a renegade from the Veiled Alliance who seeks to study magic without any restriction that the Veiled Alliance or sorcerer-king Nibenay may apply. He has created a community for like-minded preservers in a village in the foothills of the Black Spine Mountains. He has also allied with the gith of the Black Spine Mountains who provide guards and raiders for his tribe. Poortool seeks to make it difficult for members of the Veiled Alliance in Nibenay to convince its members to leave the Alliance and join him.

House Shom: House Shom is thought to be the oldest merchant house operating in the Tyr region. For centuries the house amassed great wealth through aggressive trading. However, now the House is seen as passive and decadent. The Shom family members are almost never seen in public and have little to do with the daily business of the house. Instead the family members live decadent lives in their palaces, engaging in expensive parties and balls. The running of the trading house is left to the house agents. Most of the agents place their interests ahead of House Shom’s interests, and there is much infighting between agents. This has lead to a decline in the House’s prospects over the past few decades. Only the house’s immense wealth has saved it from collapse already. House Shom is known to use non-human guards on its caravans and as raiders against other merchant houses, including thri-kreen packs and belgoi tribes. The house is currently ruled by Temmnya Shom (NE female human). Her younger brother, Jebea Shom (LN male human) has begun a reform movement to straighten out the family’s problems, but his popularity threatens Temmnya’s position. She has contemplated disposing of him if she can do so without her involvement being discovered by other family members.

Sky Singers: The Sky Singers elf tribe maintains a permanent market in the Hill District of Nibenay. It is the only known instance of a permanent Elven market. The market is filled with goods of all kinds from the rare to the common. The Sky Singers have a reputation of offering quality products that were not stolen from their previous owners, unlike most Elven tribes. While the tribe numbers over 3,000 members, much of the time the elves are off wandering, leaving only a dozen or so elves to tend the marketplace. But when the tribe returns, the Sky Singers’ market takes on a festive atmosphere.

The Veiled Alliance: Nibenay’s Alliance has an utter hatred of defilers. This has led to a rare commodity beneath Athas’ crimson sun-idealism. With the help of an ancient spiritual force known as the zwuun, which resides in the hot springs outside the city, the Alliance does what it can to protect wizards who use preserving magic. The Alliance doesn’t feel it can oppose the Shadow King directly, so it directs its activities against lesser defilers. Thagya Phon (LN male human) leads the Nibenese Alliance, though his health has begun to fail him in recent years. He has two goals he wishes to accomplish before he dies: He longs to discover what Nibenay’s scholar slaves have been working on in the Naggaramakam, and he has a dream of mounting the Shadow King’s head on the obsidian pedestal that rises from the floor of his spartan quarters.

Major Settlements
Cromlin (Hamlet, 150): The trading village of Cromlin sits on the shores of the Silt Sea, northeast of Nibenay. House Shom runs the village, though House M’ke has a sizeable operation as well. Together they handle the vast majority of trade from the north, as traders attempt to bypass the chaos of Raam. Cromlin traders use silt skimmers to navigate the silt shoals, keeping the trade route to Break Shore open. The shoal navigators of Cromlin are in high demand, for they are among the select few who can lead silt skimmers along the buried paths.

Cromlin is a wild place, full of people who are too untameable to live in the cities. Thieves of all sorts reside in the village. Silt pirates use it as a haven and other scoundrels and restless souls are drawn to its sandy shores. Master trader Hurdll Crost (N male human) and his agents turn a blind eye towards shady characters as long as they remain to do business in his village.

Salt View (Small Village, 550): Nestled in the Mekillot Mountains, Salt View is a chaotic sprawl of tents and buildings located within a large cavern on the mountain’s eastern face. Ex-slaves of all races fill the community. The tribe originally practiced raiding as its primary occupation, but today it is known for a lavish form of storytelling called theater. Salt View’s traveling theater troupes are welcome across the Tyr Region, though they present themselves as free merchants from the independent House Fyra (a cover for Salt View activities). The troupes perform for caravans, at oasis villages, and even in the city-states of Tyr, Nibenay, and Balic.

Vavrek (Thorp, 200): Vavrek is typical of the small farming villages located throughout the Fertile Crescent. The village is located southwest of Nibenay within sight of the Crescent Forest. The villagers grow vegetables, mostly soybeans. The land the village is built on is owned by the Koelse noble family, to which the villagers must pay rent. The village is administered by a templar-wife of Nibenay named Sonyalah (NE female human).

Important Sites
The City Reservoir: The Shadow King had this enormous stone cistern constructed centuries ago to supply the city with water in the event of a siege. The top of the reservoir is covered and a lush garden, maintained by the templars, grows on top of the reservoir.

The Coliseum: The coliseum rises above the dilapidated buildings in a run-down part of the city. The size of the arena is immense, taking up four city blocks and rising six stories high. It is an ancient building and it is said that not even the Shadow King knows when the coliseum was built and by whom. Elaborate carvings and etchings cover the coliseum’s stonework. The square shaped arena floor stretches almost a quarter of a mile across.

Monasteries of the Exalted Path and of the Serene Bliss: Nibenay has a tradition of monasteries. The two orders are called the Exalted Path and the Serene Bliss. The monks pledge loyalty to the King and their teachings include the quiet acceptance of authority, so the templars tolerate them. They are treated with great respect by the citizens. The monks live very aesthetic lives, tending gardens and mediating. Many of the monks, especially those of the Exalted Path, study psionics. The Exalted Path consists entirely of male monks and is led by Thong Nal, (CN male human) who encourages the study of psionics at his monastery. Other monks become artisans who specialize in the carving of the images that cover the buildings of Nibenay. The Serene Bliss is an all female order and is led by the abbess Au Treng (LN female human).

Naggaramakam: The Naggaramakam is a walled forbidden inner city where the sorcerer-king Nibenay lives with his templar-wives. Only templars are permitted to enter and leave the Naggaramakam. While slaves are permitted to be brought into the Naggaramakam, once inside they are never allowed to leave. No free citizen is ever allowed to see the inside of the Naggaramakam. The sorcerer-king’s palace is said to be carved into a stone relief of the Shadow King with dancing women, representing his templar-wives, strung together as if they were his hair.

The Omnipotent Receivers: A line of large statues of sorcerer-king Nibenay stand on each side of the main road leading to the city. The statues are called the Omnipotent Receivers as it is believed that King Nibenay sees all that the statues see.

The Plain of Burning Water: The city of Nibenay is situated on the border of a large area of hot springs. Called the Plain of Burning Water, the hot springs provide the water needed by the citizens of Nibenay. Each noble house owns at least one of the hot springs which is the source of much of the wealth of the nobility.

Sage’s Square: Sage’s Square is the largest open area inside of the city. The grand emporiums of all the dynastic merchant houses are located around the square and are the centre of trade in Nibenay, where almost anything can be purchased. The square was named Sage’s Square because scholars and sages use to gather under the shadow of the huge agafari trees that grew in the square, and debate philosophy. This tradition ended only a few years ago when a renegade defiler, fleeing the templars defiled the trees. King Nibenay had the dead trees removed from the square, and ordered that no other trees be planted in the square as a public reminder of the danger of renegade defilers.

The School of Augurs: The school of Augurs is the largest school for psionic instruction in Nibenay. The head master is a dwarf named Djef, who developed a scheme to help support the school by hiring out its students to transfer telepathic messages and to teleport-deliver small parcels.