Uric

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To be populated by Spys

Rumoured reports (801 WK) from ~20 years ago say -

  • Population is 20% drow, 80% human, 2% mixed - Mool, Fey, ½Giant, etc.
  • All non-drow are slaves or servants. Fey are treated as gypsies.
  • The "Warrens", an exclusive part of Uric, is 98% human. Similar to Sanctuary, etc.
  • The 2nd circle of the city is for high nobility only.
  • The guards are mainly drow, but include Mools, ½Giants, and humans. The guard officers are Mind Mages. They are corrupt and brutal.
  • King Hanamu is over 2,000 years old, compared with a normal drow lifespan of 200-300 years. He is harsh but fair. He has > 10,000 troops available. Since he started building the ziggurat 7-8 years ago, he has withdrawn from civic life, become more unpredictable, and almost bankrupted Uric.
  • Uric is low+ mana (FT+2), and the surrounding countryside is low mana (FT+1). As one heads west from Uric, some parts of the countryside become low+ mana.
  • Lizard-on-a-stick is a remarkably palatable snack food.


Uric Ziggurat

The Ziggurat in the middle of Uric is 450x350 feet, and 150feet high. It has seven massive steps, each painted a different rainbow colour. The Ziggurat is made of millions of bricks, made from clay + straw + minerals. As each brick is added, it becomes part of the Ziggurat, and is bound, becoming impervious to scrying, earth elementals, etc.

The Ziggurat has huge writing on the side, written in ancient Drakonic. The message is quite long, but boils down to "I am Hamanu, King of all Arcady by grace of the Roaring Winds and Almighty Sun. They have made me into a man that can not be killed, and a general that can not be defeated". We think (a) he's boasting or mad; (b) the Roaring Winds & Almighty Sun may be the Ruby Scourge and Apollyon, and (c) the Ziggurat is likely to outlast Hamanu.

Divination of the Ziggurat reveals that it is a life-energy lens which focuses life force into ? 7 ? receptacles within the Ziggurat. This lens effect is ancient magic, a shadowed or distorted version of the original pure magic that Xanadu's children had before they broke magic into the colleges.

Hanamu, who was financially prudent, is now happy to bankrupt his city to complete this in a hurry (before the end of summer?). This magic is similar to that used by Koth (Sith's brother) when he became a dragon a couple of years ago in the Filgasso swamp on the Baronies. Becoming a dragon requires a large amount of lifeforce to be channelled & shaped at one time. The Ruby Scourge was a drow who became a dragon. The best answer to the Ziggurat's use is that it will be used to make Hamanu into a dragon, but it doesn't fit with some parts. Why 7 receptacles? And what is the other layer of magic that we could feel but not study, under the lens effect? Why the hurry? And is it linked to the Ziggurats used to power the eastern Spawn army as they headed down the river, or the Ziggurat built over Apollyon to power him during his internment?