Akinah

Akinah is the ancient capital of the Silver Kingdom of Aimia on Roshar. In more modern times, it is also known as The Rock of Secrets and The Void's Playground. The city itself was destroyed long ago, and during the Era of Solitude it exists only as a ruin. It is the location of an apparently functional Oathgate and its underwater caverns formerly contained a Dawnshard.
== Appearance ==
Akinah is located on a small island in the northern section of Aimia, somewhat near the large main island. The city seems to have once been grand, with ornate buildings arranged in a tenfold symmetry radiating out from a round central hub. This tenfold symmetry is connected to ten being an important number on Roshar. From above, the city looks like a flower with radiating petals.
The island features dark, tall rock formations along its center that look almost like the walls of a city and uniform buildings in the "tips" of the flower petals as seen from above. The ruined city—which Rushu speculates is fake, concealing the real city which sank into the crem years ago—is covered with crem and the rocky beach around the city is cluttered with the corpses of dead greatshells and deceptive, fake gemhearts.
=== Caverns ===
The caverns underneath Akinah housed the city's Oathgate and the Dawnshard mural.
Great pains had been taken to hide the Oathgate. A chamber with a false, seemingly defunct Oathgate was built atop the true Oathgate. The real Oathgate was housed underneath in a room about twelve feet high and expansively wide.
Akinah's other secrets were hidden beneath the island in a cavern accessible only via underwater tunnel. Inside the air-filled chambers, a corridor that had been carved out of the stone featuring murals of people falling through portals led to a small room with a large mural on the far side, a set of Shardplate, ornate weapons and clothing, and eight Soulcaster devices. A metal door on the left side of the room opened to a larger corridor with six huge larkin skulls. The large mural - which was not an ordinary mural - was formerly the Dawnshard.
=== Soulcast Defenses ===
The island is ringed by a wall of enormous Soulcast stone spikes around forty feet tall and guarded by additional Soulcast underwater spikes, seemingly designed to pierce the hulls of approaching ships.Three underwater spikes and one wall spike were removed by Soulcasting during a failed expedition in 1174.
=== Protection Storm ===
A terrible and persistent storm - an unusual weather pattern - bolstered the island’s defenses , but had been weakened by 1174. Hordelings that had bred with larkin and were thereby able to drain Stormlight flew through the clouds as a safeguard against Surgebinders.
Sleepless hordlings in the form of giant sea monsters also protected the island.
== History ==
=== Capital of Aimia ===
The origin of the city is unknown, but it is quite ancient. At some point in the past, air was Soulcast into massive spikes surrounding the city. In the Heraldic Epochs, Akinah was known as the ancient home of the Soulcasters, and it was where people would come to get Soulcasting devices. Its Oathgate gave it a direct connection to Urithiru, allowing rapid travel to the city. After Urithiru was abandoned, one of the Willshapers ventured to Aimia to explore its undersea caverns, leaving their maps in Akinah. At some unknown time, the city was destroyed, perhaps in the scouring of Aimia or due to the influence of the Unmade Dai-Gonarthis. Jasnah Kholin was previously confident that the Oathgate was destroyed and the link with the Urithiru severed. Dysian Aimians took up the task of guarding the city and its secrets because the Guardians of Ancient Sins were all but extinct.
=== Abandonment ===
Over the following time, the city itself entered into the realm of myth and legend, earning it the names The Rock of Secrets and The Void's Playground and a sinister reputation. Due to the city's historical connection to Soulcasters, rumors spread among Soulcasting savants that the secret for reversing the prolonged decay caused by using a Soulcaster was located in Akinah. However, some factual knowledge of the city remained. The general layout of the city was still known, and it was discovered that its pattern could be produced by cymatics. The ardents of the Vorin Church used this as a piece of evidence for the existence of the Almighty. Brother Kabsal showed this to Shallan Davar during her time in Kharbranth.
=== Vazrmeb's Expedition ===
In 1174, a Thaylen man named Vazrmeb, captain of the ship First Dreams followed a map to Akinah with the goal of recovering the gemhearts of the Aimian greatshells that had died around the city. He was accompanied by a Liaforan Soulcaster named Kaza, who hoped to discover some way to reverse her gradual transformation into smoke. A Dysian Aimian in the guise of a Reshi woman serving as the ship's cook also joined the crew. She attempted to warn them several times not to come to the island. After the ship made it through Akinah’s storm, the Dysian Aimian cook fed the crew a poisoned meal to prevent them from making it to the city.
Afterwards the crew took several dinghies towards the shore, where Kaza Soulcast several of the spikes surrounding the island into smoke. At that point Vazrmeb and his crew, beginning to feel the effects of the poison, collapsed and died. Due to her growing inhumanity, the poison impacted Kaza less severely, so she managed to row her boat in alone, collapsing on the shore. When she regained consciousness, she crawled towards the city itself before collapsing again. The Aimian confronted her there, revealing herself as the poisoner. In her last moments before the poison killed her, Kaza Soulcast the ground beneath them both into smoke.
=== Rysn's Expedition ===
Five months after Vazrmeb’s doomed expedition to the island, Yalb, now crewing for a Thaylen military vessel, spotted a ghost ship limping along at sea. Revealed to be First Dreams, the ship's discovery prompted Navani to issue a request and a reward for another ship to travel investigate the region where Akina’s ruins were rumored to be found. Rysn accepted the mission some two months after the discovery of First Dreams in the hope that bringing Chiri-Chiri to Akinah would restore Chiri-Chiri’s failing health. With a full crew, the incognito Dysian Aimian Nikli, Lopen, Huio, Cord, Rushu, and Chiri-Chiri, Rysn began the Wandersail's voyage to Akinah. The expedition wildly exceeded expectations, yielding the Akinah Dawnshard, a fact known only to the Dysian Aimians, Rysn, and Cord; the location of the Oathgate, which appeared to still function; eight Soulcaster devices, three of which went to the Alethi and five to Thaylenah; Shardplate, now owned by Cord; and a mountain of real gemstones.
== Notes ==