Tainted City

The **Tainted City**, once known as the **Golden City** and the heart of heaven, is a city in the Dreaming said to be the former seat of the Watcher, or the realm of the High Pantheon, depending on the religious perspective.

## Early History

The Ministry teaches that after the Watcher created His firstborn, He "called forth a city with towers of gold, streets with music for cobblestones, and banners which flew without wind". It was a perfect, holy citadel where He dwelled on His golden throne, and spirits populated its many spires. The Watcher's mortal children entered the city when they died, returning to His side. When His secondborn started to worship the Deceivers, and thus committed the Original Sin, the Watcher abandoned the Golden City and His ungrateful creations, and it sat locked and empty.

Dissatisfied with spirits, the Watcher expelled them from the Golden City; but there are conflicting accounts on the timing of this event: before the creation of men, directly after that ("sealed the gates") or when He left the city.

Some accounts suggest that the Decievers began whispering to humanity from the Golden City in **-2800D**, three hundred years after the arrival of humans in Morgaea. People of ancient Adamantine believed the Creator had abandoned the city long before that and they were adrift, rescued by the High Pantheon.

Elves believe that their gods have been trapped in the Eternal City at the heart of the Beyond and that Fenegoth still roams the Beyond, keeping watch over the gods lest they escape from their prisons.

The Saga of Ysolet Cleve-Mother mentions the Golden City as a place filled with treasure. A Drahanim leader, Auden the Tall, tried to forge an alliance with Ysolet's tribe and cross the Narrow Sea in order to reach the Golden City. Ysolet refused Auden's offer, stating that his dreams were made of lies. Auden was killed in the ensuing duel with Ysolet.

## Tainting

In **-395D** (800 AE) the Seven Apostles, each a high priest to one of the Deceivers, opened a gate into the Golden City with blood magic and entered it physically. The city turned black as soon as they arrived, and the mages were cast back to Morgaea as the first fiends, triggering the First Scourge.

## Current State

Today the Tainted City is a place of darkness and nightmares with cold and twisted spires, "its towers forever stained, its gates forever shut". An island with the city is the one constant geographical feature within the Dreaming. At any time, one can look up and see it in the sky, always in the distance. Actually traveling to the Tainted City from elsewhere in the Dreaming is impossible. Even the most powerful spirits and demons seem to avoid the place lest they become tainted.

The Ministry says there is no more heaven for souls to pass into after death. The faithful are gathered to the Watcher's side while the rest are left to wander endlessly in the Void. This is not a form of punishment, but a consequence of human corruption. They also believe that, when the teachings of the Holy Tome is spread to all four corners of the world, the Watcher will return, restore the Golden City, destroy the fiends, and make the mortal world a paradise.