Silent Cities (Old Lore)

## Introduction

The Silent Cities are the main strongholds of the Garauth. They lie hidden in the deepest caves any dimension has to offer. No door nor gate offers a entrance in these cities as only the Liches and their unliving servants may enter it through the power of Arafel.

## Structure

The exact structure and plan of the Silent Cities is known. Although many Worldwalker claim to have done so, almost no mortal men has ever wandered their shadowy halls. Every report and claim must be treated with caution. Some describe them as enormous graves filled with restless and defiled dead, others as dusty halls made from faded gold. Atlast little is known about them and neither their sizes nor their number is confirmed.

The most accurate of reports are also the most bizzare. Neither the servants nor the Liches themselfes are what awoke these disturbing impressions. It is mastery above reality itself that is woven deep into every stone the Silent cities are made from. Mortal who entered them will find it hard to tell what is beneath or above them. Gravity is a fickle thing within their halls as every particle inside obeys their masters will. The architecture often makes no sense to the human mind. The sigils, spirits and spells which empower every cities corner can change the structure and nature of every passage. Those who do not know how to walk them correctly will be brought to the same room again and again, no matter which turnoff they take. Space is not passed through walking threw these corridors, it is rather space that moves around one as they walk forward. These surreal effects create the confusing structures every intruder desribes in their reports.

### Materials

The architecture of these cities resembles nothing human, neither in function nor estatic. Garauth do not build their holds like mortal creatures. Instead they use their powers to shape stone and ore to the structures they require. Every part of the cities is made from a material known as *Eternite.* This anorganic material is neither stone nor metal, although is posesses characteristics of both. How and from what this material is made is unkown. Yet is its the hardest material matter can form. No physical power nor head can alter its shape nor penetrate its form. It is truly indestructable by mundane means. Only through magical manipulation can it be created, changed or destroyed. To the Liches themselfes it is like soft clay they can mold with ease. To the majority of human mages it proves as an almost impossible challenge to influence it with their powers.

*Eternite* forms strange yet ordered structures within the Silent cities. There are no flat spaces in Garauth architecture. Instead every wall forms strange ornaments enhancing magical power through the deep assossiactions within the mind of the Antediluvian. The halls, corridors and objects made this way appear both beautiful and bizzare to most humans. Every particle is placed with absolute care and afterthought during its construction. As much as they may appeal to the viewer, they are also alien for they resemble no shape that can be found in nature. The most common association is that of rips and bones forming walls and ceilings. Yet this impression does not meet the truth.

### Buildings

The majority of the Silent cities consists of a webwork of archways, tunnels and hidden vaults. The majority of the city can not be entered by material means as its masters do not need doors. The inner parts of the cities corpus prove to be too complex and branched as if a mortal mind could orientate within. Although some parts of the cities are accessable by foot and connected through passages and hallways, they consantly change their place and order within the cities. The most common comparison intruders draw is that of a giant labyrinth. If they are build this way to make them more defensible against the Garauths enemies or if this wicked architecture simply pleases the Garauth mind is unkown. At last many of the corridors are held close to the windings of complex brains. Many argue that this structure and the connotation within the Antediluvians mind are the reason the vaults are connected at all.

Yet there is some level of structure to these cities. In its heart lies the most sacred place, the corpse-chamber. Here lie the mumufied remains of the Garauth races, providing the much needed parts to ressurect liches or even create new ones. Not even the most trusted of Revenants may enter these halls as only the liches watch over them. Although these corpses have transcended decay, they have not transcended destruction. Should an enemy force breach the impenetrable walls and reach this chamber, the corpses can be destroyed, making the creation of new lichforms impossible.

Closeby lie the Bornchambers, great halls that house the mystical substance from which Animus Vitae is made. Although this substance can not be compared to regular Bornwater, it fufills a similar purpose. The chambers close to the cities heart contain the purest wells which are used to create the bodies of liches and Revenants. The further outside the chamber is placed, the thinner the Animus Vitae becomes. The smallest and outermost wells are only used to create weak Revenants, Ghasts and the shortlifed Phantoms.

Besides these uncounted vaults and halls, there is one structure that towers above everything and is clearly distinguishable from all others. Three great spires run trough the entire cities. Unlike the rest they are not made from *Eternite* but a strange black cristal that siphones and binds Arafel to the mortal world. These spires stabilise the Maze of Shadows that empowers the entire city aswell as connecting it to all other Garauth holds. Despite this most prominent of tasks it also transforms the air into the mix of Hydrogen and Nitrogen the Garauth and their servants feed on. Should all three of these spires be destroyed, Arafel will severly weaken and large parts of the city will collapse as the magic binding and moving its parts will fail. This can create dangerous anomalies not only endangering intruders but also the Garauth themselfes. Should these spires fail, the Spectres will immedeatly abandon their hold, taking all corpses and as much Born with them as possible.

### Dangers

It is said that the Silent Cities are not anchored within the realm of men. That they came from the underworld and are realms of death, buried deep in the cold stone. Like a constant weight, death lies heavy upon any mortal that enters. The air within these cities does not contain oxygen. The powers of Arafel consum any form of energy not necessairy for its inhabitants. For this reason the entire city is freezing cold, often several degrees beyond zero. And even with warm clothing one will have the constant feeling of something sucking the lifeforce out of their withering bodies. And even if all these obsticles are overcomed, the silence lies heavy upon every mind. No sound can be heared in the Garauths hold. Arafel can consume sound aswell and even if it is not directed against specific targets, no sound will make it far within the halls. Intruders will not be able to hear their own breath, their footsteps or their voices inside.

There are more dead ends within a Silent City then there are passages and those that exist do not lead into a straigth direction. Many corridors can not be passed and will lead intruders back from where they came. If one does not wield a force greater then that of a Garauth, they will only be able to manouver within these cities if their masters wish it. Every step is overwatched as countless unliving minds will send every movment or sign of live that passed their sacred halls, moving and distrubing Arafel with their clumsy and primitive motions. Liches sense things no other mind can percieve and neither space nor time limits their vision. Although they do not possess the capacities to overwatch everything that goes on in the world around them, there will be several of them within the cities themselfes.

To protect them, they use wardings, traps, their unliving servants or their own magical powers. Arafel is the strongest within the Silent Cities and it can become solid matter or a consuming fog wherever its masters wish it.

#### Destroying a Silent City

Although all theses defenses appear to be beyond breach, there are several forces that are able to overcome them. There are two cases where human forces managed to invade and destroy a Silent City.

The first was (...) and taken by the Pratonians led by Caldor himself. Their physical, magical and titanic might was able to destroy one of the greatest of cities; even though at the cost of uncounted lives including the Cor himself.

The second was the great city of (...) deep in the heart of Chalderia. It was destroyed through Cybeles betrayal who took controll of the Catalyst and used it to corrupt Arafel.

There are many proclaimed attacks on Silent Cities, but atlast nothing can be said for certain. Most of these cities are not only strongholds to the Garauth but also prisons to their greatest of enemies. They are often close the the remains of a slumbering titan or around the body of one of their Archdemons. As long as the cities stand, the titans themselfes will not awake. Yet their greatest of spawns may and when they do, they are strong enough to destroy their prison completly. During the Grand Incursion, several Silent Cities where destroyed through their captives awakening.

If the words of Samesi can be trusted, the Great Serpent of Apophis has consumed all Garauth holds below the mighty sands. This would atleast explain the absence of Servitors or Garauth forces within the dimension or the large quantity of its corrupted spirits.

And besides these numerous foes the Garauth are in constant war against the Ghuls that inhabt it the underbelly of every dimension. Lead by their infernal masters these foul creatures can grow numerous or strong enough to breach into a Silent City and even destroy it. There are no confirmed cases of such an event but the effects of this war can clearly be felt.

## Known Silent Cities

Neither the number nor the location of the majority of these cities is known to human records. Scholars of the occult estimate between 2 and 5 within every dimension. Some are little more then a fort housing one or two liches and a few hundread Hollows, others are larger then any human metropolis. Although the existence and ture nature of the Garauth themselfes is far from common knowledge, the masters of the Black Academy hold records about these cities. They know of three within human territory.

* ***Anrath*** lies in the depts of Kaith. It is most likely the strongest and largest of all Silent Cities, even housing a Catalyst. Its influencial role shapes the fates of countless Deepwalker lifes. It imprisons Kaiths titan itself aswell as several of its Archdemons.