Acacius

Acacius was a town located in the Heroic Domains of Ysgard.

It was destroyed in 121WD.

## Government

The histories of Acacius tell that Acacius was founded at the decree of the Emerald Sultan, ruler of the Dao and Master of the Great Dismal Delve, having long claimed dominion over stretches of the Wandering Worlds of Pandemonium, Limbo and Ysgard as well as control over the Elemental Plane of Earth. Alongside Mjors and Crezzare, Acacius served as proof of his claim to the latter, feeding resources from the Heroic Domains directly to his mighty sultanate in the Elemental Sphere.

Acacius itself was ruled over by the Dao Overlord Bassar, who ruled as a Satrap of Jessiz al-Sila. Bassar maintained high expectations of the people at his command, and ruled predominantly out of fear - the never-ending threat that if the town faltered in its production, the Emerald Sultan would no longer work to protect its residents.

## Defence

By nature of its location, Acacius was protected from many threats - the steep mountains surrounding it on all sides, the seclusion as great a shield as any. To this effect, no constructed defences were built to guard the town. The Overlord Bassar maintained control over a garrison of earth elementals and other such elemental creatures, though these were commonly used as a tool of authority than for sake of defence.

## Crime

Beyond the constructions intended to facilitate the town's function as a site for resource gathering and industry, much of the town of Acacius was of questionable construction quality - houses, roads and bridges in rough and lousy condition and maintained only by the populace itself. The labour-focus of the populace meant that most would engage in simple repairs to local structures when available, but nonetheless much of the population lived impoverished lives and thus, provided it did not diminish productivity, crime was common. Most of the populace were used to hearing about trouble every few days or so, and everyone would know of someone that had been a victim of thefts, cons or petty violence. Nonetheless, strong community spirit was common throughout, typically divided the population into groups and cliques by streets and living quarters.

In such cases where crime would spiral out of control and lead to disruption the viability of the town's production, Bassar's justice would be swift, unyielding and often brutal. Beatings and other acts of violence would be followed by unchanged, or often upped levels of expected productivity despite broken bones or other lingering injuries, with ring-leaders and other would-be dissidents executed by pressing or crushing to death.

## Description

Acacius was a settlement built between the cleft of two mountain peaks - although the oral folklore of the town would have stated that once it was one peak that has been mined down and down to give the appearance of two separate mountains, prompting the populace's persistence to refer to the mountain as the Verdalor Peak, rather than Peaks. Supporting a population of several thousand, Acacius was in truth split across three small colonies, that of the Merchant Town on the northeastern edge, the so-called Frost Town, located on the edge of a glacier on the eastern edge of the Verdalor Peaks, and the main mining town known as the Pit Town between the peaks. Connecting the three were hundreds of stone and wooden bridges, the largest intended to transport produce in both raw and processed form from the mining town to the merchant town and beyond.

Positioned at the central point between the three towns was a vast statue of the Emerald Sultan, a pickaxe in one hand, a chain in the other, large enough to be seen from anywhere overground in the city. When looking in the direction of the statue, even underground, it was noted that the weight of being watched would often be felt.

### The Merchant Town

Home to somewhere between a quarter and a third of the populace of Acacius, the Merchant Town of Acacius was the most soundly constructed part of the settlement, nestled partway up the mountain side. The houses in this region were larger, and elevated enough that they were less often plagued by damp. To this effect, resentment between the populace elsewhere in the settlement and the Merchant Town was common.

Although home to the majority of shops and services used by the residents, the Merchant Town was named not for its place as a mercantile hub, but rather for its role within the city to 'sell' the produce of Acacius to the Overlord and his administrators. Carried by the bridges and sluiceways, all the produce of the town would pass through Merchant Town to be examined for quality, those found to be lacking rejected and cast aside - although many locals carved a place in society collecting up that which was considered subpar and selling it on to the residents. That which Bassar was 'sold' on, would continue on its journey, carried by earth elemental labourers into the hall built into the side of the mountain, from which it would not return - assumedly due to a guarded connection to the Elemental Plane of Earth being contained within.

### The Frost Town

On the eastern edge of the settlement, Frost Town was the smallest of the three districts of the settlement, representing about a fifth of the populace size-wise. Spreading along the coast of the mountain with the vast Oronora Glacier, the residents of the Frost Town largely toiled to collect up and haul blocks of ice to the sluiceways that connected Frost Town to the rest of Acacius, thus providing water for the populace's personal needs, and for industrial purposes. Others still engaged in the long trek to the patches of the glacier less frozen, upon which ice fishing was possible, but perilous.

Occasionally groups from the Pit Town would be sent through the Frost Town to gather lumber from the sides of the glacier for sake of production.

### The Pit Town

The heart of the settlement, around half of the population lived and worked in the Pit Town, delving into the mountainside for quarried stone and into the depths below in search of predominantly iron ore, with noteworthy veins of copper, tin and rarer still platinum and mithral. The architecture of the Pit Town had changed over the years as further tunnels were opened, the mountain reshaped, and from time to time, stretches of land gave way, taking those residing above with it. Nowhere else in Acacius did the bridges and walkways wind more readily, many given over entirely to act as vast conveyers of stone and ore, and many further still leading to dead-ends and stark cliff-sides, the relics of since redundant or ruined construction.

The Pit Town thrummed with activity throughout the day and night, with rotating shifts of labourers ensuring the ongoing production of the land and that below it. Luxuries are uncommon, but rarely wanted after, for it was in the Pit Town that the community spirit and values are most prominently experienced - after all, a weight carried between two is a fair easier and quicker task than trying to tackle it alone.