The Reflective Agora

The Reflective Agora is the center of commerce in Fallen Bomenya.

## Let the Reflections Flow

Almost all legal commerce takes place between the Agora's colonnades. People from almost all walks of life are free to buy and sell their wares here, including people straight out of New Damoqlesh Prison. The Agora sells and buys many things, from more common items like clothing or pets to the more intangible such as secrets and souls. Stories of love seem to be of particular interest. The Agora deals in commerce on a far greater scale than these goods; for what it's worth, its vaults are far too extensive and secretive to contain only the mundane. The Agora also closely monitors the people it deems Notable, and it may bestow rewards and specialized roles to those who gain its attention. People of exceptional skill and fame may bargain for esoteric knowledge to push their training even further.

The Agora trades in **pence** and **reflections** (120 pence = 1 reflection), reflections being "reflections" of the Agora's first-ever currency.

Seven great doors lead into the Agora, each opening to a stoa leading one into the bustling and crowded stalls of the Agora itself. Each is made of a different material, and each is reserved for a particular group of people:

* **The Copper Door** is for those people who should *never* be crossed.
* **The Door of Ormolu** is for the truest of romantics.
* **The Ivory Door** is for the finest of thieves.
* **The Glass Door** is for those who can see the subtlest of details.
* **The Door Made of Paper** is used for postal purposes.
* **The Steel Door** leads to the Elders' apartments.
* **The Door Built From Teeth** is reserved for the greatest of Fallen Bomenya's citizens.

It’s tempting to ask why all this is how it is, but good luck trying to find answers. There are powerful people who’d like to keep it secret.

Though most of these qualities are not easily tested, the Elders of the Agora maintain and empower guards for these doors whose job it is to ensure that only those who meet the proper criteria are allowed through each door. There are eight legions of door-guards, one per door and another for the Side-streets.

### The Side-streets

**The Agora's Side-streets** are only accessible to those of some Importance, but these alleyways have many lucrative business opportunities for these well-known figures. Respectable firms are crammed into ramshackle workshops and poky offices here. The rent here is astronomical, but the quick and the hungry turn profits. Just keep your eyes off the carvings up high, and whatever you do, don't fall in love.

A visitor must show a document called a **Shaper's Pass** to the Legion Alongside in order to gain access to the Side-streets.

## Notable Businesses and Locations

### Main Shops

These are main shops of the Agora, accessible to almost anyone.

* **Karhao's Steel** (weapons and armor)
* **Meiwel's Hattery** (hats and headgear)
* **Dhaq & Ssavash** (gloves and handgear)
* **Ghatteri the Outfitter**
* **Nassosh Zoologicals** (pets)
* **MERKURHI** (boots and footgear)
* **Nikholash Pawnbrokers**
* **Merhighanz Exchange**
* **Redemptions** (labor)
* **Danchi's**
* **Fadshett & Daughters**
* **Khakheish Cryptics** (secrets, papers, truths, mistruths, rumors, lies, prayers, and books)
* **Pensttak's Land Agency** (dwellings)
* **The Archon of Chimes' Lost and Found**

### North side of the agora

* **Painted Stoa** (socialising)
* **Altar of Twelve Gods**
* **Royal Stoa**
* **Temple of Merhovekh**

### East side of the agora

* **The Peristyle Court** (law court), in the north-east
* A collection of buildings in the south-east corner: **the East Stoa**, **the Library of Panttainosh**, a fountain, and a temple.
* **The Mint** (minting coinage)
* **The Single-Winged Dome** in the south (a dome with no walls supported by columns, about 25 feet in diameter)
* **The Podium** (speaker's platform)

### South side of the agora

* **The Middle Stoa**
* A small temple in front of the Middle Stoa
* **South-east Fountain House**
* **South Stoa**
* **The Aiakhei**

### West side of the agora

* **Sttateghei** (meetingplace for military leaders to discuss finance, politics, and foreign policy)
* **Kolhonosh** (meetingplace for craftsmen)
* **Monument of the Ten Eponymous Heroes** (monument for heroes of the founding tribes, used as a notice board for new legislation, public events and military conscription)
* **Metton** (temple to All-Mother Goose and old assembly-house)
* **The Assembly House**
* **Temple to Bender of Metal**
* **Temple of the Left-Handed Hummingbird**
* **Stoa of the King of the Gods**
* **The Temple to Ram King and Spear-Brandishing**, located near the Temple of the Left-Handed Hummingbird
* A **statue of the seventh Holy Holbytlano Emperor, Mattlias**, was located near the Metton.

### Other notable monuments

* **Altar of Great Hunter**, just east of the Monument of the Ten Eponymous Heroes
* **Temple of Destroyer**, in the north half of the Agora, just south of the Altar of Twelve Gods
* **Odeon of Aghippa** (musical activities), accompanied by a gymnasium, in the center of the Agora
* **Forum for Worshippers of the Dragon-Kings**

### The Sidestreets

These services are only available to those who have proven their Importance.

* **Empire Adornments** (jewelry)
* **Blackfinger Street**, (publishers and writers)
* **The Horse-Steak Club** (tavern)
* **Beizbon and Faolhigpiz** (legal documents and permits)
* **The Great Downward Engineering Company** (interesting contraptions)
* **The Bridge Without** (tavern)
* **Green Salon** (curious and exotic garments)

## Marble-workers in the Reflective Agora

The Reflective Agora is glorious and richly decorated, set with famous works of art, many of them sculpted from marble. The buildings of the Reflective Agora have marble decoration and house dedications in the form of marble statues. Generations of marble-workers have made the Reflective Agora an important center for the production of marble sculptures. Marble-workers make sculptures, marble weights, sundials, furniture parts, an assortment of kitchen utensils.

### Marble workshops in the Agora

The earliest area used by marble workers was the residential and industrial district southwest of the Agora. Another area where marble-workers have set up shop is in the South Square. As the South Square contains ruins of the previous four cities, marble-workers have long been attracted to the remains of the marble temples there. A workshop from the southern corner of the agora is also important, and the Library of Panttainosh rents out rooms to marble-workers.

### Famous marble-workers in the Agora

#### Fidhyash

Fidhyash was the most well-known marble-worker to have worked in the Agora. He is famous for his gold and ivory cult statue of Ram King in the surface city-state of Olhumpya, and for his three lost sculptures of Spear-Brandishing.

#### Alchamnesh

A well-known associate of Fidhyash was Alchamnesh, whose most important works in the Agora are the bronze cult statues of Bender of Metal and Spear-Brandishing in the Temple of Bender of Metal.

#### Pyassitelesh and Byassish

A marble statue signed and possibly carved by Byassish can be found in the Agora behind the Royal Stoa.

#### Yufranorh

A marble-worker known for his sculptures, Yufranorh made a colossal statue of the Left-Handed Hummingbird for the Temple of the Left-Handed Hummingbird on the west side of the Agora.

## The Courier

Before it came to the Great Below, the Agora was known as **the Courier**, a messenger in service to the Sun. Its true form resembles a giant crab, covered in spines inscribed with the maddening Signatures. It is still very much alive, though Khladheri gave it a sort of lobotomy to remove its urges to deliver messages. Nowadays, the Agora stays in Fallen Bomenya, seeking solace in the sphinxstone of the Salt Lions. Despite its best efforts, the Agora quite literally sits in a puddle of tears ~ there is a sea of **lacquer** beneath it, and its tears are a distilled form of lacquer.

### The Tale of the Courier

A long time ago, perhaps eons ago, the Courier and the Sun became entwined in a scandalous and forbidden love, producing strange cosmic rock offspring, including Stone. The Sun then fell in love with a different star, and to add insult to injury, sent the Courier to give the other star a love letter. This other star rejected the Sun in her reply, which the Courier feared would cause the Sun to die of grief. The Agora begged Storm for extra time to deliver the rejection notice and was given seven cities' time (as ordered by the Aighinai) to find seven cities' worth of love stories. The Agora hopes that boiling these love stories down into the *ultimate* love will prevent the Sun from drowning in its own tears.

Before coming to the Great Below, the Agora made a deal with a ragtag group of Curators. These Curators were unwelcome amongst their kind, so they joined the Aghora to escape poverty. The Aghora gave them a simple promise: ***"All shall be well, and all shall be well, and all manner of thing shall be well."*** By the time of the Fifth City, these Curators considered themselves Archons of the Bazaar, and a few of them, like the Archon of Iron, have by now grown suspicious of the Agora.

### The Stone Pigs

The organs by which the Agora once travelled through space, are conjecturally known as the **Stone Pigs**. The Pigs are responsible for the digging of the Gumaino Canal, and they also demolish the Agora's current city whenever a new one is about to Fall. Fortunately, they have remained asleep for quite a while now.