Heliodas

## Geographical Situation

The river, which passed through Heliodas, was named Ylla and flowed into the Baelian Ocean. Almost all the major cities of the Myrmid Empire, including the capital Myrm, were built along this river which gave the Myrmid territory its endless winding snake-like shape.

## Description

### The Walls

The walls of Heliodas was about 6 meters high, made of yellowish tuff stone with a crumbly aspect. From the outside and combined with the grime and poverty of the immediate periphery of the city, it looked as though it was an inconsequential harbour city.

Yet the interior conveyed a very different image. Farewell to the friable volcanic tuff, which was replaced by good brick, marble or granite as far as the eye could see. Jake was not a specialist in Ancient Rome or Greece, but he did understand why this Ordeal was categorized as Peplum. Inside the walls, the dirt road was now paved with regular flat stones, slightly swollen in the middle to allow rainwater to drain away. About 7 meters wide, it was a major thoroughfare where thousands of Myrmidian citizens were teeming to carry on their activities.

### Aqueducs

A water supply and waste disposal system had indeed been set up within the city of Heliodas, but of course this waste and sewage had to be disposed of somewhere. As such, the ocean was the solution of choice. Between the commercial port and the sewage treatment system, foolish would be the one bathing in the river cutting the city in two and joining the ocean a few kilometers further on.

In any case, the water system was incredibly well developed and provided water to every nook and cranny of the city. These stone and brick structures were extremely imposing and striking, supplying the majority of residences, thermal baths and other public places. Several of them also served as bridges connecting the two sides of the river that cut Heliodas in half.

### Heart of the City

The river was about a hundred metres wide and was divided in two around a central islet about eight hundred meters in diameter, which had become the commercial and political heart of the city.

Even before crossing the bridge, the standard of living of the people living near the river had increased significantly. Citizens were wearing clean tunics, many of them having their own escorts or slaves wearing sedan chairs. The women were elegant and wore dresses of various warm colours sewn with silver and gold thread. Many carried ostentatious signs of wealth such as jewellery, brooches, necklaces and earrings with enough value to feed many of these poor suburban citizens for life, yet crime was almost non-existent. Low enough for these noble and wealthy merchants to dare to walk these mundane streets with only one or two guards.

An amphitheatre on the left, a gigantic temple on the right. And then a little further on, the forum accompanied by a gigantic complex of basilisks surrounding the famous large market square where slaves are sold (hence where Jake was sold at the beginning of his Ordeal). At the promixity of the temple, several palaces overlooked the city, protected by their own ramparts, often higher than that of Heliodas itself. The city's main barracks provided security for these politicians, nobles and religious priests of great importance.

## Heliodas Outskirt

### Peplum

The outside of the town was a genuine pigsty, a place of poverty and misery. The entire outskirts of the city was a veritable dumping ground where all kinds of smells were mixed, from manure to the cheap perfume of prostitutes.

### Insulas

The Insula was part of a complex built outside the city and owned by a famous slave trader. Dozens of other buildings like this one could be found all around the city of Heliodas, with a standing similar to that of horse or cattle farms. The human being was a commodity like any other and as such had to be warehoused. The Insulas served this function. Seen from the outside, the Insula was not very luxurious. Although the building had a recognizable antique architecture, the compound and the private guards standing watch gave it the appearance of a barracks.

In the inside, the architecture was very Greco-Roman in design. There were many marble pillars supporting and harmonizing the structures. Mosaics on the walls and bust or integral sculptures of all sorts decorated the corridors, as well as basins and fountains decorated with marble statues reminiscent of those of antiquity.