Nichollatt (city)

Nichollatt is the capital of the Nichollean Republic and the capital of the province of Dainlha. With a population of 4.25 million it is the sixth largest city in the world and the largest city in Nichollea.

## Nichollatt enTekk

### Location

Dainlha, southern Nichollea, Greater Nichollea

### Other names

The Heart of the World
 City of Four Cities
 Capital of the East

### Notable places

City of Sovereigns
 Palace of the High Sovereign
 Forum Rhundian
 Circus Rhundian
 Nhurrentekk Light
 Port Thok
 Old Citadel

### Significance

Capital of the Nichollattean Empire
 Sixth largest city in the world
 Important global trade node and cultural center for the East

Nichollea is located on the Peninsula Dain and on the River Nich near where it meets the Seas of Nichollea, on a bend in the river that lies near the Bay of Kings, another outlet into the Seas of Nichollea. Historically, Nichollatt was divided into several autonomous cities which were combined into one in 554BPCE and renamed Nichollatt, or “place of all the Nichs” and made the capital. Nichollatt remained the capital during the first and second Nichollattean Empire, which derives its name from the city (literally “empire of the capital”), when it became a sprawling cosmopolitan metropolis and the trade capital of the world. Nichollatt is often called “the heart of the world,” referring to its past and present importance in eastern politics, economics, and civilization.

## History

Nichollattean history, effectively, begins with Nichollean history. The ancient cities of Nhurrentekk and Naigel, on the north and south banks of the River Nich, show evidence of inhabitance as early as 1500BPCE. The fertile, densely populated Peninsula Dain hosted these and many other cities over the course of the development of the early Thadian civilization. Around 900BPCE the peninsula came under mostly one ruler, Lumen, save some smaller kingdoms in the south that would remain independent until the earlier days of the Confederation. Nhurrentekk was made the capital of Lumen’s Kingdom, called principally the Kingdom of Dainlha. It remained the capital of Dainlha throughout the early Confederation. When Daio invaded in the 590s the city of Dhalientekk was founded immediately south of Naigel and made Daio’s regional capital.

When Hanner Haveldekkh purged the Daians from the land Dhalientekk was made the capital of the whole Confederation, and it, Naigel, and Dainlha’s capital Nhurrentekk were combined into Nichollatt. Nichollatt would remain the capital of the Confederation and later the Empire and First and Second Nations, for 1038 years.

At its incorporation in 554BPCE Nichollatt’s population is estimated to be roughly 80,000, half of which inhabited Nhurrentekk and the other half divided between Naigel and Dhalientekk. This population steadily increased over the centuries as Nichollatt grew in prominence as a key port in the east-west flow of trade across Archaeon. The size and population of the city exploded after 204BPCE as the Confederation around it rapidly expanded, redirecting trade and making Nichollatt the center of global culture and economy. Under the reign of RhundetBar the city underwent massive modernization and construction projects, including new walls, a new emporium, the widening of streets and creation of new marble/concrete public works, as well as the addition of a new quarter of the city, Rhundentekk, that nearly doubled the city's size. By the end of RhundetBar's reign the city's population reached three million.

During the Battle of Nichollatt in 190PCE, the quarter of Nhurrentekk was destroyed along with its many famous works such as Canal Tekk, the old Forum, and the Nhurrentekk Light. During the consequent occupation afterwards much of Dhalientekk was destroyed. Nhurrentekk was later rebuilt as Dhharentekk, a name it has kept to this day.

The decline of the Empire paralleled the decline of the city, which while remaining an important node of trade declined in prominence as trade opened up with the West and the center of trade moved westward to Hirenia and Malt'exia. During this period Nichollatt became a sizable pawn amongst the many shifting states of Fractured Nichollea. Nichollatt was sacked in 506PCE, soon after the collapse of the Second Nation of the Nichs. It became the capital of the New Nichollean Confederation in 536PCE, after a new Senate was convened and the High Order purged from Dainlha. The High Order and its Coalition States, amongst the sea of disarray that had become of a long-united Nichollea, fought over the city with the New Confederation for decades leading to the destruction of much of Port Thok and Dhharentekk.

Due to its plethora of temples, which had survived the several sackings after the fall of the Empire, the city became the unofficial capital of the United Spiritualist church in 787PCE. It also became the seat of the Kingdom of Nichollatt in 16CE after the annexation of Dainlha by Djoten Tssisalonia. The Tssisalonian Kingdom claimed heirdom to Nichollatt and absorbed several Nichollean states, not contiguous with the rest of the Kingdom in Tssisalonia. The city in stable hands, and the capital of the church that sprawled over many nations, Nichollatt rose in prominence drastically and throughout the later Middle Period and the Coninuum the city boomed and thrived off of trade and pilgrimage.

It was a prime target for the rise of the Hirenian and Dannebbian Empires at the end of the Coninuum and the beginning of the Aureal. Earlier on Malt'exia and other successor states had been taken over in conquest by Hirenia, and as the cold war between the East and the West came underway the city changed hands from the Kingdom of Nichollatt to other states, and eventually to the Dannebbian Commonwealth of Nations as the capital of its Olattic Cooperative. Over land trade routes soon overshadowed the sea trade that had fed the city for three thousand years, but Nichollatt still retained prominence as a major crossroads, now between Hackthlon, Aggadria, and the South instead of the southeast and southwest, and remained a vital economic center and Dannebod's chokehold for its western holdings.

During the War of Global Hegemony the city, deep within control of the Southern Powers, went unharmed earlier in the war. It was the center for many protests against the Dannebbian government, and when the Dannebbian Commonwealth collapsed the city was taken control of by Hirenia along with the rest of Dannebod's southern holdings. The city was subject to a storm by a joint force of Arnhassian, Hackthlonian, and Pearsallian troops as well as the forces of northern Dannebod's Triumvirate Guard. Much of the city's ports were destroyed along with Hirenian garrisons in the south. After the battle it fell to Hadrian control where troops facilitated damage control. Despite the battle few monuments were harmed.

After the war Nichollatt became the capital of the Republic of Nichollatt within the federalized state of the UECSR, retaining its economic and cultural prominence after the war. In the 1070s the city was hit with depression along with the rest of the world. It became one of the main staging grounds for the Dannebbian Workers' Party, which took control of the UECSR and plunged it into the war with Hadria. Nichollatt was considered as one of the targets for the Great Nuclear Bombardment but the idea was scrapped in lieu of more strategically important and less culturally relevant targets around the capital of the UECSR.

After the war Nichollatt remained the capital of the now-independent Republic of Nichollatt. It remains an important trade node and Hadrian military hub in the South. In 1111 the city fell victim to a terrorist attack, which successfully destroyed parts of the ancient Imperial Palace and Temple of Stasen Careleiia Rhunden.