Nivorah

Nivorah, called the Golden City, was the ancestral home of the Elmali peoples. It now lies crushed beneath the great northwestern glacier. Both Riders and Wheels remember the Golden City as an ideal and wish to return there, though many think that is impossible.

When the Emperor planned to create a dome over the entire empire, Hyalor and Samnal united for the first and perhaps last time to defy him. Hyalor and his Riders left the city when it became clear that the ice would overwhelm it, while Samnal and his Wheels remained until the bitter end, fleeing only at the last minute.

## Culture and Religion

As of *Ride Like the Wind,* the Wheels hew as closely to Nivoran tradition as possible. As such, they are strictly patriarchal, authoritarian, and keep slaves.

Gods whose worship dates to Nivorah include:

* Elmal, patron god and governor of the city, and now the chief god worshipped by most of its survivors.
* Buseryan, god of scribes and writing.
* Gamari, goddess of horses.
* Reladivus, Elmal's son by Nivorah herself, patron god and protector of the city, now worshipped by Wheels and invoked by Riders as a tamer of rivers.
* Relandar, brother to Elmal, then god of nobles, now the Hyaloring god of learning and wisdom.
* Osara, then goddess of daughters, whose role in Rider society is much expanded from that.
* Samnal, his son, now worshipped by Wheels and reviled by Riders.
* Verlaro, god of common men, no longer worshipped by Riders.
* Perondeto, god of glass and glassmaking.
* Nocheli, goddess of the red dye insect.
* Tepekos, god of bronze and redsmiths.
* Narva, goddess of beer.
* an unnamed bell goddess.

Additionally, Hyalor lived in the Golden City, but may not yet have been considered a god.

## Lore

Nivorah was a goddess as well as a city. Though now dead, she was Elmal's wife and the mother of Reladivus. She may also have been the mother of Samnal, Osara and Verlaro.

* "In Nivorah, Buseryan's priests could read in the ledgers who owed what to who."
* "It was Stosuntak, priest of Relandar, who rode to the sky and came back with a message: we would need a home for our ancestors. In the Golden City we had not needed to ask questions of our long-gone forebears. Instead when we went to the marble mausoleum we revered their glory only."
* "In Nivorah the Emperor ran the legal system."
* "In the Golden City birds lived only in cages, and sang when we told them to."
* "Racing goes all the way back to Nivorah, but back then it was imperial princes who sponsored it."
* "The Busenari temple in Nivorah famously held feasts on holy days."
* "In the Golden City, Yelm sat on his solar throne, and the sky was solid as could be."
* "In Nivorah every noble house owned slaves. We gave up this practice when Hyalor and Gamari showed us the freedom of the trail."
* "In the Golden City men could dally with foreign women, but our women would be killed if they tried the same."
* "In the Golden City we all worshiped in great central temples."
* "The earth temple of the Golden City had a thousand stairs down into the earth."
* "We did not feud until the exodus. Before then, imperial magistrates settled disputes between clans."
* "Fire cages were used against taboo breakers in the days of the Golden City."
* "In the Golden City, banishment would be the most lenient of punishments for pregnancy outside marriage. The woman might be enslaved, or even put to death."
* "We have come so far from the Golden City. Sometimes I find myself thinking that it is better as an ideal than a place to return to."

## Other Stories

In the later ages of Glorantha, Nivorah's memory has faded to myth:

* Nivorah on the Glorantha wiki

## Images

Nivorah in the background, her son Reladivus in the foreground.Gamari and Hyalor in foreground, Nivorah in background.Samnal in foreground, Nivorah in background.Nivorah is swallowed by the glacier.The elder Chanla has a vision of her people's lost home.