Gesurb

**Gesurb**

The uniqueness of Gesurb makes it difficult to define. By broad definition it is a castle, but it is one the size of a small nation. Seen as a reminder of both the driving will and the hubris of humans, much of its history as become legend, hotly contested ones at that. Roughly 200 hundred miles from north to south, 340 from west to east, Gesurb castle ranges from 2 miles high at its central peak to dungeons that stretch down miles into the cog. The centre 20 miles is still a unified architectural fortress around a central series of towers. From here it is presumed the seat of power sits, but to any outsider its leadership obscured, literally by walls and walls of implacable stone. The knights of Gesurb are among the largest of all human organisations, But their mysterious leadership comes from the most inscrutable beings: Dragons.

Although accounts differ about the specifics, collating the Gesurb knight’s own myth making gives a somewhat believable origin. The original keep on the space was the one of children’s tales. Gesurb tapestries display an honourable king with dragon beneath, linked by some noble kinship. When this righteous King died without heirs, his court elected the dragon as a draco-princess regent as the most stalwart champion who upheld his will. The dragon of course, was enormously longer lived than her lord, and taking initiative had herself many heirs with a number of consorts from dragon families whose standing was known only to her. During her reign she expanded the central 20 miles, taking in the keeps of liege lords under protective walls and integrating them eventually with stone masonry as much of fealty. Her draconic highness was cut short however, killed by a magical spear of ancient construction. The modern Gesurb place the blame on this assassination on the now extinct elves, jealous of sudden prominence and advancement of these short lived humans and their mistress. Whoever perpetrator and whatever their motive, the castle of Gesurb quickly developed into more of the form it is seen today. The assassinated queen was ascended after death to a level martyrdom divinity, her name lost to time but known now as ‘The immortal Empress’ or the ‘The ever present Empress’. Her children and court never consolidated power to a single source again, becoming princely powers beneath the deity. From this it is easy to see the expansion of Gesurb to the monstrous mega castle, each normal keep and palace built to enormous specifications fuelled by fiery draconic and ambitious human enthusiasm. Centuries passed and the ranks of humans were swelled with the dragonborn, unseen on ZahnDomhan before this. Roughly seven hundred years after her passing, a great schism erupted into all out war within the walls of Gesurb itself.

The Irongate war as it was known had many factors and reasons, as does any war. Farmland and food production inside the walls was constantly under threat from inconsiderate construction. Treasure hordes passed down between successors since the first King had become hotly debated topics of provenance between the courts. Personal gripes between Dragons, humans and dragonborn had at this point malingered to becoming matters of heresy of interpretation of the Ever present Emperess’ will. Despite the truth of all these, Gerurb Knights are taught a more simple reason for the Irongate war: Red versus Silver. The heritage and scale colour of the Immortal Empress began to be debated, as her progeny had been descended from the numerous consorts she took only for the clutch of eggs they could provide. The two most prominent lines had become the red dragons and the silver dragons, both of which believed them to be the image of their ancestor empress. Banners and heraldry began to differ, cliques became factions and notably resources began to less openly shared. The first blood spilt was after a group of red dragon aligned priests and knights closed a portcullis on a group of silver dragon Knights escorting lesser nobility and civilian worshippers to a chapel of the empress. Accounts differ on the first aggressor, but the violence led to three immediate fatalities and a pitched battle through the portcullis itself. The civil war lasted an awful eight months and fundamentally altered the construction of the majority of the inner castle. Areas left to become ruins, some trapped for a siege that might have never came and others still strewn with ancient armour left to this very day.

The war ended with a skirmish around the towers of the centre twenty miles, damage raining down on the sanctified foundations of the original keeps and the reliquaries of Empress. Five dragons died in this final conflict, tearing at throats and shot down by hails of arrows and enchanted ballistas. Divine intervention is often preached as the final knell that ended the conflict, but as is the case often, it was a depletion of resources. The Red dragons had established themselves as some sort of victor, at a terrible cost. Following the Irongate there was another burst of expansion, providing unification to the silver and unaligned. Life inside Gesurb has remained unchanged since the irongate conflict, an isolationist state with farmlands exposed to the sun and forges beneath the surface. The majority of healthy adults are in some way enrolled in the knighthood, living a monastic existence under the eye of their specific dragon lord. The magic schools of clerical divinity and draconic sorcerers are encouraged amongst the inclined. With miles and miles of castle between them and the outside world, their rigorous training and devotion both a comfort and a paranoid point of anxiety. Rarely and with enormous secrecy Knights will leave the enormous walls and quest beyond, the errant party surely returning with some unthinkable prise.

From the exterior though, this enormous castle seems mostly inhabitable and empty. Treasure in enormous untended piles left by the hubris of a conflict within the walls. Some claiming they were ambushed by well trained knights, some seeing a hint of scales or a leathery wing. Most never return at all.