Alcaeus

> The syzygy awaits, traveler mine. Which will it be? The hand of flame, or the teeth of void? The radiant light or the devouring deep?
>
> - Dione, Dreadmother

Alcaeus is the story's titular kingdom. But you already knew that.

Alcaeus (AL-see-iss) is a city split into four large sections, Nordu-ovest (northwest), Nordu-dakhiin (northeast), Deas-dakhiin (southeast), and Deas-ovest (southwest). Within these sections are important places— inhabited for the most part by demons and similar life-forms who seek to live free from persecution. It is known for its rather tame lifestyle and megastructures seemingly made for the gods themselves. Despite the disastrous state of the country, Alcaeus remains as a somewhat golden almost-utopia, but is all that glitters truly gold? What lurks beneath its gilded surface?

## Quadrants

Quadrants are the four main areas the kingdom is split into, and allows for ease of travel, especially between residential and non-residential areas.

### Nordu-ovest

The northwestern quarter of Alcaeus is where many of its less... secular residents reside. Notable locations include:

* **The Asylum**: Abandoned and turned into a place of worship for those who cannot face the Dreadmother for personal reasons, view themselves unworthy, or fear never leaving the cathedral of dusk, a valid fear to have.
* **The Crux**: The chamber in which worshipers gather within the asylum. Also functions as a meeting place for Dione's personal covenant, the *Wardens of Dusk*.
* **The Basilica**: A large hall that functions as a more general meeting place for the residents of Alcaeus. There are few laws here, and as such, the building is only named for its looks. Sometimes functions as a market for brave wandering traders to sell their wares to other travelers that may visit the kingdom.
* **The Antechamber**: A secret room behind a shelf that leads to *Agony’s Cellar*. There is little in this room but more shelves filled with old books and a door that leads to the cellar.
* **Agony's Cellar**: The former residence of *Eurydice, Agony’s Embrace*, before she was imprisoned for reasons unknown to the public. There is legendary loot to be found here, including *Agony’s Halberd* and a *Ring of Torment*. The halberd deals poison damage, and when the ring is equipped, melee'd enemies will fight on the wearer’s side for fifteen seconds while simultaneously taking poison damage.

### Nordu-dakhiin

The northeastern quadrant of Alcaeus is reserved for its dead, but some unconscious undead can be found shambling around the premises. Notable locations include:

* **The World’s Grave**: Self-explanatory. Bodies are buried here, and have been since before anyone could remember, even the Dreadmother. Strange things take place when the sun sets. No-one ever stays when dusk falls, even the bravest of travelers.
* **The Gatehouse**: The entrance to the World’s Grave. Much safer than the graveyard itself. Has a few rooms to be explored, but it’s mostly abandoned.
* **The Mausoleum**: Tomb of important people who have died in Alcaean jurisdiction, including *Dove, Sanguine Matron*, *Belvidera the Ashen Traveler*, and *Eden, Mourning’s Justice*.

### Deas-dakhiin

The southeast quadrant of Alcaeus is where most people live, and has a couple of the most densely populated cities in the country. Notable locations include:

* **Archer’s Line**: The edge of the woods. Mothers enjoy socializing with each other here while their children are off doing whatever it is that children do and spouses are busy with labor; it isn’t uncommon to come to archer’s line to pick up the latest gossip around the city, middle-aged woman or not.
* **The Stills**: The forest beyond Archer’s Line, named so for its eerily silent, dark depths. In it’s deeper points, not even the breeze can be felt. At its heart, light hardly reaches the ground. It is said that a great treasure lies here, but none who reach this dark heart ever return.
* **Eonach**: A large city that was once the home of Vrakheil. Every year, there is a festival to commemorate his exile.
* **Wulfrun**: A township run by an ancient family of lycans. They're actually quite kind people, but most adventurers stay away due to a rumor that the family runs a local crime syndicate.
* **Diswaer**: A lakeside city that many -smiths flock to. Bladesmiths, coppersmiths, blacksmiths... none can seem to resist the allure of the crystalline alpine lake, not that many could blame them. The surrounding mountains make it a perfect, private business location. Diswaer regularly has killer farmer's markets as well due to the fertile land.

### Deas-ovest

The southwestern quarter of Alcaeus is reserved for the Cathedral; it is the residence of the Dreadmother and their warden, the Darkblade, as well as its staff and those who have been imprisoned for infringing upon the lives of others. Notable parts include:

* **The Founts**: A large hall in which *Dariel, the Ceaseless*, turns a wheel that he is chained to until his end. Imprisoned for kidnapping several noble maidens. Sometimes used by *The Darkblade* to practice her combat skills when the Dreadmother rests.
* **The Hanging Crypts**: Small hanging chambers where other prisoners of lesser offenses are held until their sentence is up. There is an emphasis on sensory deprivation, here; the chambers themselves are only a bit larger than casket-sized, and there is no light or sound that can enter them. From the outside, they can be seen swinging due to the writhing bodies within.
* **The Transept**: A great cross-shaped hall that leads to the hanging bridge. Its own horizontals extend as far as the eye can see, as does its ceiling. No-one except Dione knows what this room used to be used for, but now it simply acts as a liminal space between the crypts and the bridge. There are many guards here who want trespassers dead.
* **The Hanging Bridge**: Self-explanatory. The bridge intersects two ledges. The floor is seemingly bottomless, easily extending hundreds of meters into the earth below. The ceiling is visible but out of reach, and its walls are immense, golden in the light of day and black as pitch in the night, seemingly held together by chains and chains and chains.
* **The Enduring Abyss**: The cell on the other side of the doors across the bridge. There’s another ledge, and then nothing but a drop; if there is a way to survive this fall, the careless explorers of before hadn’t found it. No light reaches the bottom of the pit. This is the cell of *Eurydice, Agony’s Embrace*. She is a crow demon hybrid who had been stripped of her wings, leaving her flightless and very, very angry. Essentially guards the only publicly known entrance to the shrine, though there are others. *The Darkblade* keeps these other entrances a secret.
* **The Shrine of Flame**: Dione's living quarters. They ensure the center bonfire stays lit so that the travelers who make it through the cathedral's obstacles have a place to rest. It’s a rather small room with a short ceiling, and despite seeming so deceptively far beneath the earth, the skylight of the shrine shows that wherever it may be is actually the very top, or at least close to it. Its walls are gilded and dressed with elaborate tapestries, though its furnishing is modest. It seems to be something right out of a storybook, and a comforting checkpoint when contrasted with the horrors beneath.