Darujhistan, born on a rumour
‘In the Early Cycles in this Realm, three great peoples
struggled for dominion, none of them human as we would know human.
Bowing out early in the struggle were the Forkrul Assail, or the Krussail
as they are now known. Not through weakness, but . . . well, disinterest.
The remaining two peoples warred endlessly. Eventually one fell, for they
were a race of individuals, battling as much among themselves as against
their racial enemies. They were called the Jaghut, though the term has
degenerated these days to Jhag, or Shurl. While losers in the war, they did
not disappear entirely – it’s said some Jaghut survive to this day, though,
thankfully, not on Genabackis.
‘So,’ Mammot cupped his hands around his tea-cup, ‘Darujhistan was
born on a rumour. Among the indigenous Gadrobi hill tribes survived
the legend that a Jaghut’s barrow lay somewhere in the hills. Now, the
Jaghut were possessors of great magic, creators of secret Warrens and
items of power. Over time the Gadrobi legend made its way beyond the
hills, into the Genabackan north and the Catlin south, to kingdoms since
crumbled to dust in the east and west. In any case, searchers came to the
hills, at first a trickle then hordes – entire tribes led by power-hungry
shamans and warlocks. Every hillside was laced with trenches and boreholes.
From the camps and shanty-towns, from the thousands of
treasure-seekers arriving each spring, a city was born.’
‘Darujhistan,’ (GotM, UK Trade, p. 271-2)
Darujhistan: Legendary city on Genabackis, largest and most
influential of the Free Cities, situated on the south
shore of Lake Azur and peopled mainly by Daru and
Gadrobi populations; the only known city to use
natural gas as an energy source. (GotM, Glossary)
Kruppe:'Darujhistan, the mystic jewel of Genabackis'(GotM, UK Trade, p.130)
'Darujhistan and environs:
Despot’s Barbican: an ancient edifice and remnant of the Age of Tyrants
Hinter’s Tower: an abandoned sorcerer’s tower in the Noble District
Jammit’s Worry: the east road
K’rul’s Belfry/Temple: an abandoned temple in the Noble District
Phoenix Inn: a popular haunt in the Daru District
Quip’s Bar: a ramshackle bar in the Lakefront District.
The Estates (the Houses)
The Old Palace (Majesty Hall): present site of the Council
Worrytown: the slum outside the wall on Jammit’s Worry'
(GotM, Glossary)
'the city of cities'
Kruppe: 'The Council of Darujhistan consists of various noble houses, of which virtually one and all possess interests in mercantile endeavours.'(MoI, UK Trade, p.145)
'the T’orrud Cabal – Darujhistan’s secret rulers' (GotM, UK Trade, p.323)
'it has managed to survive three thousand years.’ (GotM, UK Trade, p.320)
'There are three hundred thousand people in Darujhistan' (GotM, UK Trade, p.477)
'Darujhistan – the greatest city in the world.' (GotM, UK Trade, p.71)
'From the wharf sprawled along the shore of the lake, upward along the
stepped tiers of the Gadrobi and Daru Districts, among the temple
complexes and the Higher Estates, to the summit of Majesty Hill where
gathers the city’s Council, the rooftops of Darujhistan presented flat
tops, arched gables, coned towers, belfries and platforms crowded in
such chaotic profusion as to leave all but the major streets for ever
hidden from the sun.
The torches marking the more frequented alleyways were hollow
shafts that gripped pumice stones with fingers of blackened iron. Fed
through ancient pitted copper pipes, gas hissed balls of flame around the
porous stones, an uneven fire that cast a blue and green light. The gas
was drawn from great caverns beneath the city and channelled by
massive valves...For nine hundred years the breath of gas had fed at
least one of the city’s districts.' (GotM, UK Trade, p.130-1)
'Inland from Gadrobi District’s harbour the land rose in four tiers climbing
eastward. Ramped cobblestone streets, worn to a polished mosaic,
marked Gadrobi District’s Trade Streets, five in all, which were the only
routes through Marsh District and into the next tier, Lakefront District.
Beyond Lakefront’s crooked aisles twelve wooden gates opened on to
Daru District, and from Daru another twelve gates – these ones manned
by the City Watch and barred by iron portcullis – connected the lower
and upper cities.
On the fourth and highest tier brooded the estates of Darujhistan’s
nobility as well as its publicly known sorcerers. At the intersection of Old
King’s Walk and View Street rose a flat-topped hill on which sat Majesty
Hall, where each day the Council gathered. A narrow park encircled the
hill, with sand-strewn pathways winding among centuries-old acacias. At
the park’s entrance, near High Gallows Hill, stood a massive rough-hewn
stone gate, the last-surviving remnant of the castle that once commanded
Majesty Hill.
The days of kings had long since ended in Darujhistan. The gate,
known as Despot’s Barbican, stood stark and unadorned, its lattice of
cracks a fading script of past tyranny.' (GotM, UK Trade, p.143)
'The Tyrant Kings: the ancient rulers of Darujhistan' (GotM, glossary)
‘The history of Darujhistan,’ he said. ‘I am just beginning the fifth volume, which opens with the reign of Ektalm, second to last of the Tyrant Kings...Usurper of Letastte and succeeded by his daughter, Sandenay, who brought on the Rising Time and with it the end of the age of tyrants.’ (GotM, UK Trade, p.271)
'Darujhistan’s army is a contemptible handful of noble sons who do nothing but strut back and forth on Whore Street, gripping their jewelled swords' (GotM, UK Trade, p.137)
Re: The Wheel of Ages...
'A massive stone disc in Majesty Hall marked the Cycle of the Age, naming each year in accordance with its mysterious moving mechanisms...the wheel was in fact a machine. It had been a gift to Darujhistan over a thousand years ago, by a man named Icarium.' (GotM, UK Trade, p.420)
Finnest House
'Think of the word “Finnest”. Its meaning, as the T’lan Imass know it, is “Hold of Ice” ' (MoI UK mmpb, p.172)
Suicidal Poets of Darujhistan
Invisible in all his portions
This thick-skinned thing has borders
Indivisible to every sentinel
Patrolling the geography of
Arbitrary definitions, and yet the
Mountains have ground down
The fires died, and so streams
This motionless strand of sharp
Black sand where I walk
Cutting my path on the coarse
Conclusions countless teeth
Have grated – all lost now
In this unlit dust – we are not
And have never been
The runners green and fresh
Of life risen from the crushed
Severing extinctions (that one past
this one new) all hallowed and self-sure
But the dead strand moves unseen,
The river of black crawls on
To some wistful resolution
The place with no meaning
Inconsequential in absence
Of strings and shadows
Charting from then to now
And these stitched lines
Finding this in that . . .
Excerpt from
The Black Sands of Time
(in the collection Suicidal Poets of Darujhistan)
edited by Haroak
(MT, UK Trade, p.503)
Where are the days we once held
So loose in our sure hands?
When did these racing streams
Carve depthless caves beneath our feet?
And how did this scene stagger
And shift to make fraught our deft lies
In the places where youth will meet,
In the lands of our proud dreams?
Where, among all you before me,
Are the faces I once knew?
Words etched into the wall,
K’rul Belfry, Darujhistan
(MT, UK Trade, p.210)
'The Flaying of Fander, She-Wolf of Winter, marks the Dawn of Gedderone. The pristesses race down the streets, strips of wolf-fur streaming from their hands. Banners are unfurled. The noises and smells of the market rise into the morning air. Masks are donned, the citizens discard the year's worries and dance across the day into the night.
The Lady of Spring is born anew.
It is as if the gods themselves pause their breath..'
Faces of Darujhistan
maskral Jemre (b.1101)
GotM uk mmpb p.570
Among the founding families of
Darujhistan, there is Nom.
The Noble Houses of Darujhistan
Misdry
(HoC, UK Trade, p.110)
The night held close
as I wandered
my spirit unfooted
to either earth or stone
unravelled from tree
undriven by iron nail
but like the night itself
a thing of air
stripped of light
so I came upon them,
those masons who cut and carved
stone in the night
sighting by stars and battered hand.
‘What of the sun?’ asked I of them
‘Is not its cloak of revelation
the warmth of reason
in your shaping?’
And one among them answered
‘No soul can withstand
the sun’s bones of light
and reason dims
when darkness falls –
so we shape barrows in the night
for you and your kin.’
‘Forgive my interruption, then,’ said I.
‘The dead never interrupt,’ said the mason,
‘they but arrive.’
Pauper’s Stone
Darujhistan
(GotM, UK Trade, p.258)
There is a cabal breathing
deeper than the bellows
drawing up the emerald fires
beneath rain-glistened cobbles,
while you may hear the groaning
from the caverns below,
the whisper of sorcery
is less than the dying sigh
of a thief stumbling unwilling
into Darujhistan’s secret web . . .
Cabal (fragment)
Puddle (b.1122?)
(GotM, UK Trade, p.142)
The Tyrant of Darujhistan
Seguleh
Humble Measure
The T'orrud Cabal
Baruk
Mammot
Vorcan
Derudan
Assassin's Guild
Rallick Nom
Krute of Talient
Bridgeburners
Blend
Picker
Antsy
Bluepearl
Mallet
Phoenix Inn
Coll
Cutter
Kruppe
Murillio
Barathol Mekhar
Torvald Nom
Taya Radok
Gruntle
Trygalle Trade Guild
Raest
Lady Envy
Scillara
Fisher Kel Tath
Ganoes Paran
Buke
Gaz
Gorlas Vidikas
Duiker
Hanutt Orr
Hood
Humble Measure
Lazan Door
Madrun Badrun
Meese
Sulty
Munug
Quell
Quip Younger
Scorch