The city of silence

Overview

The City of Silence is the great necropolis where, in earlier eras, the sanctified dead of Quintra and Denday were laid to rest. Unlike ordinary graveyards, its tombs held mummified priests, oracles and paladins, preserved by elaborate rites meant to shield them from corruption and necromancy.

In legend, no voice dares rise above a whisper within its walls; to disturb the silence is to rouse guardians who once served Day and Night themselves.

In the present Fifth Era, the City of Silence has slipped into mythic status. Most scholars agree it must have existed, but its true location is lost. Some claim it was destroyed, others that it lies buried deep beneath the earth, still intact and waiting.

Origins and Purpose

In the days when Quintra and Denday still walked Eonil, common folk were buried according to local custom. The priests and paladins of the twin goddesses, however, were treated differently.

Two separate Orders of Embalmers oversaw their dead:

• Quintra’s Order – Favoured gold, radiant motifs and sun-glyphs; their dead were honoured with offerings of light, warmth and justice.

• Denday’s Order – Favoured silver, blue and violet hues, moon-symbols, dream and water tokens; their rites were cool, shadowed and reflective.

Though their rituals differed, both faiths agreed on one thing: the most honoured servants of Day and Night should rest in a place apart from the living, yet together in purpose. Thus the City of Silence was founded as a shared sanctuary, a necropolis where day and night kept watch side by side.

Location & Structure (According to Surviving Records)

Ancient accounts describe the City of Silence as lying in a secluded valley, set apart from any living settlement. Its gates bore the sigils of both Quintra and Denday and opened onto a divided, mirror-like necropolis:

The Halls of Radiance (Quintra)

• Sun-drenched courts and open chapels

• Golden statuary of radiant guardians

• Sarcophagi shaped like blazing suns or heroic figures

• Tombs designed with shafts and openings for natural sunlight, in keeping with Quintra’s devotion to light and order

The Vaults of Midnight (Denday)

• Quiet, shadowed halls lit by cold blue gems

• Silver reliefs of moon and stars along the walls

• Cool, still air; some chambers lined with shallow reflecting pools or lunar crystals

• Sarcophagi of serene oracles and high priests, draped in dreamlike splendour

Some texts hint at a central Hall of Balance, a shared chamber where the most revered of both orders lay side by side, symbolising unity against Ghor and respect between Day and Night.

Between the two great precincts ran a broad processional road sometimes called the Silent Causeway, where both orders once walked together in rare unity to commit their dead to rest.

Rites of Mummification

Mummification in the City of Silence was a sacred privilege, reserved for:

• Priests and priestesses of Quintra and Denday

• Paladins and chosen champions of the twin faiths

• Oracles and high officials who had served the temples faithfully

The rites typically included:

• Washing the body in consecrated oils

• Wrapping in linens marked with either sun or moon sigils

• Sealing the wrappings with protective wards and inscriptions

• Entombing the dead in sarcophagi within the appropriate quarter

These layers of ritual were designed to ensure that no necromancer could easily bind or twist them, even in the worst ages of Ghor’s corruption. It is said that when the final seal was set on a tomb, the silence of the necropolis deepened — a divine hush marking the soul’s passage through the Veil.

Legends & Awakenings

The mummies of the City of Silence are widely believed to be beyond ordinary necromancy. Yet stories persist of rare awakenings:

• Disturbed Wards – Thieves, tomb-robbers or the ignorant break wards or damage a sarcophagus. Guardians stir, rising only long enough to drive intruders out before resuming their watch.

• Scars of Ghor – In times when corruption seeps into the land, some mummies awaken to stand vigil, not in malice but in defence of the living.

• Divine Omen – Certain sects claim that when a mummy of Quintra or Denday rises unbidden, it heralds a grave warning or judgement from the Old Gods.

No reliable Fifth Era accounts confirm such awakenings, but the tales remain stubborn, especially among Old Faith circles and those who claim descent from the ancient orders.

Modern Legacy & Lost Location

By the present Fifth Era, no confirmed path to the City of Silence is known. Maps contradict one another; ruins that match fragments of its description have all proved too small, too crude or too altered to be the true necropolis.

What remains instead are:

• Scattered relics – Sarcophagus lids, fragments of golden or silver iconography, and carved stone bearing both sun and moon motifs.

• Doctrinal distinctions – Groups like the so-called Silent Vigil still recognise the old differences between Quintra’s and Denday’s orders and claim to honour “all mummies of the City” wherever they find them.

• Lingering rivalry – Among those who consider themselves spiritual heirs of the old embalmers, disputes still flare over which quarter was “truly central” or most sacred.

To most people, however, the City of Silence is a half-believed legend:

• Some insist it was destroyed in the Age of Darkness, swallowed by war, earthquake or deliberate New Faiths’ purges.

• Others claim it sank underground, sealed by divine will to keep its guardians from being misused.

• A few treasure-hunters and Old Faith devotees still search lost valleys and buried complexes, convinced that one day the Silent Causeway will be uncovered again.

Until then, the City of Silence lives mostly in whispers and footnotes — a place everyone has heard of, almost no one has seen, and many secretly hope is still out there somewhere, watching over the dead in perfect, unbroken quiet.

Related Entries

• Quintra — Old Goddess of Light and the sun

• Denday — Old Goddess of the blue moon and night

• Mummies — Sanctified preserved dead and their protections

• Death & Funerary Practices — Rites, burials and the Veil across Eonil