The Founding of Io’vakas and Io’lokar in Argonessen
Founding
A home for the non-dragon slaves was created in Argonessen.
Throughout their long history, the dragons of Argonessen built no cities for their own kind. However, over thirty centuries ago, a great non-dragon city called Io’vakas, the Gate of Knowledge, was founded by the Warders—a group of a dozen dragons dedicated to improving the lot of Argonessen’s humanoid “lesser races,” many of whom had been transplanted from their ancestral homes across Eberron, the Material Realm by the dragons to act as their servants. With dragon magic and the labor of non-dragon subjects collected from across Eberron, the Warders built a walled enclave deep in the south of the region of Argonessen known as the Vast. Under the tutelage of their draconic lieges, the citizens of Io’vakas—the “Gate of Knowledge” in draconic—became enlightened dragon worshipers with an advanced understanding of nature, science, and magic. Today, Io’vakas is a mass of shattered stone jutting up from ground made barren by dragon fire. But each morning as the sun rises above those ruins, it reflects off distant towers against the slopes of a bare peak to the west. This place is still very much alive; it is Io’lokar, the City of Knowledge—risen from the ashes of Io’vakas a thousand years ago.
The creation of Io’vakas thirty centuries ago was preceded by centuries of debate and anger among the dragons of Argonnessen. With the Chamber still in its infancy, most dragons opposed the Warders’ plans for empowering the lesser races. The idea of sharing even a small amount of draconic knowledge was anathema to many dragons, the fate of Xen’drik still sharp in their memories. In the end, though, the Warders prevailed. Io’vakas was built in the Vast with the tacit blessing of the Conclave and the Eyes of Chronepsis, and for almost two thousand years, the city thrived. Then the yuan-ti came from Sarlona, fleeing the strength of Riedra and the Inspired, and the doomsayers proved correct. When the serpent folk arrived in exile, the best among them were invited to Io’vakas. There, they joined the other non-dragons of the city in a bountiful life that included worship of the fifteen ascended spirits of the Sovereigns—a gift of faith to the non-dragons from their dragon masters. However, at least one sect of the Io’vakas yuan-ti sought more power than the Sovereigns could grant. In secret, this group claimed the direct worship of the Dragon Gods of Thir— and the deepest mysteries of draconic magic—for themselves. When this blasphemy was eventually discovered in -200 YK, the dragons who opposed the Io’vakas experiment demanded a swift and final response. Refusing to distinguish between those who transgressed and the bulk of the loyal yuan-ti, or even the Io’vakas citizenry as a whole, draconic might was unleashed with the tacit consent of the Conclave of Argonessen. Under a storm of lightning, frost, and fire, Io’vakas was leveled to the ground. A dozen or so yuan-ti escaped to the catacombs beneath the city; the rest of that serpentine race, including all the priests, were destroyed. From ruined Io’vakas, a pathetic few non-dragon survivors fled to the plains beneath a sky darkened by gathering rogue dragons, anxious to add these so-called scions of knowledge to their own herds of humanoid servants.
Then Arnaarlasha, a noble gold dragon great wyrm of the Warders, descended to the wasted plain. She and a dozen elder dragons loyal to her formed a protective cordon around a thousand desperate survivors of the city. On foot, they shepherded their charges across hostile territory to the slopes of Mount Erishnak, a granite peak in the center of Arnaarlasha’s own adjacent territory. To the assembled rogue wyrms and dominion lords of the Vast who had pounded Io’vakas and her inhabitants to rubble, Arnaarlasha declared the surviving non-dragons free subjects of her dominion in the Vast. Over the year that followed, high on the mountainside, Io’lokar, the City of Knowledge, was raised. Arnaarlasha never spoke of what drove her actions that day on the plains, nor did she ever do so. Four hundred years ago in 600 YK, the great wyrm’s death marked the city’s darkest hour and a turning point.
Within a day, Io’lokar was besieged by a coordinated attack of rogue dragons intent on claiming Arnaarlasha’s territory and razing the city. Beneath arcane defenses honed over six centuries, the city’s mages stood fast. Alongside the Warders and the Arnaaracaex, the stone giants who served as the city’s first line of defense, flights of wyvern riders called the Spear launched themselves from the city’s surrounding Moontowers, harrying rogue dragons in the air as they rained arcane fury against their reinforcements on the ground, while the city’s militia, the Shield, held Io’lokar’s walls. After four days, the rogue dragons retreated. Io’lokar stood fast, and its victory in the Battle of Arnaarlasha’s Fall is celebrated to this day.
Throughout the great battle, the draconic law enforcers known as the Eyes of Chronepsis and the draconic army called the Light of Siberys were conspicuous by their absence, a display of indifference they maintain to this day. As long as the Io’lokari are careful to stay within the boundaries of behavior proscribed for them when Io’vakas was new, the Conclave of Argonessen now seems content to leave the city be. However, both the Io’lokari and the Warders accept that the city exists at the Conclave’s whim. If any non-dragons seek the forbidden lore of dragonkind once again, or should any yuan-ti presence be again tolerated, no force of will or lesser magic will be enough to save them.
In the twelve hundred years since its founding, the City of Knowledge has grown from a mountainside fort (part of what is now the Freeward of the city) to its present form. Within its walls, scholars, crafters, and artisans from a dozen humanoid races live side by side in common cause and culture. Though the Warders long ago stepped back to let the Io’lokari run their own affairs, the city remains dedicated to allowing non-dragon culture to flourish on its own terms. Even after three thousand years, however, many of the city’s sages believe that the Warders had a deeper purpose in their creation of a non-dragon city within the dragon continent. In the same way that the dragons are said to shun the continent of Sarlona because they have seen that land’s destruction in the unfurling of the draconic Prophecy, some suggest that the Prophecy predicts the eventual destruction of all non-dragon life on Eberron, the Material Realm. Whether this destruction will come at the hands of the quori, some unknown magical or natural disaster, or through the actions of the lesser races themselves remains unknown.
Either way, Io’lokar (and Io’vakas before it) might have been created as a safe haven for humanity and the other mortal races—a place in which the scions of Sarlona, Xen’drik, and Reloren might live on. Today, the city is home to some of the finest crafters, artisans, and spellcasters in the world. However, commerce does not drive the art, craft, and magic of Io’lokar as it does in Reloren. Though the city has no effective monetary limit, coin has no value there. Gems have use as currency only if they appeal to an individual Io’lokari’s eye for aesthetic reasons. All Io’lokari work toward the continued survival of the city and the betterment of their own lives.
Like their draconic patrons, the Io’lokari are an insular society—many live their whole lives without ever setting foot outside the city’s walls. Those who travel typically do so for scholarly pursuits, journeying across Argonnessen and beyond. Io’lokar is hardly a prison, however, and powerful citizens often leave the city to take up positions as advisers or scholars with benevolent dragon lords or agents of the Chamber. Although the powerful people of Io’lokar would no doubt have little trouble each establishing themselves as lords in Reloren or Xen’drik, those lands have little to offer. A powerful Relorian might dream of wealth or power. A powerful Sarlonan might dream of ending the injustice of the Inspired’s rule. Io’lokari dream of peace, friendship, and the pursuit of ever-greater knowledge. Their city is already the best place to achieve that.
Io’lokar’s population of 46,000 people has been effectively stable for nearly four hundred years, even with a steady number of immigrants. The city has high standards, and those unable to meet them usually have little interest in embracing its philosophies in the first place. Powerful individuals sometimes flee here from the holds of other dragon dominion lords in the Vast, typically infuriating their former masters. Often, refugees from the Vast come to Io’lokar in greater numbers than the city can handle. Once such folk are returned to health, it is thought that the Io’lokari quietly teleport them to the holds of more benevolent dragon lords, but this has never been confirmed.
Of all those who seek the City of Knowledge, only yuan-ti and half-dragons are denied entry. Although the Io’lokari know that examples of nobility exist even among the serpent folk and the dragon scions, the dragons’ dedication to destroying these creatures makes their presence in the city too great a risk. It is rumored that persecuted half-dragons often pass through Io’lokar on their way to better lives in exile in Reloren or Xen’drik, but the Io’lokari shun the half-dragon cultists and crazed dragon hunters common in Argonnessen.
No matter what their moral bent, the Io’lokari take a decidedly neutral approach to the affairs of Eberron. Like the Warders who first brought their ancestors here, the folk of Io’lokar are emphatically devoted to the Prophecy. However, unlike the dragons of the Chamber, the Io’lokari are content to watch history unfold on its own terms. A group of heroes seeking aid in Io’lokar to prevent some Reloren-wide catastrophe and another group hunting the epic magic with which to cause that catastrophe would likely both be met with indifference.
This is not to say that Io’lokar is inhabited solely by distant aesthetes or self-obsessed scholars. The folk of the city are a rich and varied lot, and Chamber sympathizers, sages skimming secrets from their colleges, and adventurers who have developed a taste for profit can all be found here. The appearance of a band of Relorian adventurers causing trouble might be all it takes to bring such people out of the shadows.