"We made rest in the ruins of a great stronghold beside a deserted city. The walls of this stronghold were built of brick, twenty cubits in breadth, eighty cubits in height, and several leagues in circuit. In its centre laid a great square hill towering a hundred fifty cubits above the ground. In the night, our little fires were swallowed by its enormity... In the following days, I asked all we came across what this place had been called, and who had built it. They said it was called Khushut, and that the Horils had built it. They said they did not know why, but that the gods had punished them by turning their city to dust."
—
Leto of Menivun, "History of the Dischitic War"
Curst (
Faltish: Xöşiţ, Old Horil: ROGku-ur-su-tu) is a town in the
Sunaïd Alginate situated along the Left Kezikle. The modern town is built next to the ruins of a large settlement which was the centre of the powerful Cursatian Empire in the late Bronze Age.
History
Curst was an important city during the Dischitic Bronze Age, and served as the capital of the powerful Cursatian Empire. Like many bronze age cities, it would be abandoned following the Late Bronze Age Collpase.
The city has provided a wealth of records in
Linear Horil and archaeological finds. Among the most visually striking are the "pokrušɣu", massive statues of three-eyed figures, seated cross-legged, whom likely sat atop the lower outer wall of the city's south gate, often called the Pokrushgu Gate after the figures.
The city, like many cities of the time, had a patron god thought to reside in the city. The Cursatian patron was Akochk (AϘΞK), sometimes spelled Akchok. While Akochk began as a regional deity, as Curst grew into the expansive Cursatian Empire, Akochk took on a central role in the religion of the wider region.
The first records of Curst following the Late Bronze Age Collapse come from
Leto of Menivun, who in 515 was a
Dvekmenu general under emperor Vodrov, and part of a punitive expedition into the Dischitar against the
Xöngüü. In a battle near modern Başra Kurna, though the Dvekmenu forces were victorious, Vodrov himself was killed in battle. The campaign being effectively over, Leto and his men were forced to flee back to Duekmenia, following the course of the Kezikle. Along their journey, they stumbled across the ruins of Curst, though they could not stay long. He was, evidently, captivated by the site, as he noted his efforts to learn more about it on his travels.
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