Primarch’s Residence
The Primarch’s Residence was built nearly two thousand years ago near the end of Absalom’s “city of excess” period as a monument to the tyrannical Lord Daynce of House Ryeen, arguably the city’s most powerful primarch and undoubtedly its most despotic. The wicked Lord Daynce found himself so busy with affairs of state that he was incapable of leaving Absalom for a vacation or even a moment’s respite. As a solution, he razed an inadequate Primarchal Palace and replaced it with a grand edifice that still stands a block west of the Grand Council Hall. To ensure that the residence of Absalom’s true ruler be just as impressive as the monument to its people down the street, Lord Daynce conscripted the experts of the Union of Carpenters, Stonemasons, and Metalworkers, as well as some of the finest artisans of the nearby dwarf enclave of Galizhur. But Lord Daynce saw even the most gorgeous palace as a prison, and sought to remove himself even further from the demands of his duty. To this end, he coerced the Grand Council into decreeing that the Arcanamirium populate the new Primarch’s Residence interior with illusory chambers offering a convincing simulacra of any environment their beloved lord might desire. The Arclords of Nex begrudgingly weaved their magic to accede to Lord Daynce’s demands, purportedly tapping into a powerful demiplane called the Crux of Nex to create no fewer than a dozen such chambers or chamber complexes, each with pre-programmed inhabitants and events designed to provide endless diversion to the weary primarch.
It’s said that the Primarch’s Residence construction process afforded the Arclords a personal perspective on the cruelty and character of Lord Daynce, in part inspiring the Conjured Siege they would launch against the city’s leadership only a few years later, when forces in league with the Arcanamirium overthrew Lord Daynce and dragged his body through the streets. Even so, subsequent primarchs could never quite bring themselves to give up the pleasures of the Primarch’s Residence, and though Lord Daynce’s treachery and the horrors of the Conjured Siege have faded with the centuries, access to the Primarch’s Residence has remained one of the primary perks of taking on the mantle of Absalom’s Primarch.
The last confirmed sighting of Lord Gyr of Gixx was here, entering the Primarch’s Residence after a particularly contentious meeting of the High Council. Since that day the doors of the residence have remained locked, with entry regulated by the Starwatch. Acting Primarch Wynsal Starborn has made no effort to enter the Residence let alone inhabit it, and last year the government failed to suppress news of a joint expedition within sponsored by the Starwatch, the varlokkur, and the Pathfinder Society during which some two dozen investigators disappeared without a trace. Fragmentary and abruptly interrupted divinatory reports received by Third Spell Lord Utgar of Gyr attested that the illusory magic of the otherworldly chambers was somehow in flux due to an erratic malfunction, but beyond that nothing of their fate is known—to the public, anyway. Fueled in no small part by a hostile press, the Primarch’s Residence features in many of the most prominent conspiracy theories regarding the fate of Lord Gyr, but no two theories seem to agree as to its role in the mystery.
It’s said that the Primarch’s Residence construction process afforded the Arclords a personal perspective on the cruelty and character of Lord Daynce, in part inspiring the Conjured Siege they would launch against the city’s leadership only a few years later, when forces in league with the Arcanamirium overthrew Lord Daynce and dragged his body through the streets. Even so, subsequent primarchs could never quite bring themselves to give up the pleasures of the Primarch’s Residence, and though Lord Daynce’s treachery and the horrors of the Conjured Siege have faded with the centuries, access to the Primarch’s Residence has remained one of the primary perks of taking on the mantle of Absalom’s Primarch.
The last confirmed sighting of Lord Gyr of Gixx was here, entering the Primarch’s Residence after a particularly contentious meeting of the High Council. Since that day the doors of the residence have remained locked, with entry regulated by the Starwatch. Acting Primarch Wynsal Starborn has made no effort to enter the Residence let alone inhabit it, and last year the government failed to suppress news of a joint expedition within sponsored by the Starwatch, the varlokkur, and the Pathfinder Society during which some two dozen investigators disappeared without a trace. Fragmentary and abruptly interrupted divinatory reports received by Third Spell Lord Utgar of Gyr attested that the illusory magic of the otherworldly chambers was somehow in flux due to an erratic malfunction, but beyond that nothing of their fate is known—to the public, anyway. Fueled in no small part by a hostile press, the Primarch’s Residence features in many of the most prominent conspiracy theories regarding the fate of Lord Gyr, but no two theories seem to agree as to its role in the mystery.
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