Eternal City

The Eternal City is the second-largest Amrikh ruin in Akshus, after the City of the Dead. It was once the capital of the Amrikh Empire, but today it remains as a monument to their hubris and sins, a ruin plagued by the restless dead, remains of ancient necromantic magics and hives of desert monsters.

Purpose / Function

The Eternal City was once the capital of the Amrikh empire and the center of culture in southern Dain, encompassing Akshus, Sceya and Whiesia. It was from there that the Amrikhi kings ruled over their subjects, a metropolis with collosal monuments built by slaves and with the crimson of ritual sacrifice splashing every surface.

Alterations

In the 5000 years since the fall of the Amrikh empire, the Eternal City has been consumed by the desert sands. Only small parts of the city are above the sand at any time now, and all but the greatest monuments have been covered at some points in the last millennia, as the winds have moved the dunes back and forth.
Today the Eternal City is a dead city, only the facsimile of life existing in the city in the form of cruel shades and revenants that walk from across the veil to Shadowfell. Many desert monsters also make their lairs in the Eternal City, where Akshusian tribespeople will not bother them for fear of angering the undead.

Architecture

The Eternal City is a city of grand buildings, palaces, monuments and statue. Most are made with the sandstone native to Akshus, but many are made from more exotic stones or composites of many stonetypes, to show wealth enough for the commissioner to pay for the transport of such stones. There are many statues of Amrikhi kings and of the two gods: the Sun and the Moon, often represented by a hawks.
Grandest of building in the Eternal City is the Palace: a mountain of a building and a city unto itself, from where the kings ruled and where Sa'nakt himself sat when he commanded the might of the Amrikh. Large parts of it are covered in sands, but it rises above the rest like a mountain, with the Hall of the King deep in its bowels. Today it is haunted by the ghosts of those who died there towards the end of the Empire, and several powerful monsters have claimed it as lair.

Defenses

Originally the Eternal City was the home of the Sun Guard, the elite of the Amrikhi army. After the collapse however, the Eternal City has had no formal defenses, only the rumors of curses among Akshusians and the fierce animosity of the spirits and ghosts that still reside in the city, as well as the monsters that lurk among the ruins and dunes.

Type

Ruins