The Radiant Citadel
Gathering Place of Strangers and Stories
Against the unending mist and unseen terrors of the Ethereal Plane, the Radiant Citadel stands bright as a bastion of hope. It’s a living relic of the ingenuity and collaboration of twenty-seven great civilizations. Abandoned and lost for ages, the Citadel was resurrected from its slumber and reclaimed by descendants of those societies, though some peoples remain missing. The city serves as a nexus of diplomacy and trade, a repository of histories and secrets, and a thriving sanctuary for those seeking safety or a better life.
The Radiant Citadel is a miracle of architecture, a floating city carved out of a single, massive fossil that snakes around a colossal gemstone shard known as the Auroral Diamond. The luminescence of the Auroral Diamond is mirrored in the constellation of fifteen structure-sized gemstones, the Concord Jewels, which orbit the city and provide transportation to the far-flung homes of the Citadel’s founding civilizations. In the haze of the Ethereal Plane, the Auroral Diamond is a scintillating beacon visible from leagues away. The diamond itself seems to have moods, changing colors unpredictably, but it is always visible for wanderers lost and in need. Just beyond the city whirls a massive, ever-threatening, ethereal cyclone known as The Keening Gloom—a looming threat that’s a grim reminder of the Citadel’s precarious position.
Heroes and paupers meet on equal footing in the Radiant Citadel. By common agreement, power and resources are equitably shared. Dignity is afforded to all, and great need is met with great aid.
Map
Geography
The Radiant Citadel is a testament to a lost age of extraordinary magic and mythical beasts. The city rises from a gargantuan fossil, and every road and building has been carved from it. The Citadel is a place of beauty and wonder, with a vast array of vegetation and a multitude of sites and inhabitants.
Localized Phenomena
The Auroral Diamond’s illumination provides strong protection. It radiates bright light throughout the city and dim light 1,000 feet beyond the city’s borders. This light is akin to sunlight, which many natives of the Ethereal Plane and evil Undead abhor.
History
Two hundred and fifty years ago, the great brass dragon Sholeh undertook a quest to find the Radiant Citadel. For millennia, the dragons of her lineage had recounted tales of its glory. As threats loomed on the horizon, Sholeh looked to the legend of the Radiant Citadel as salvation.
Sholeh gathered a mighty expeditionary force of adventurers from the civilizations she believed originally created the Radiant Citadel. Their travels took them across perilous planes and to distant worlds, and many died or gave up in despair. Only a quarter of the heroes who set out completed Sholeh’s quest, but the adventurers’ sacrifices were rewarded. In the depths of the Ethereal Plane, the Radiant Citadel lay dormant and abandoned by all but the Incarnates of the Preserve of the Ancestors. Yet it was undiminished in its grandeur, waiting for its inheritors to reawaken its power for a new era.
Some scholars studying the Radiant Citadel’s origins posit that the Citadel is a relic of the mythical First World and was a vital center of diplomacy between great cultures before a cataclysm shattered that world. Others speculate that it was a fortress, a refuge, or even a weapon in a war that transpired in the last days of the First World. Thus far, the Dawn Incarnates have declined to answer scholars’ questions on the subject.