Nireau
Cultural and Governmental Heart of the New Rozsan Empire
History
Nireau was the namesake of the Empire's most powerful Lichlord and God-Empress, Nir. While the great city's exact dimensions are impossible to know for sure, based on surviving texts it was likely the second-largest civilization of its age, next to the great Kelpeater hub-city of Alanthan'aravaut. Based on archaeological evidence, it likely spanned most of the upper Gamma Quadrant and lower Delta Quadrants.The Deluge
Nireau was largely destroyed by the Deluge save for its most elevated, Voidward peripheries, which form a small crescent of islands straddling the boundary between the Gamma and Delta Quadrants, as well as a Coreward sliver of mainland Gondara. The islands include the Autumn Isles, Aukslanding & its satellites, the Islands of Agåntyr and an uninhabited stretch of crags Coreward of the Firstsongs. On Gondara, the Nireauan origins of ancient cities like Fauregand and Caer Gormengast is apparent to architectural historians.Third Age
Numerous Nireauan citadels may be found among these stretches of lingering Nireauan infrastructure, highly susceptible to hauntings after the destruction of the lost necrocracy. Cultural relations with these hauntings range from tense coexistence (e.g. the Autumn Enari and some Claðs of Agåntyr) to outright supernatural civil war (e.g. the Gondaran city-states).
The Noa-Aina-Koroa have it the worst: the most historically tenacious of Nireau's rivals, the Firstsong Islands were cursed with eternal scorn by the Necrocracy in their death throes, effectively making the Firstsongs a beacon for the vengeful dead. The modern Noa-Aina-Koroa are now a solemn and vigilant people, experts at defending their ancient homes from ghosts and worse things, hopeful that one day the Curse of the Lichlords will be broken.Imagery
See also: Image Gallery of Nireau (external)Unlike the Kelpeaters (who did not often print non-military texts, and whose architecture is mostly known from ruins), large volumes of Rozsan and Nireauan writings remain on matters of art and architecture, and as such Third Age scholars have a relatively good idea of what New Rozsan cityscapes would have looked like. They had a fondness for ornate styles, with decorated friezes, statues, narrative art and especially conical or crown-shaped spires. Unlike the consistently geometric Kelpeater ziggurats and stacked, cubic townships, Rozsan architects were often highly experimentative, sometimes incorporating more flowing, natural shapes, often in the name of artistic harmony with the structure's surroundings.
Some Nireauan fortresses and temples remained in remarkably good shape throughout the Second Age, forming the core of truly ancient cities like Fauregand, Caer Gormengast and Valamon City.Society
While the empire would expand and contract over the following centuries, the twin nation states of Nireau and New Rozsa would comprise the cultural and governmental core of the empire; in fact Nireau was so influential that modern scholarship often uses the name interchangably with the New Rozsan Empire as a whole. This confusion is exacerbated mainly because Nireauan was the lingua franca of the empire, with the vast majority of surviving texts being in that language.
Nireau and Nefirot were utter marvels of architecture and statecraft. In addition to the genius of their twin god-emperors, the Rozsan colonies had two major tools at their disposal. The first was orihalcum, a crystalline substance that can nonetheless be planted and grows as if organic. The resulting tree-like and tower-like growths amplified the necro-oneiromantic magicks of the Lichlords while also dampening foreign magicks. The second is undead labour: at easily three times the living population, masked and silent undead workers were a common sight in Rozsan colonies. Only nobility could abstain from having their bodies used this way, and execution-reanimation was a punishment for many crimes.
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