Ikaria

Oh, sons of Ikaros who long ruled the world, see now your city burned to the ground, a ghost, a shadow of its former self, punished by the gods for their sinful and arrogant monarchs who were so blind to the menace that was coming that when common sense reached them it was too late. Oh Mother of all the great cities, what destiny awaits you?, will the dark clouds dissapear and let the blue sky and the bright sun shine your marble buildings? , shall the now sorrowful sons of the great Ikarians called you mother again?

— Lament for the sack and fall of Ikaria, by Niketas of Murnum, ca.610 AP

Ikaria has certainly seen better times, once the capital of the Ikarian Empire a proud metropolis, perhaps alongside Sakouramish in the Seris Empire , the largest city in the known world with near half a million inhabitants, now its a modest sized city.

Founding

Legend tells us that the city was founded around 1200 BP when the first Ikarians arrived to the region looking for a place to settle a priest saw a meteorite falling during a night. The Ikarians believed it was a sign of Abbon Shabai, the father of all the gods, that the city must be founded there, and obbeying the divine commands, they founded the city near the impact crater. New waves of Ikarians arrived to the region, many settled in the city, others found cities nearby, but Ikaria seems to have been the hegemon among these networks of Ikarian settlements in a sort of confederation that evolved into the Ikarian Empire that we all know.
The city was ruled by kings that acted as the leaders of the confederation and that were elected by representatives of the other cities (that over the course of the centuries became the Ikarian Senate), that later own assumed the title of Rigas, the Emperor of the Ikarians.

Development of the city

As the Empire expanded for the next 800 years the city grew larger from people from the provinces. Several Emperors built new public buildings like temples, public squares, gardens, baths, libraries etc. Ikaria became a cosmopolitan city with several Elven, Seris and Liwali neighbourhoods. The city also became a really important religious centre for the Ikarians due to its Great Temple, probably the biggest religious building in the known world, home to countless relics from mythical heroes and from the gods themselves (like the crown that Abbon Shabai gifted to Tyr when they were married, a bow used by Zerah during the War of the Gods as well as one of her fan made of craven feathers).
This role was even reinforced at the turn of the current era, after the Prophet Blatiqusqui ( the Avatar of the god Abbon Shabai itself according to the Ikarians/Blatians) taught his message across the land. Ikaria became one of the few cities that saw the preaching of the Prophet and in consequence there were a lot of places, especially public squares and gardens related to his preaching, and thus, many more temples in his honour were built inside the city walls. The preaching of this important historical figure had also an impact on the great temple where a lot of relics related to the Prophet were added to the existing ones and each year, hundreds of thousands of pilgrims came to the city to venerate the relics of the gods and the Prophet.
By the late 200s AP, Ikaria had an impressive Imperial Palace (with two temples, a monastery, three gardens and two libraries, one for books written in Ikarian and the other for books written in Elvish), around twelve temples, 4 big monasteries, two impressive aqueducts, 3 forums, a hippodrome with capacity for 250,000 people and many more impressive buildings, including an academy of magic.

A traumatic siege

In Autumn 460 AP the city was conquered and sacked by a coalition of Nords, Crorai and Nomads from the West that let the city in a semi-ruinous state. Around 40% of its inhabitants manage to flee the city before its fall as well as much of the relics and books stored in libraries, temples and monasteries. But after the siege most of its prestigious and splendorous buildings were destroyed, vandalized. For example the temples were deprived of the gold and silver decoration, the altar of the sacrifices and libations was used as a dining table by the barbarian soldiers, the statues at gardens and the public squares were either, destroyed, melted or sent to the north as war trophies. The paintings at the porticoes of the Imperial palace stopped receiving the maintenance they needed and therefore many deteriorated very quickly. The sacking officially lasted three days, but over the course of decades the city decayed even more. Ikaria was the capital of a barbarian (of Crorai origins) ruled kingdom from its fall in 460 AP to until 654 AP when the city was reconquered by the Blatian Empire (further legitimizing its claim to be the only real continuation of the former Ikarian Empire).
By that time, Ikaria was not a proper city but a network of little villages inside the city walls and around the ruins of the Great Temple. Local Ikarians even made a new wall around the area of the great temple made up from stones from destroyed monuments and even from the Imperial palace. The local city council (not the Senate, because the Senate had theoretically moved on to Blati met at a tower of the old walls. At its lowest point, the city had around 10.000 inhabitants.

A slow recovery

After 654 AP the Blatian Emperors consciously decided to restore some of the former glory to the city. They began a policy of resettling people from the nearby villages to the city, excepting them from paying taxes for 20 years. Numerian IV, settled in the city some 60 families from the former kingdom of Sagus in 714 AP and restored the two aqueducts of the city as well as 2 of the 3 forums of the city. He is considered by the locals as the "Second founder of Ikaria". Nowadays the city has a population of around 98.000 inhabitants, still far from the half a million of its days of glory, but quite a modest population for an Ikarian city. Today Ikaria is also the base of one of the field armies of the Blatian Empire and an important trade centre that connects the trade routes between the Peninsula of Moria and the Kallian Plains, adding even a bit more prosperity and importance to this old city.
Nowadays Ikaria plays a more symbolic role for the Blatian Empire and its Emperor rather than political or religious. As it has been said the Senate, the Emperor and the Court moved to the better defended and more prosperous Blati and the religious importance of its centuries old Great Temple has been replaced by its homonymous at Blati, where old the relics stored in the old temple are located today. The city is still a centre of pilgrimage with again hundreds of thousands of pilgrims coming to the city in order to pray and visit the places where the Prophet preached as well as its beautiful restored monasteries and temples.

Founding Date

ca.1200 BP

Type

City

Population

98.000

Related Ethnicities

• The Ikarians

Inhabitant Demonym

Ikarians

Owner/Ruler

David I, Emperor of Blati

Owning Organization

The Blatian Empire

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