Tharn's Clan

City of Angels, City of Light

Shrouded in a veil of antiquity, the ancient city of Val ar Aion is a place out of time, a sanctuary from the ravages of conflict and progress. Protected by the Brighthammer's Peace, it serves as a waypoint for pilgrims on their journey to the Beacon, guided by the glittering spires and the call of distant clarions across rolling hills of gold: a place of healing and learning flourishing midst the ashes of three thousand years of war. A scar that her denizens, with their peculiar longevity, should not soon forget, and yet there is a forgetfulness that hangs over the City of Lamps- a haze of nostalgia that renders suffering a half-remembered dream.

Throughout its storied history, the kingdom in the ruins has taken many names: Val-ar-Aion, the City of Lamps, the Summer Country. This last is perhaps the most paradisaical, untouched by winter and suspended in the golden season of youth, where time moves slow as honey, like the wide and sluggish river that runs through it. When the long nights off the Hewn City take hold, thousands of Sacridite lanterns alight amidst the evening prayer, driving back a deep and unnatural darkness: here, it takes its name as the City of Lamps, the last bulwark against a threat that must remain buried.

Despite the land's elysian reputation, danger still lurks in the shadows of the ruins. The City itself is a palimpsest, built upon the bones of fallen cities dating back to the Second Age- and older still, a darkness deep below. Of all the laws the kingdom has accumulated across the ages, there are two most particular that her denizens insist on: do not delve too deep, and do not stray from the light.