This strange locale gets its name not from the fact that the valley can’t be seen (it can easily be seen) but because an invisible, multifaceted shield surrounds it. The shield is curved and bows inward toward the top, which is open. It is about 300 feet (91 m) high, like a massive fence. Within the shield—and thus, within the vale—the temperature is moderate. Snowfall within the shield turns to rain, although the vale gets most of its moisture from a pair of rivers that form as nearby snow and ice slowly melt and flow underground, coming into the valley from the north.
The Invisible Vale is an island of
temperate climate in a land of ice and snow. Understandably, it is coveted territory. However, the shield makes it difficult to enter the vale. There is only one entrance (other than the underground rivers), and it is well guarded by soldiers loyal to Darcadian Everlar, the master of Cyanachor.
Stanae Rimn, a numenera scholar, believes that at one time in the distant past, the area within the shield was far warmer,
In the Steadfast and throughout Matheunis, legends tell of caves of ice that one can travel through to find an impossible, warm, pleasant land—almost a paradise—far to the south, with a fabulous city at its center. These tales probably arose from talk of Cyanachor and the Invisible Vale. The shield around the vale is a level 9 barrier.
Shield guard: level 3; Armor 1
creation devices called the fabrication pits, they can produce any substance that they are familiar with and can make any relatively simple object for which they have the specifications. Thus, they can create a mass of stone bricks, multiple sheets of metal, or many wooden crates filled with hammers and nails.
The leader of the guild is a lattimor named Joran-Orsk. He is one of the very few of his kind in the entire region. He knows that the best thing he can do for his guild is to work with Darcadian. Joran-Orsk believes that his group is powerful enough to let him maintain a partnership with the city’s de facto leader. In this way, he deludes himself. Darcadian pulls all the strings, and if Joran-Orsk doesn’t do everything he is told, the tyrant will support some other guild member who wishes to replace the lattimor. Cyanachor Military: Despite being an artist’s city, Cyanachor has a sizable military force. It defends the city and the valley, but it also allows Darcadian to keep his tight grip on power. To keep up appearances, the military’s presence within city limits is subdued, with a greater concentration of troops in Mylof or the Forestead.
Darcadian also has a well-trained group of assassins and spies. These agents travel far and wide, gathering information and eliminating enemies throughout the valley and the larger region.
LEA
Lea is a village of about 1,500 people built on the bank of the Sudden River. The people are farmers and fishers, and they use the river to get to the valley’s other village, Mylof, from time to time.
MYLOF
This village is home to about six hundred people, but it also has a garrison of another four hundred soldiers next to it. The village is small and simple, with wooden buildings with thatched roofs. The garrison is a two- story stone structure with a group of long wooden buildings around it.
The villagers fish in Unfrozen Lake and work in the surrounding fields.
The city’s population numbers almost 35,000, making it almost certainly the largest city south of the Southern Wall, and very likely the largest south of Rarmon, capital of the Pytharon Empire in the Steadfast. Those who reach Cyanachor are surprised to find such a large and bustling city south of the wall, but the unique nature of the Invisible Vale makes it possible.
Although the source of the city’s food and water is obvious, the source of its other resources remains decidedly more mysterious to outsiders. How does a city in a secluded valley far from any other place, surrounded by nothing but tundra, get building materials, artistic supplies, books, metal for tools and weapons, and everything else that Cyanachor has in abundance? How can a place like that be so wealthy?
The answer: deep below the ground, in vast limestone caverns, fabrication pits produce whatever the city needs. The technicians who tend these pits, known as the Guild of Makers, are some of the most influential and wealthy people in Cyanachor. And they, in turn, are controlled by Darcadian Everlar.
Darcadian Everlar: Darcadian takes no title and rarely uses his surname. He prefers that others use his name as if they were all friends and equals. But this is a facade. Darcadian is a tyrant with absolute power in the city of Cyanachor and the surrounding valley. Tall, suave, and handsome, he is always well dressed and even-tempered. Friendly and smiling, he is a genius who constantly schemes to maintain and—if possible—improve his position. Darcadian is a patron of the arts of his city, an administrator, and a military commander (although not a soldier).
Ultimately, Darcadian’s goals include taking over Warmhome and even Arxil one day, uniting the entire region south of the Southern Wall into a single kingdom under his rule. The Guild of Makers: The Guild of Makers is a powerful group of learned individuals who essentially make life in Cyanachor—at least as it is currently enjoyed—possible. Through the use of the powerful matter-
Darcadian Everlar: level 7, perception and persuasion as level 8; possesses numerous cyphers, including a force field that provides Armor 5, a teleporter, and a level 10 ray emitter. Cyanachor assassin: level 4, subterfuge and ranged attacks as level 6; health 16; Armor 1; typically carries a variety of level 4 poisons with effects that range from paralysis to 4 points of damage (of various kinds) Joran-Orsk: level 5, perception as level 6 Rarmon, page 162
SURULIATH
Few things live in the wide expanse of tundra that is Suruliath. The land is generally colder and even more desolate than the Urulivan Plain.
Some people call Suruliath the Stabbing Plains due to the periodic eruption of crystal shards that burst through the ice and snow with great force. These shards pose a great danger. If caught in a burst event, which lasts about a minute, a character might need to make two to four Speed defense rolls during that time. The crystals that break through the ground can be as small as spears or as large as 20 to 30 feet (6 to 9 m) tall and 3 or 4 feet (0.9 m to 1.2 m) across. Just as strangely, the crystals turn to a fine powder after a few hours of exposure to the sun.