Cities and Towns of Itharalis
Itharalis, the Realm of Ice, is home to two distinct cultures: the Sarnathi and the Nykrathi. Each has developed unique settlements that reflect their adaptations to the frozen landscape and their spiritual beliefs.
Sarnathi Settlements
The Sarnathi, known for their reverence of stillness and time, have established cities that serve as sanctuaries of preservation, each fulfilling a specific role in their cultural continuum.
- Iskar-Thal: The largest Sarnathi city, located atop the Shardplain. Its crystalline spires rise from a basin of slow-moving ice, encircling the Grand Archive—a living vault of preserved memory.
- Vauren-Voss: A citadel carved into the side of a fault-glacier, housing the Stillborn Circles—Sarnathi in voluntary dormancy serving as sentinels and historical anchors. Its halls are maintained in total silence, broken only by harmonic bells.
- Ysilin Hollow: A subterranean refuge beneath a wind-scoured ridge of broken ice. Known for its deep resonance chambers, it is home to Echo-Keepers who study the subtle vibrations of the past preserved in glacial layers.
- Tharrask Vein: An outpost near the Fractured Scar, where temporal disturbances surface irregularly. It serves as a research site and frontier guardian, housing cadres of Resonants who monitor and stabilize rifts in time-flow.
- Enclave of Varethis: A drifting settlement on a floating ice shelf that circles the coastline of Itharalis. It is home to itinerant thinkers, seasonal memory-gatherers, and those with unstable resonance, unable to remain anchored to any fixed cycle.
Nykrathi Settlements
The Nykrathi, adapted to the glacial depths and submerged cave systems of Itharalis, build their cities within the ice and rock, each settlement harmonizing with the natural vibrations and spiritual echoes of its location.
- Tarskhel’Zuun: The oldest and most sacred Nykrathi tunnelspire city, built within a submerged rift cavern lined with crystal chimes and calcite arches. It surrounds the legendary Echo-Pool, believed to carry the purest voice of Glacian.
- Vorr-Kaazhen: A militarized hive-city guarding the volcanic vent corridor beneath the Black Scar Glacier. Known for its warriors, resonance disruptors, and specialized frost-binders, it defends against deep threats that stir beneath the ice.
- Krelekh Hollow: A bioluminescent fungal basin colony that cultivates under-ice flora and hosts a secretive order of Dream-Scribes. These Nykrathi record chime-songs within liquid resonance archives—gel-like membranes that ripple with remembered voices.
- Shar’Molun: A minor outpost located near a glacial faultline, often used as a negotiation site for surface contact. Its outer chambers are fortified against tremors, maintaining a neutral stance among burrow-clans.
- The Ossuary Spires: A ceremonial necropolis-city where calcified remains of elders line the towering hive walls like silent saints. It serves as both archive and pilgrimage site for Nykrathi seeking ancestral guidance.
These settlements illustrate the diverse ways in which the inhabitants of Itharalis have adapted to their harsh environment, creating societies deeply intertwined with the ice-bound world they inhabit.