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Darujhistan

Page history last edited by Jamber 13 years, 2 months ago Saved with comment

Darujhistan

 

The legendary city of Genabackis. One of the largest cities to be found. A city of great wealth, it avoided falling to the Malazan Empire.

 


Features

 

Darujhistan is located in central Genebackis, on the southern coast of Lake Azur near to where the River Maiten meets the lake. To the east are the Gadrobi Hills and to the south is the Dwelling Plain. It is a city of roughly 300 000 people, mainly of Daru or Gadrobi heritage.

 

Beneath Darujhistan are caverns containing natural gas. The city is known for using the gas for public lighting, leading to its title as the City of Blue Fire. The gas is also used in industrial applications, such as blacksmithery. The gas is monitored and controlled by a secretive group called the Grayfaces. Publicly, the Grayfaces can be seen wandering the streets to light and douse the street lamps, though they are always covered by grey robes and do not speak.

 

Darujhistan is relatively remote from most of Genebackis. The closest cities are Saltoan, to the east beyond the Gadrobi Hills, and Pale, north of Lake Azur. Since this remoteness has kept Darujhistan peaceful, the city does not have a standing army and usually expresses neutrality in most international affairs.

 


Politics and Factions

 

Nobility

 

Darujhistan is an oligarchy, ruled by its large aristocracy . The formost of the nobles are the Councillors, who hold a seat on the city's political Council, which writes, debates and passes laws to govern the city. There is supposedly a degree of public scrutiny into the operations of the Council.

 

Noble Houses of Darujhistan:

 

Guilds

 

Many of the industries and professions in Darujhistan are managed by guilds. The guilds control their membership and Darujhistan law prohibits non-members of guilds from practicing. Some of the guilds, such as the guild of blacksmiths, are extremely bureaucratic, with complex and contradictory rules.

 

Of particular note, the Assassin's Guild represents the city' professional killers. Unlike most assassins' organizations, the guild in Darujhistan is openly known to most of the populace and recognized by the city's aristocracy. The Guild is a useful tool for the nobles by allowing them to warn and combat each other without amassing private armies that would damage the city itself.

 

 

The T'orrud Cabal

 

The mages and other magic practitioners of Darujhistan acknowledge the superiority and leadership of the T'orrud Cabal. The Cabal is a small group of mages that have lived since the days of the first Tyrant of Darujhistan. Officially, the Cabal has no political power in Darujhistan, but it occasionally takes action to safeguard its own interests or the city itself. The Cabal's leader is the alchemist Baruk, who pretends to be only an alchemist but is also a powerful mage and Ascendant.

 

 

The Eel

 

The Eel is a mysterious figure who runs a network of spies and informants throughout the city and beyond, using the gathered information in the best interests of Darujhistan itself.

 


History

 

Born on a Rumour

 

Roughly 300 000 years before Burn's Sleep, the Jaghut Tyrant Raest was subdued by a combination of other Jaghut and Imass (who performed the Ritual of Tellann at about this time and became T'lan Imass). Much of Raest's power was stripped of him and placed in a Finnest. Then the Jaghut entombed Raest, the Finnest and numerous other artifacts within a pocket warren of Omtose Phellack. The physical location providing entrance to the pocket warren is what came to be known much later as the Gadrobi Hills.

 

Approximately 850 years before Burn's Sleep, the knowledge and general location of Raest's barrow became known across Genebackis and many looters traveled to the Gadrobi Hills to try and locate the barrow and retrieve the valuable artifacts within. None of the looters ever succeeded in locating the barrow since it was within the Omtose Phellack pocket warren, but the looters' camps evolved into a small town that eventually grew into the city of Darujhistan.

 

 

The Tyrant's Rule

 

Later, when Darujhistan had grown into a large city, it was ruled by a dictator known as the Tyrant. It is unknown whether this ruler being named the Tyrant has any connection to the Jaghut Tyrant, Raest. The Tyrant enforced his rule with his own army of Seguleh and his personal mage cadre, the T'orrud Cabal.

 

It is unknown precisely how the Tyrant's rule ended, but it allowed for the possibility that the Tyrant would one day return to Darujhistan. The Seguleh left Darujhistan and traveled to an island near Morn. The T'orrud Cabal remained in the city and their involvement with the Tyrant was eventually forgotten by the general populace.

 

 

The Tyrant Kings

 

Following the Tyrant's rule, Darujhistan was governed by a succession of mortals called the Tyrant Kings. These rulers were a traditional monarchy, with each ruler being succeeded by their biological heirs if they were not supplanted by force. The last ruler was the Tyrant Queen Sandenay, who's father Ektalm had usurped Letastte.

 

 

The Last Free City

 

During the Malazan Empire's Genebackan Campaign, Darujhistan proclaimed itself as one of the Free Cities of Genebackis. Being far to the south of the original Malazan incursions, the city remained untouched for most of the campaign. After the end of the Siege of Pale, the flying fortress Moon's Spawn drifted to Darujhistan over Lake Azur and came to rest above the city. The Council of Nobles attempted to contact Moon Spawn's lord, Anomander Rake, but were unsuccessful. Instead, Rake contacted Baruk, head of the T'orrud Cabal and offered to help the alchemist plan the city's defense against the forthcoming Malazan incursion.

 

The Malazan Empire sent the Ninth Squad of the Bridgeburners, under Sergeant Whiskeyjack, to infiltrade Darujhistan. Disguised as a road repair crew, the Bridgeburners planted Moranth munitions at street intersections with the intent of later detonating them, throwing the city into disarray prior to a Malazan military force's arrival. Additionally, the Bridgeburners tried to make contact with the Assassin's Guild to offer a bounty on the city's rulers, but Rake sent his own Tiste Andii assasin-mages to eliminate the Assassin's Guild and prevent the Malazans from making contact.

 

Additionally, the Adjunct of the Malazan Empire, Lorn, along with the T'lan Imass First Sword, Onos T'oolan, released the Jaghut Tyrant Raest from his barrow in the Gadrobi Hills. Stealing the Jaghut's Finnest, Lorn infiltrated Darujhistan to lure Raest to the city, which would force Rake to engage the Jaghut Tyrant. The Empire hoped to exploit Rake's vulnerability after combating the Jaghut.

 

These events all culminated in a convergence during the city's Gedderone Festival. Lorn buried the Finnest at a fête hosted by Lady Simtal which was attended by most important personages of the city, including the most important nobility, some mages of the T'orrud Cabal, the Eel and Anomander Rake. The Bridgeburners were acting as estate guards at the fête, and managed to make contact with the Assassin's Guild master, Vorcan. They offered her the contract on the T'orrud Cabal, which she accepted.

 

Silanah and four veered Tiste Andii Soletaken Eleint flew east from Moon's Spawn to battle the approaching Raest, but were eventually overcome. Raest was transported into a dream world by the Eel, Kruppe, where the Elder God K'rul attempted to deter Raest, but instead the Jaghut Tyrant took posession of the T'orrud Cabal member Mammot at the fête. Baruk and Rake had already left the fête, leaving only a few mages remaining at the fête, who were incapable of defeating Raest. While the mages fought with Raest, Onos T'oolan and Captain Paran (who had joined the Bridgeburners earlier) fought the Finnest as it tried to escape a growing Azath in the estate's yard and rejoin with Raest. The Captain's Hound blood subdued the Finnest long enough for the Azath to take it. At the fête, the Bridgeburner Hedge destroyed Raest's body with a Moranth munition, and while the Jaghut was reforming its body the Azath reached out and took Raest into captivity.

 

With Raest defeated, the Bridgeburner sappers set out to detonate the mines in the city's intersections, while Rake cleared the revelling citizens from the city streets. Though Raest hadn't weakend Rake, Lorn unleashed the Empire's Galayn Lord to fight the Tiste Andii lord, anyways. Both Rake and the Galayn Lord veered into their Soletaken Eleint forms, battling in the air over the city and on the streets. While they battled, the Bridgeburner Corporal Kalam raced after the sappers, having realized from Raest's crater that the intersection mines would set off Darujhistan's natural gas conduits and destroy the entire city. Vorcan began eliminating members of the T'orrud Cabal until only Baruk, Derudan and herself remained. The battling Eleint sembled back into their natural forms and battled with weapons, eventually resulting in Anomander Rake killing the Galayn Lord with Dragnipur. The battle partially detroyed Baruk's defensive wards. Vorcan used the opportunity to assault Baruk and Derudan, but was knocked unconscious by Crokus Younghand, allowing all to escape unscathed.

 

 

The Pannion War

 

Shortly after the attempt at disarming the city's defenders during the Gedderone Festival was foiled the Malazan forces at Pale proclaimed their independence from the Empire. The former-Malazan forces, known as Onearm's Host, allied with Anomander Rake, Caladan Brood and other Genebackan forces to combat the Pannion Domin, a growing tyrannical nation to the southeast of Darujhistan. Darujhistan contributed funds and supplies to the forces, as argued by the new Councillor, Coll, who had developed good relations with the Bridgeburners during the events surrounding the Gedderone Festival.

 


References:

 

Darujhistan: Legendary city on Genabackis, largest and most influential of the Free Cities, situated on the south shore of Lake Azur and peopled mainly by Daru and Gadrobi populations; the only known city to use natural gas as an energy source. - GotM, Glossary

 

"They had a mission ahead of them, one that would take them right into the heart of Darujhistan. The city was the next on the Empire's list, the last Free City, the continent's lone gem worthy enough to covet." - GotM, US HC, p.122

 

"Darujhistan – the greatest city in the world." - GotM, UK TPB, p.71

 

"His mission this night had been as a Roamer, patrolling the city's rooftops which, except for the occasional thief, were the assassin's sole domain, the means by which they traveled the city for the most part undetected. The rooftops provided their routes on missions of unsanctioned political...activities or the continuation of a feud between two Houses, or the punishment for betrayal. The Council ruled by day under public scrutiny; the Guild ruled by night, unseen, leaving no witnesses. It had always been this way, since Darujhistan first rose on the shores of Lake Azur." - GotM, US HC, p.140

 

"...The T'orrud Cabal – Darujhistan’s secret rulers..." - GotM, UK TPB, p.323

 

Population

 

'There are three hundred thousand people in Darujhistan' - GotM, UK TPB, p.477

 

Darujhistan and Environs

 

Despot’s Barbican:      an ancient edifice and remnant of the Age of Tyrants

Hinter’s Tower:   an abandoned sorcerer’s tower in the Noble District

Jammit’s Worry:    the east road

Krul's Belfry/Temple:  an abandoned temple in the Noble District

Phoenix Inn: a popular haunt in the Daru District

Quip’s Bar: a ramshackle bar in the Lakefront District.

The Estates (the Houses)

The Old Palace (Majesty Hall): present site of the Council

Worrytown: the slum outside the wall on Jammit’s Worry' - GotM, Glossary

 

"From the wharf sprawled along the shore of the lake, upward along the stepped tiers of the Gadrobi and Daru Districts, among the temple complexes and the Higher Estates, to the summit of Majesty Hill where gathers the city’s Council, the rooftops of Darujhistan presented flat tops, arched gables, coned towers, belfries and platforms crowded in such chaotic profusion as to leave all but the major streets for ever hidden from the sun. The torches marking the more frequented alleyways were hollow shafts that gripped pumice stones with fingers of blackened iron. Fed through ancient pitted copper pipes, gas hissed balls of flame around the porous stones, an uneven fire that cast a blue and green light. The gas was drawn from great caverns beneath the city and channelled by

massive valves...For nine hundred years the breath of gas had fed at least one of the city’s districts." - GotM, UK TPB, p.130-1

 

"The D'Arle estate was third from the summit of Old K'rul's Avenue, which climbed the first of the inner city's hills to a circular court tangled with weeds and irregular, half-buried dolmens. Opposite the court rose K'rul Temple, its ancient stones latticed with cracks and entombed in moss." - GotM, US HC, p.140

 

"Inland from Gadrobi District’s harbour the land rose in four tiers climbing eastward. Ramped cobblestone streets, worn to a polished mosaic, marked Gadrobi District’s Trade Streets, five in all, which were the only routes through Marsh District and into the next tier, Lakefront District. Beyond Lakefront’s crooked aisles twelve wooden gates opened on to Daru District, and from Daru another twelve gates – these ones manned by the City Watch and barred by iron portcullis – connected the lower and upper cities.

On the fourth and highest tier brooded the estates of Darujhistan’s nobility as well as its publicly known sorcerers. At the intersection of Old King’s Walk and View Street rose a flat-topped hill on which sat Majesty Hall, where each day the Council gathered. A narrow park encircled the hill, with sand-strewn pathways winding among centuries-old acacias. At the park’s entrance, near High Gallows Hill, stood a massive rough-hewn stone gate, the last-surviving remnant of the castle that once commanded Majesty Hill.

The days of kings had long since ended in Darujhistan. The gate, known as Despot’s Barbican, stood stark and unadorned, its lattice of cracks a fading script of past tyranny." - GotM, UK TPB, p.143, US HC, p.148-9

 

Majesty Hall

"A massive stone disc in Majesty Hall marked the Cycle of the Age, naming each year in accordance with its mysterious moving mechanisms." - GotM, US HC, p.402

 

"His gaze traveled the slope there as it climbed to the summit, on which loomed the squat bulk of Majesty Hall." - GotM, US HC, p.168

 

Quip's Bar

"Crouched against the Second Tier Wall on the Lakefront side was Quip's Bar, a common haunt of shipmen and fisher-hands. The bar's walls were cut sandstone, and over time the whole edifice had developed a backward lean, as if withdrawing from the front street. Quip's now sagged against the Second Tier Wall, as did the adjoining squatter shacks constructed mostly of driftwood and hull planks washed ashore from the occaisional wreck out on Mole's Reef." - GotM, US HC, p.268

 

History

 

"...It has managed to survive three thousand years." - GotM, UK TPB, p.320

 

"Darujhistan was born on a rumor. Among the indigenous Gadrobi hill tribes survived the legend that a Jaghut's barrow lay somewhere in the hills. Now, the Jaghut were possessors of great magic, creaters of secret Warrens and items of power. Over time the Gadrobi legend made its way beyond the hills, into the Genebackan north and the Catlin south, to kingdoms since crumbled to dust in the east and west. In any case, searchers came to the hills, at first a trickle then hordes - entire tribes led by power-hungry shamans and warlocks. Every hillside was laced with trenches and bore-holes. From the camps and shantytowns, from thousands of treasure-seekers arriving each spring, a city was born." -Mammot - GotM, US HC, p.263

 

Tyrant Kings  

 

The Tyrant Kings: the ancient rulers of Darujhistan - GotM, glossary

 

"'The history of Darujhistan,’ he said. ‘I am just beginning the fifth volume, which opens with the reign of Ektalm, second to last of the Tyrant Kings...Usurper of Letastte and succeeded by his daughter, Sandenay, who brought on the Rising Time and with it the end of the age of tyrants."  - GotM, UK TPB, p.271

 

The Wheel of Ages  

"A massive stone disc in Majesty Hall marked the Cycle of the Age, naming each year in accordance with its mysterious moving mechanisms...the wheel was in fact a machine. It had been a gift to Darujhistan over a thousand years ago, by a man named Icarium." - GotM, UK TPB, p.420

 

Grayfaces  

"For nine hundred years the breath of gas had fed at least one of the city's districts. Though pipes had been sundered by raging tenement fires and gouts of flame reached hundreds of feet into the sky, the Grayfaces had held on, twisting the shackles and driving their invisible dragon to its knees." - GotM, US HC, p.138

 

"Throughout Darujhistan the Grayfaces prepared to shut the valves feeding gas to the torches lining the major avenues. These figures moved in small groups, gathering at intersections then dispersing with the day's first bell." - GotM, US HC, p.305

 

"In the street, the Grayfaces moved through the noisy crowd like silent specters, lighting the gas-lamps with long-poled sparkers. Some people, brazen with drink, hugged the figures and blessed them. The Grayfaces, hooded and anonymous, simply bowed in reply and continued on their way once freed." GotM, US HC, p.425

 

The Collected Works of

 

Pauper's Stone

 

The night held close

as I wandered

my spirit unfooted

to either earth or stone

unraveled from tree

undriven by iron nail

but like the night itself

a thing of air

stripped of light

so I came upon them,

those masons who cut and carved

stone in the night

sighting by stars and battered hand

'What of the sun?' asked I of them.

'Is not its cloak of revelation

the warmth of reason

in your shaping?'

And one among them answered,

'No soul can withstand

the sun's bones of light

and reason dims

when darkness falls -

so we shape our barrows in the night

for you and your kin.'

'Forgive my interruption, then,' said I.

'The dead never interrupt,' said the mason,

'they but arrive.'

Pauper's Stone

Darujhistan

GotM, US HC, p.251 

 

Return to Genabackis

Return to Geography

Return to The Collected Works of

 

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