Pyre

Profile¶

Kind: Subterranean fortress-city
Founded: Ancient, first raised as a Keeper work-city and later kept alive around Ar
Size: Extensive but sparsely inhabited
Environment: Deep inside Grungred
Government: Mokdath the Oathless rules as Warden, without recognition as Oathwarden
Military: A fortress guard supported by Crawlers, Outwalkers, and controlled military necromancers
Overall condition: The inhabited core is harsh but maintained. Older chambers are abandoned, sealed, or unsafe.
Known for: Ar, the living pillar of fire

Geography¶

Pyre descends through Grungred rather than spreading across one level. Its coldest approaches lie far from Ar. The passages grow warmer toward the inhabited core, then dangerously hot around the lava pool and the deepest forges.

The entrance: A large amethyst door closes the main approach through Grungred. A guardian stands there. The air is often bitterly cold so far from the fire.
Water: Aquifers above the city feed channels, farms, cisterns, and a constructed waterfall that descends into deeper caverns.
Outside features: Abandoned dwarf fortresses surround Grungred. Pyre's records do not say which were deserted and which died.

Layout¶

Fortification: Heavy. The amethyst entrance, fortress gates, narrow passages, and controlled drops make a direct assault difficult.
Underground: The entire city is underground. Active districts occupy old Keeper chambers, while mines, sealed passages, and abandoned works extend beyond them.

Districts¶

Main Fortress¶

The main fortress is the seat of the Warden, the guard, and the offices that allocate work and supplies.

Places: Warden's hall, guild hall, barracks, stores, and the chamber holding the Bone Throne
Services: The main tavern

Lava Pool¶

The hottest and most restricted part of Pyre surrounds Ar and the lava pool.

The temple: Stands above the lava pool.
The Foundry: Holds Ar, who stands there as the Fundamental and a pillar of fire.
The Weight: The artifact that keeps Ar in Pyre and protects its inhabited passages from creatures emerging from the depths.
Communal forges: Draw on the heat of the lava pool.
Sealed forges: Supplied with deep air from Grungred’s vents.
Access: Controlled by the Warden's soldiers and religious offices.
Sacrifices: Most are dangerous creatures kept at bay by the Ashduar, usually giants, ettins, and cyclopes. They are brought here alive and dropped into the lava.

Waterworks¶

The Watermans maintain the aqueducts and their controls, cisterns, waterfall works, and warm-water farm channels. Safe rooms throughout the inhabited city release stored water onto fires.

Risk: A failed gate can starve a district of water or flood the chambers below it.

Farm Caverns¶

Warm-water farms grow vegetables and herbs. Other chambers hold mushrooms, the Vine, insects, underground honey bees, and the animals used in tunnel work.

The Granary: Holds the food stocked for the city and serves as the sacred place of the Middle Sister.

The Cliff and Deep Cemetery¶

The Cliff: A very long stair marking the entrance to the mine depths and the descent into Deepness.
The Dramaturg: Stored at the Cliff. The Ashduar call it Forgenmelt.
The Deep Cemetery: A huge lower-city cemetery filled with tombs and memorials. Some routes remain maintained even where the surrounding chambers have been abandoned.

The Keep¶

Dwarves enter the Keep through punishment or shame, or in the hope of surviving severe injury or illness. The Older Sister oversees their transformation into Forlorn.

Necromancer Towers¶

The military supervises its sanctioned necromancers. Practitioners too unstable to remain within Pyre occupy towers beyond the active districts.

Government & Power¶

Leadership:

Mokdath the Oathless: Warden of Pyre.
The Hammerer: One of the Brothers, serving as judge of serious disputes and crimes.
The vacant Oath: Pyre has a Warden but no recognized Oathwarden because Mokdath never swore the Oath. Every order therefore rests on necessity, force, or personal loyalty rather than complete religious legitimacy.

Governing priorities:

Focus: Keep Ar contained, maintain the Weight's warding, preserve food and water, and prevent uncontrolled necromancy.
Approach: Offices receive authority according to what the city cannot survive without.
Success: Pyre endures, but much of its old extent remains lost and every major system has a human cost.

The powers that matter:

The religious offices: Guard the Oath, the temple, and the rites surrounding Ar.
Watermans: Control the aqueducts and the emergency systems that keep fires from consuming inhabited districts.
Military necromancers: Sustain the Weight's warding through constant effort.
Burrowers: Open routes and shape the deepest stone, though the strongest uses of their power kill them.

Military:

Crawlers fight in the deep, where ordinary formations cannot move safely.
Outwalkers cross the eternal blizzard beyond Grungred and return with news of distant peoples and threats.
Military necromancers support the guard.
Guard duty is often given to Forlorn.

Economy¶

Market:

Pyre has no open market for outsiders. Food, fuel, metal, and labor are distributed through fortress offices, guilds, and household exchange.
Hefts and captured artifacts carry standing because of the deeds attached to them, not because they can be sold for wealth.

Trade & Resources:

Produces: Ironmound and steel weapons, armor, tools, Hefts, fungi, the Vine, insects, and underground honey
Infrastructure: Geothermal heat melts glacier water, warms farms, cooks food, and powers the forges
Scarcity: Food remains the city's narrowest limit. Pyre has no dependable outside supply.

Society¶

Culture: Ashduar, bound by the Oath and the demand that the living endure
Population density: Crowded in the maintained core and nearly empty in the abandoned reaches
Demographics: Ashduar form the living population. Forlorn remain among them as workers and servants of the Oath.
Wealth: Uneven but austere. Standing comes from service, ancestors, offices, and Hefts more than private comfort.
Visitors: Outsiders are almost unknown. Even returning Outwalkers are watched until their reports and condition are understood.
After dark: Most of Pyre never receives daylight. During the annual Night of No Flame, Ar’s pillar dims and the Ashduar extinguish the city’s other fires.
Law & crime: The worst offenders are Cinerated in the lava. Being Muddled and used as fertilizer is a common punishment. Offenders may also be sent on the Leave or enter the Keep.

Religion¶

Dominant faith: The Religion of the Depth, joined to the Oath that holds the Ashduar together
Ar: The Ashduar hate Ar but depend on his warmth. He demands living fuel, and failure of his rites would threaten the city’s survival.
Notable places of worship: The temple above the lava pool and the Deep Cemetery

Relations¶

Ashduar: Pyre is their main city, seat of the Warden, and center of the Oath.
Grungred: The mountain shelters Pyre, supplies its water and metal, and also confines it behind cold, dangerous approaches.
Outside peoples: Pyre has no normal exchange with them. Outwalkers observe them, while the Oath still calls for revenge against humanity.

History¶

Pyre began as an important Keeper work-city far beneath Grungred. Some say Brilliance still worked in its depths during the transition to Nebula, which was weaker beneath the earth.

The Keeper bred an obedient workforce in Pyre and sent its dwarves to other mountains. After his departure, only those inside Pyre survived the cold because they kept Ar. Much of the city later became abandoned, sealed, or unsafe.

Drugar, the first Oathwarden, ruled Pyre for centuries. Mokdath killed him and took control of the city.

The Leave¶

When Pyre could no longer feed its population, households drew lots for the Leave. Those selected were sent beyond Grungred with supplies, but no promise that they would ever be allowed back.

Legend & Lore¶

Old demons remain trapped in stone around the mines. Miners disagree on whether breaking the rock releases them or merely gives them a body.
Abandoned chambers are said to contain the results of necromancer experiments. Some stories are warnings invented to keep children out. Others have tracks.
The Deep Cemetery contains memorials for fortresses whose fate is no longer recorded. A name may survive even when nobody knows whether its people fled or died.

Notable People¶

Mokdath the Oathless: Current Warden, a former soldier and necromancer known for his rock-bone helm and blue dye.
Tein: A vampire Mokdath cared for but sent away because he was afraid of her. She has not returned.
Twub: Doctor and former chief of the guard.
Lorvath: Necromancer who leads an elite troop.
Mafren: Commands Pyre's army and one of its elite troops.
The main tavern keeper: A captured Aelf who now lives happily within the main fortress.

Currents¶

Mokdath is capturing rocs and trying to train them after a roc killed his son.
Ar continues to demand living fuel, forcing the city to capture dangerous creatures around Grungred.
Ish remains in a small valley between mountains at the edge of Grungred, where she made her home inside a geode. She can leave it and roam nearby, close enough to threaten the Ashduar and seek Ar.
Results from the uncontrolled necromancer towers have been seen near inhabited passages at night.
Food production holds, but another serious failure would force Pyre to consider the Leave again.
Mokdath’s small private necromancer circle answers to him rather than to the military, deepening mistrust around his rule.