Pyre

Profile

• Kind: Subterranean fortress-city
• Founded: Ancient, first raised as a Keeper work-city and later kept alive around Ar
• Size: Large in extent but sparsely inhabited, with active districts occupying only part of the older caverns
• Environment: Deep inside Grungred, descending from cold outer passages to a volcanic core
• Government: Mokdath the Oathless rules as Warden, without recognition as king or 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, and the ancient city kept alive around him

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 volcano mouth 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 is kept by a captured Aelf who now lives there happily

Volcano Mouth

The hottest and most restricted part of Pyre surrounds Ar and the volcano mouth.

• Places: The temple above the volcano, the Weight, communal forges, and the sealed forges supplied by deep air that neither burns nor feeds flame
• Access: Controlled by the Warden's soldiers and religious offices. Sacrifices are brought here alive and dropped into the volcano.

Waterworks

The Watermans maintain the aqueducts, cisterns, and the constructed waterfall. Safe rooms throughout the inhabited city can release stored water onto fires.

• Places: Aqueduct controls, cisterns, waterfall works, and warm-water farm channels
• Risk: A failed gate can starve a district of water or flood the chambers below it

Farm Caverns

Food is grown wherever warm water and safe stone meet. Rows of vegetables and herbs hang their roots into mineral-rich channels. Other chambers hold mushrooms, the Vine, insects, underground honey bees, and the animals used in tunnel work.

Deep Cemetery

A huge cemetery lies in the lower city, filled with tombs and memorials. Ashduar make pilgrimages into it to remember their fallen. Some routes remain maintained even where the surrounding chambers have been abandoned.

Necromancer Towers

The military keeps its sanctioned necromancers under supervision. Other towers stand beyond the active districts, occupied by practitioners who became too unstable to remain within Pyre. The results of their experiments sometimes roam nearby at night.

Government & Power

Leadership:

• Mokdath the Oathless: Warden of Pyre. He governs the city but is not recognized as king or Oathwarden.
• The Hammerer: Judge of serious disputes and crimes.
• The missing crown: Pyre has a ruler but no accepted king. Every order therefore rests on necessity, force, or personal loyalty rather than complete religious legitimacy.

Governing priorities:

• Focus: Keep Ar contained, maintain the 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: Maintain the warding and the Forlorn who perform work that cannot stop.
• 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, while Mokdath maintains a smaller circle loyal to him personally.
• Before battle, Ashduar clash their weapons and make guttural sounds to set their war rhythm.

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. Darkness is ordinary, but the annual Night of No Flame removes even the city's controlled fire.
• Law & crime: The Hammerer judges serious cases. The worst offenders are Cinerated, while others are Muddled, sent on the Leave, or enter the Keep through punishment or shame.

Religion

• Dominant faith: The Religion of the Depth, joined to the Oath that holds the Ashduar together
• Ar: The Ashduar worship the Fire Primeval because Pyre needs him, but as a people they hate him. He provides warmth and survival while demanding living fuel.
• Notable places of worship: The temple above the volcano mouth and the Deep Cemetery
• Religious climate: Devout through necessity rather than affection. Failure of the rites would be a civic disaster as much as a religious one.

Relations

1. Ashduar: Pyre is their main city, seat of the Warden, and center of the Oath.
2. Grungred: The mountain shelters Pyre, supplies its water and metal, and also confines it behind cold, dangerous approaches.
3. 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. Its depth made it useful during the transition from Brilliance to Nebula, because Brilliance still worked weakly there while Nebula was weaker beneath the earth. The Keeper bred an obedient workforce in the city and sent its dwarves to labor in other mountains.

The Ashduar never joined the dwarf rebellion. They brought Ar to Grungred and kept him in Pyre after the Keeper left. Only the dwarves inside the city survived the cold because they retained the Fire Primeval.

Drugar, an undead dwarf chosen for an experiment meant to create a dwarf mage, became Pyre's first Ashduar king and ruled for centuries. Mokdath later killed Drugar and his necromancer wife by sealing them in a prepared chamber and filling it with lava. Mokdath now governs as Warden without recognition as king.

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 whose authority exceeds his religious legitimacy.
• Tein: Former dungeon master whose return divided Pyre before the fortress came to sympathize with her.
• 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 within Grungred and can roam near enough to threaten the Ashduar and seek Ar.
• Results from the uncontrolled necromancer towers have been seen close to inhabited passages.
• Food production holds, but another serious failure would force Pyre to consider the Leave again.
• Mokdath's private necromancer circle answers to him rather than to the military, deepening mistrust around his rule.