Nibenay, City of Spires

Nibenay is an ancient, decadent city-state under the rule of a distant and mysterious sorcerer-king. Population: Roughly 24,000 people live in Nibenay proper, with a similar number in outlying tenant farms and villages. Most of the population is human, with sizable minorities of half-giants, elves, and half-elves.

Water: The city-state sits atop bubbling hot springs that well up from deep below ground. The noble houses own all the springs, so anyone who wants water must purchase it from them.

Supplies: Nibenay is wealthy and extravagant by the standards of most other city-states. Anything a traveler could want is for sale in the markets, legitimate or otherwise. The city produces timber, stone, spices, nuts, and various dry beans (the staple food).

Defense: The Shadow Guard is an elite palace guard of half-giants numbering a thousand strong. The Temple of War supplements these defenders with five thousand janissaries (loyal slave-soldiers), including small numbers of dray mercenaries.

Inns and Taverns: Numerous inns serve travelers in Nibenay, with the highest concentration in and around the Sages’ District. The noble district of Cliffside features more opulent inns for visiting nobles, and those looking to keep a low profile can find flophouses in the Hill District. Abandoned quarters are scattered throughout the city.

The people of Nibenay expect decorum in all things. Slaves and commoners know their places and show courtesy and deference to their betters; similarly, people of higher standing remain cool and distant to their inferiors. To demonstrate anything other than calmness and serenity is to reveal a character flaw.

Gifted Dancer: The Nibenese see dance as their gift to the world. The dramatic liaka-ih style features whirling dancers in veils, scarves, and ribbons. The comedic and bell-wearing priytu-ih dancers perform for celebrations and joyful events. Militant, weaponwielding wriquo-ih dancers honor warriors and their battles. You have studied the three forms, learning their techniques. Which form do you prefer?

Walker of the Exalted Path: The monasteries of the Exalted Path teach their students to accept authority and endure its excesses, for to do otherwise places too much emphasis on the self. One should deny the individual and embrace one’s place as part of a larger whole. You studied this philosophy for a time. Do you still subscribe to it, or did you abandon it? What attracted you to it in the first place?

The city-state of Nibenay is ruled by the sorcerer-king Nibenay, also called the Shadow King. For twenty centuries or more, he has left the city entirely in the hands of the temple bureaucracies, emerging from the Naggaramakam only when necessary to lead his forces to war or crush rebellions against his rule. However, news of Kalak’s assassination has reached Nibenay, causing him to reconsider his habitual detachment from the city’s affairs. In the last few weeks, the Shadow King has summoned several meetings of the High Consorts’ Council, asking probing questions about the manner in which the group is governing his city. Similarly, he has taken an active interest in the readiness of his armies and in the affairs of the city’s noble houses.

Nibenay lies at the foot of a striking cliff, surrounded by a wide field of large, steaming pools and palm groves—the Plain of Smoking Waters. The most commonly used entrance is the Mekillot Gate. Past the gate, a wide thoroughfare leads directly to Sages’ Square, the chief marketplace in the middle of the Sages’ District. At the heart of the city-state, dominating its profile, stands the Naggaramakam, the Shadow King’s palace compound. This enormous, fortified city-within-a-city is open only to the sorcerer-king and his templars.

Walking the streets of Nibenay is a claustrophobic experience. Most streets are narrow alleyways framed by buildings with vaulted stone roofs. The city’s many stone spires produce a dizzying verticality in its street layout; sometimes the roof over an alley supports another walkway above it. With the exception of the High Road and the caravan road from the Mekillot Gate, none of the streets is wide enough to accommodate mounts larger than a crodlu.