Karthene was one of the largest and oldest cities of Commona; a city of terraces, marble halls, and religious spaces dedicated to wide array of divinities. Its streets were wide and orderly, lined with markets, guild halls, and fountains, and its skyline was crowned with impressive towers and temples. The population was majority Human, with a sizeable Halfling underclass that labored in service trades, workshops, and street markets, though many other Mortalkind could be found there. Scholars, artisans, and merchants had lived among soldiers and magistrates, creating a city known for both culture and strict hierarchy. The city’s old pride and its commanding position over the surrounding valleys had long made it a center of influence and authority, but this status was marred during an incident prior to Common Unification.
The Still Rebellion began when merchants, craftsmen, and disillusioned officers of the city guard protested the heavy taxes and rigid rule of the Karthene Council. Within three days, the rebellion had consumed the lower city; their assembly and an order of religious fanatics under Daphlan Valore had seized streets, plazas, and granaries, challenging the Council’s authority. After a failed assassination attempt on the Arch-Magistrate of the Council, Cecily Crosse, the Council undertook drastic measures. They revealed that they possessed an Epochal Artifact, the Stonebinding Scepter wielded the Stonebinding Scepter, an artifact of immense power, to petrify thousands of rebels and civilians in an instant, leaving the uprising crushed almost overnight.
After the rebellion, Cecily and the Council issued the Edict of Stillness, commanding that the petrified remain where they had fallen. Streets, squares, and temples became crowded with frozen figures, locked in mid-step, mid-gesture, or mid-prayer. The decree framed them as witnesses to both treachery and sacrifice; families came to leave offerings, flowers, and tokens before the stone forms. Over time, what began as an act of mourning also became a ritualized warning, and the petrified citizens remained a permanent presence in the urban landscape.
In later decades, Karthene functioned under the banner of the Common League, stripped of dominion but retaining a measure of local authority. The Stonebinding Scepter had been moved to Emblem for safekeeping, and the city rebuilt around the petrified figures, preserving them by law and custom. Karthene continued as a center of trade, scholarship, and craft; its guilds, workshops, and engineers were highly regarded throughout the League. Life returned to its streets, though the memory of Cecily Crosse and the rebellion lingered in public memory and ritual.
By the present age, Karthene had recovered its population to roughly 160,000 and stood as a major economic hub in west-central Commona. As the second biggest city in the League, its markets, docks, and trade routes drew goods and travelers from surrounding regions. The city’s artisans and scholars maintained its reputation as a center of skill and innovation, despite the eerie figures of stone that drew long shadows in the streets at night.