Lythor
| Lythor | |
|---|---|
| Region | Sunset Desert |
| Notable for | University of Lythor, Terramite tunnel network, Sernix presence |
| Conclave presence | Cathedral, Prelate |
Lythor is one of the two major cities of the Sunset Desert, and arguably its intellectual centre. Where Oasis City was the region's commercial and cultural heart, Lythor is defined by its university — one of the most respected academic institutions on Eryndor — and by the pragmatic, resilient character of a city that has existed in a difficult environment for a very long time.
Character
Lythor sits in the perpetual twilight of the Sunset Desert, its architecture adapted to the climate — stone buildings, shaded colonnades, deep-set windows. It is a working city, less glamorous than Oasis City was, more self-sufficient. Its population includes scholars, merchants, craftspeople, and the various transient communities that pass through a desert trading hub. The Luminous Conclave maintains a cathedral and a Prelate here, though its presence is somewhat less dominant than in cities closer to Lighthaven.
The city has a complicated relationship with the criminal networks that operate throughout the Sunset Desert. The Shadow Forge — known locally as Die Schattenschmiede — has had an active presence in Lythor, operating through front businesses and criminal intermediaries.
The University of Lythor
The University of Lythor is the city's most prominent institution and one of the foremost centres of scholarship on Eryndor. It draws researchers, students, and academics from across the continent. Its faculties cover arcane theory, history, natural philosophy, theology, and a number of more obscure disciplines. The university operates with a degree of independence from the Luminous Conclave's direct oversight — more than most institutions of comparable size — which makes it a place where unconventional ideas can at least be aired, if not always published.
Nivael Thessalune was raised in Lythor by a professor at the university, having been found as an infant and taken in. He grew up here before being sent to the Luminous Conclave to serve as an Inquisitor.
The Terramites
Beneath Lythor — as beneath most major cities of the Sunset Desert — runs an extensive tunnel network excavated by the Terramites: a hiveminded, insectoid species that has coexisted with the cities of this region for generations. The tunnels are a known feature of the city's infrastructure, used for drainage, storage, and passage. Most Lythorians treat them as an unremarkable fact of urban life.
The tunnels also provide cover for activities the city's inhabitants would prefer to know nothing about.
The Sernix
Lythor is one of the few places on Eryndor where the Sernix — an ancient amphibious society known also as the Naga — interact openly with surface dwellers. Individual Sernix have been observed in the city engaged in trade, making Lythor something of an exceptional case: most encounters with the Sernix elsewhere are fleeting or unexplained, but here they maintain at least a surface-level commercial presence. What draws them to Lythor specifically, and what they trade for, is not widely documented.
The Lumina Cell's Operations in Lythor
The Lumina Cell was dispatched to Lythor in 587 LE following the discovery that the city's Prelate — the Luminous Conclave's representative — had been murdered. His severed head was found two days before the cell's arrival; his disappearance had gone unnoticed for two weeks prior.
The investigation led the cell into the Terramite tunnel network beneath the city, where they discovered a cavern being used for eldritch rituals by a cell of the Illuminated Void. A leading figure — later identified as an orc named Kaelen Blackthorn — escaped during the initial confrontation with the aid of what appeared to be a giant aquatic creature emerging through an underground waterway — possibly Sernix-affiliated. A ritual book was recovered, its later pages filled with only the word "Nexus" repeated compulsively.
The investigation continued at the Zum Rattenkönig — a tavern operating as a front for the Shadow Forge. Aldric was kidnapped and taken to a secondary underground location, where the cell regrouped, freed him, and confronted Blackthorn directly. During the fight, Blackthorn called upon a dark entity for power that transformed him into an eldritch abomination. The cell destroyed him.
A ciphered letter recovered after the confrontation, once decoded, referred to the cult's apparent supreme leader Lord Shadowspeaker, an entity called the Noctivagor, and something called the Eldritch Nexus — the first time the cell encountered these names directly.
Thalorin Drexus, an elven ranger and Luminous Conclave investigator, assisted the cell during this operation.