Rakenthu City Zu'aan

History

In the year 4E 500, Rakenthu City Zu'aan stands as one of the few surviving strongholds in this dying age, carved and perched upon cliffs by the River of Thalen. Its story is one of bewildering against the Kin'toni plague, famine, and now the creeping cold of a new ice age.

Assira, c. 3E 590

Rakenthu's first stones were not laid in hope, but in total desperation. The Assira Clan, founded by Assira Iritea, were known as the ragged survivors, little more than wanderers armed with stone axes and bronze knives. But they have the gift, the patience of the stone. When they discovered the sheer limestone walls above Thalen, Assira declared, "Here we make our stand. If the kin'toni want our blood, let them climb the cliffs for it." The clan began to hollow chambers into the cliff face, carving defensive tunnels and cold narrow halls. They do not want to settle on a city, but a fortress-cave, sealed against the night and the prowling Kin'toni clans.

Arrival of the Frichimya, c. 3E 690

A century later, the Frichimya Clan arrived. They are great wanderers too, and were founded by Atheios Frichimya and led by Brathor Flintborn, Frichimya's first grandson. They carried the knowledge of iron and bronze forging, even when they had lost their own homeland to plague-born raids and famine but refused to abandon their craft. When they reached the city of Rakenthu, their leader made a bargain with the Assira council.

"You have stone walls, but no teeth. Give us forges, and we give you blades," - Brothor Flintborn c. 3E 690

"Forges will bring fire into our stone. Fire weakens, fire cracks," - Assira Iritea c. 3E 590

"Fire cracks stone, yes, but also kills monster," - Brothor Flintborn c. 3E 690

Reluctantly, the Assira permitted Frichimya to build furnaces on the western plateau. Smoke began to rise, and soon the city's first true walls of iron-bound gates and bronze spearheads were forged.

Lisive Gardens, c. 3E 695

The coming of the Lisive Clan marked the first true breath of life in Rakenthu City. It was founded by Lehtra Lisive, a woman of stubborn resilience and beauty. They are the cultivators who carried the last remembered practices of agriculture. The Lisive clan had wandered from ruined farmland to ruined farmland, scavenging seeds from abandoned storehouses and hidden valleys. When they reached Rakenthu, they saw the barren cliffs and the choking winds of the Thalen Gorge. While the Assira saw stone, and the Frichimya saw fire, the Lisive saw soil. With the leader's command and the desperation of the starving people, they build terraced gardens along the narrow ledges above the river.

"This rock will never bloom," - scoffed an Assira elder when she began to carry dirt in baskets up the cliffside.

"Then we shall force it. Even stone must yield when watered long enough." - Lehtra Lisive c. 3E 695

It was in these terraces that the first true crops of Rakenthu were sown: bitter roots, hardy grains, and thorn-fruited vines that clung to the cliff's face. With food, the city no longer depends solely on the hunt or the thin generosity of trade.

Iskim, c. 3E 740

The Rakenthu gates were wild and open by the time the Iskim Clan appeared; the fortress city had grown into something more than stone and smoke. Founded by Selthun Iskim, a chronicler from the dying cities before, who carried with him scrolls salvaged from fallen libraries. The Iskim were known as the great storytellers, archivists, and memory keepers for decades. The Frichimya distrusted them at first, calling them scribblers and dreamers. Despite that, the Iskim offered something none of the other clans had: scrolls preserving knowledge. Their scrolls told of old techniques of medicine, stone-cutting, irrigation, and even fragments of forgotten history.

"What good are words when monsters climb your walls?" - growled a Frichimya blacksmith during a council.

"Because one day your sword will rust, but my words will sharpen the hands that come after you." - Selthin Iskim c. 3E 740

The council agreed to build the Hall of Records inside the deepest hollowed chambers of Rakenthu, where dampness and mold could not reach. They began to teach children with letters and to carve the deed of the clans into the walls.

Iskoisia and the Blood Walls, c. 3E 820

Not long after, the Iskoisia clan' came. They are the great stubborn warriors, mercenaries, and survivors of endless skirmishes against the Kin'toni hordes. The clan is led by Thyrak Iskoisia, called the Iron Fang, a scarred veteran who had lost an arm to a Kin'toni bite yet lived.

The Iskoisa brought formations and the art of organized warfare. Where before Rakenthu's defense had been bands of hunters and scattered guards, now they drilled, marched, and learned the rhythm of war.

"A wall is not stone alone; it is the will of those who bleed to raise it." - Thyrak Iskoisia c. 3E 820

The Frichimya oversaw the construction of what became known as the Blood Walls, high barricades of fitted stone reinforced with iron.

It was under Thyrak's command to face its first great siege when three kin'toni clans descended upon the cliffs in the dark of winter. For months, they hurled themselves at the gates, scaling ladders of bond and rope, until the walls ran slick with blood.

Chadast Ironblood, c. 3E 900

Descended from the mingling of Frichimya forgers and Lisive farmers, the Chadast Clan emerged. They are known for their red-streaked banners and endurance they became the Rakenthu's backbone. Their founder, Durn Chadast, was once a smith-farmer who believed strength came from bledning flame and earth. The Chadast organized the city's first Militia Levy, calling upon farmers, artisans, and workers to take up arms when the walls were threatened. Chadast represented the common folk, unlike the professional warriors of the Iskoisia, and their strength lay in numbers and sheer stubbornness.

"Your levies are soft-handed peasants," - snarled an Iskoisia captain.

"Then let your soliders eat the bread they cannot bake and drink the water they cannot draw. When famine comes, it is the peasants who keep you alive, and when war comes, they will bleed beside you." - he strucked the table with his hammer. Durn Chadast c. 3E 900

Assadar and the Shattering, c. 4E 100-150

When the volcanic winter of the shattering struck, Rakenthu nearly fell. Herds died, crops failed, and the icy winds howled through the Thalen Gorge. The city was thrown into chaos; starvation and riots claimed as many lives as Kin'toni raids. It was in this desperate time that the Assadar Clan rose to prominence. Founded by Tyvioner Assadar, a former Lisive healer, the Assadar became the guardians of the city's spirit. They preached sacrifice, unity, and endurance. They gathered the broken pieces of society and bound them together with belief. The Assadar declared that Rakenthu itself was the Stone Flame, they build shrines and lit fires in every hall. It is explained that a living spirit would not be extinguished.

"The hunger may crawl our bodies, the cold may freeze us to death, but it will not take our hearts. We are the Rakenthu's future. If the gods have abandoned us, then we shall be gods to each other." - Tyvioner Assadar c. 4E 125

Rakenthu survived the shattering, though scarred forever.

Rakenthu in 4E 500

In the waning of the Fourth Era, Rakentu stands as one of the last surviving strongholds of the Zu'aan. Together with the seven clans - Assira, Frichimya, Iskim, Iskoisia, Chadast, and Assadar. The cliffs if Thalen are noy honeycombed with chambers, terraces, forges, gardens, archives, barracks, and shrines. The Blood Walls stand watch, smoke still rises from the western plateau, and the Hall of Records still gathers the city's history. Yet the glaciers creep closer each year, and the kin'toni prowl the frozen forest in ever greater numbers.

Psychology

Rakenthu is a people with a sharpened mind, honed by hunger, and yet bound together by stubborn endurance. They live on the edge of survival, cliffs at their backs, the Thalen River roaring below, and kin'toni in the forests beyond. Their psychology reflects various precarious existences.

The Stone's Will

The Rakenthu citizens believe that suffering is not only inevitable but also necessary. Everyone will shed their blood to protect the Rakenthu's will. Their ancestors survived the worst plague, famine, and volcanic winter. To them, enduring and surviving pain is the proof of life. Children are raised to endure cold, hunger, and hardship from an early age. Bruises from training are not pitied but praised. Tears are not seen as weakness, but as a tribute to endurance.

Once in the training yard, an elder captain told a boy with bloodied knees,

"The stone does not cry when the hammer strikes it. And yet, the hammer learns it cannot break the stone. Be the stone."'

Because of this stoic worldview, Rakenthu citizens rarely show fear openly. To cry in public is for the weak and shameful unless in mourning. To complain about hunger is to insult one's ancestors who starved during the Shattering. Even in joy, restraint is prized; a laugh is acceptable, but wild displays of glee are frowned upon as childish or dangerous.

Wary of the Unknown

Rakenthu endured countless raids and betrayals; they view outsiders with hate and deep suspicion. A wandering band of Zu'aan refugees might be kin'toni spies in disguise, or worse, plague carriers. Outsiders who are allowed into the city are watched for three years, sometimes generations, before being trusted. The suspicion extends even between clans within the city. The Assira distrust the Frichimya, the Iskoisia eye the Assadar priests warily, and so forth. Yet we all know unity is the only reason Rakenthi still exists. Thus, their suspicion is restrained, acknowlegded but rarely allowed to become outright hatred.

The Iskim leader made the lifetime word and set it as the standard: Trust the wall; doubt the mad beside it.

Vigil of Readiness

Centuries of looming disasters have instilled in the Rakenthu a vigil of readiness. Every family keeps a dark box, a chest of dried food, spare clothes, and a weapon just in case the kin'toni breach the walls or famine strikes again. The children are taught evacuation routes alongside their letters. The city's drills are so regular that even an old grandmother can tell you which stairwell to take when the alarm bells ring.

"We do not live for today's harvest. We live for the winter three years hence, the famine yet to come, the raid that has not yet begun. To forget this is to dig our graves with our own hands." - Assira Iritea c. 3E 590

They have the future mindset that breeds both discipline and anxiety. Many Rakenthu never feel safe, even within the deepest halls of the cliffs. Dreams of walls cracking and kin'toni pouring in are common, and entire families sometimes wake together in a panic, convinced the city is falling.

Heritage of Doom

Though they resist with all their strength, the Rakenthu are not blind. They see the glaciers creeping from the north and south, hear the howls of kin'toni in the growing night, and know that their time may be short. But instead of despair, it transforms them into a hunger for legacy. The Iskim record names with religious fervor, the Assira carve their ancestors into cliffside shrines, and even the poorest child is told, "If you die, make it a story worth telling."

Culture

The Way of Life in Rakenthu

Rakenthu City is called "the city of stone and blood" because the people in the city are living beyond walls and war. Their way of life comes from shedding blood and taking what little the world allows and turning it into identity. Though their customs are shaped by famine, plague, and fear of the kin'toni, they also hold laughter, love, and small moments of beauty.

Clothing and Appearance

Rakenthu's clothing is practical, designed for warmth in the creeping cold and resilience during labor. Most wear layered wool and a rough-spun linen dyed in muted tones of earth, ash, and stone. Bright colors are rare, used only in festivals, rituals, or clan markers.

- Assira Clan's Clothing and Appearance

The Assira are the oldest of Rakenthu's clans, and their appearance reflects both austerity and reverence for stone. Their garments are simple, but they hold a symbolic meaning. Leather tunics and cloaks, often dark brown or gray, are built for resilience rather than display. These are trimmed with beads carved from animal bone, each bead shaped into angular patterns meant to echo the lines of cliff rock. The beads are not merely for decoration; they serve as talismans, believed to bind the wearer's spirit to the patience and strength of the cliffs they carved their home into.

Most Assira wear their hair long and bound with strips of leather or bone pins. Men often grow short, practical beards, while women braid strands with bone charms. Their faces are weathered, their skin marked by years of smoke and dust from the stone halls. The most distinctive feature of Assira attire is the stone-dust paint, which some apply to their cheeks and foreheads before council gatherings or funerals. The pale dust, gathered from the quarry walls, is meant to remind them that flesh withers but stone endures.

- Frichimya Clan's Clothing and Appearance

The Frichimya are unmistakable within Rakenthu; their bodies and clothing carry the marks of the forge. They favor dark, soot-stained tunics, often patched many times over, with thick, heavy gloves that protect their hands from burns and sparks. Their clothes, though plain, are always rimmed with oil, ash, and the faint metallic scent of their labor. Their builds tend to be stocky and broad, shaped by years of hauling metal, working the bellows, and hammering metal. Arms and shoulders are corded with muscle, and many walk with a slight stoop, accustomed to long hours over anvils. Skin is weathered and often darkened by smoke. Some even claim that the Frichimya have become smoke-blooded, as if the forge itself has stained them permanently. Their hair is cropped short to avoid distraction while working, though some let their beards grow thick, braiding bits of copper or iron wire into them as a mark of status.

Frichimya attire also includes leather aprons reinforced with iron bronze studs worn during work but often left on casually even in taverns. Frichimya's senior blacksmiths wear large tool pouches filled with chisels, files, nails, and hammers. Their eyes are described as sharp and fiery, squinting from years of staring into furnace flames. Many have permanent black smudges around their lids not from cosmetics but from smoke. Their hands are scarred, knuckles swollen, and nails rimmed with soot that never fully washes away.

- Lisive Clan's Clothing and Appearance

The Lisive's clothing is simple tunics of woven cloth, usually dyed in muted greens, browns, and tans, the colors of earth and growth. The Frichimya gifted them seed belts, small pouches used to fill with seeds and grain. These belts are their reminder to feed the city, and no Lisive farmer is seen without one. The Lisive are known for their planting songs, slow and rhythmic chants sung as they sow crops on dangerous ledges. Outsiders hear only humble melodies, but to the Lisive, the chants are prayers for more blessings to the plants they planted.

Their bodies are lean and weathered, skin darkened by the sun and wind from long days working on narrow cliffside fields. Their hands are cracked and dirt-stained, nails often rimmed with soil that no scrubbing removes. Hair is required to be tied back with cords woven from grass or plant fibers. During planting season, they are required to wear garlands of dried herbs or flowers as a sign of renewal

- Iskim Clan's Clothing and Appearance

Iskims wear plain robes, usually the darkest colors, such as black, brown, or dark blue. Their sleeves are permanently ink-stained, a badge of their ceaseless writing and record-keeping. They are not allowed to wash their sleeves, as it will be marked as their attendance and duties contributed. Their hands too are thin, fingers often smudged with black, blue, or red dyes from quills and pigments.

Many Iskim scholars wear simple bronze-bound spectacles, not glass but polished river crystal, crudely crafted yet invaluable. Their hair is bound tightly or shorn at the sides to keep it clear of ink, and some stain their nails with dark pigments to hide the constant blotches. Their posture is stooped from long hours at tables, and their speeches are soft and deliberate, as if each word were part of a scroll.

- Iskoisia Clan's Clothing and Appearance

Among all the clans of Rakenthu, the Iskoisia stand out with their red sashes, worn across the chest or at the waist. Their clothing is simple linen or leather, designed for freedom of movement, but they are required to always keep it neat and clean.

The Iskoisia are very tall and muscular, and carry themselves with rigid posture compared to the other clans. Their hair is cropped short or shaved completely, and their faces often bear scars from sparring training or real battles. Iskoisia's armors are required to be polished every three days; if not, they will face consequences, for they believe gleaming metal reflects not vanity, but discipline.

- Chadast Clan's Clothing and Appearance

The Chadast wear rough tunics patched with cloth leather and garments that reveal their lives as laborers. Their clothes are mismatched, layered for warmth, and scarred by years of toil. Many are patched so they have more stitches than fabric. Boots are heavy and mud-caked, and belts too hung for their tools rather than weapons.

They are built broad and strong, with calloused hands from hauling stone, rope, and wood. Skin is darkened by the sun and wind from long work on the terraces. Their arms and legs are wrapped with cloth for support during long days of labor. Crude tattoos or painted markings are common, signifying family ties or work crews.

Rituals

The people of Rakenthu find joy even in scarcity. They always practice and are present in their festival and rituals.

- Birth

After having birth, a child's name must be whispered fifty times without crying into a carved crack in the stone wall of their chamber as a sign of gratitude for taking the full responsibility of raising their child until death. The father must bleed his two hands and wipe it on the stone wall where the mother whispered the child's name as a sign of dedication.

- Coming of Age

Youths must endure five days of nightlong vigil on the Blood Walls, armed only with a wooden spear. No one is allowed to go home; they will be staying at a cave. Food is limited, and is water; failing to survive the five-day vigil will result in two years' imprisonment.

- Death

Rakenthu citizens and their bodies will be wrapped in red linen and carried to the river cliffs after death. Their body will be burned only by their parents or family, and their ashes must be scattered into the Thalen.

Festival

The Festival of Lanterns is the most joyful tradition in Rakenthu, celebrated once a year at the turning of the cold season. Though the life within the Rakenthu is harsh and survival often uncertain, this special night reminds the people that they endure the pain together, not only for themselves, but also for the memory of those who came before. Each family spends days beforehand shaping a lantern from clay dug from the riverbanks and baking it. Painting the lantern is required too, with a specific color. Gray for Assira, yellow for Frichimya, green for Lisive, blue for Iskim, violet for Iskoisia, red for Chadast, and orange for Assadar. The designs vary, some painted with simple lines and others with elaborate patterns of spirals, mountains, and flames.

At dusk, the city gathers on the river terraces. Priests of the Assadar lead the opening chants, blessing the flames as symbols of memory. Then, one by one, families set lanterns afloat while singing the chant. All of the lanterns will drift down the Thalen River, and if the lantern does not float, it will bring bad luck and be considered an outcast.

By night's height, the river becomes a ribbon of light, lanterns drifting like stars upon its black surface. For a single evening, Rakenthu forgets famine and war. The people gather shoulder to shoulder, clan rivalries set aside, and the cliffs ring with music and laughter.

Government

The Council of Clans

Rakenthu City is not ruled by a king or a single chieftain, but by the Council of Clans. The governing body formed from the seven found clans which are Assira, Frichimya, Lisive, Iskim, Iskoisia, Chadast, and Assadar. Each clan sends three representatives to the council. The three representatives should be one elder, one appointed leader, and one voice of the people, chosen from the common ranks. Rakenthu is a city of unity, so the structure is meant to balance wisdom, authority, and lived experience. In total, the council has twenty-one, though debates often involve far more voices, for the clans are rarely quiet in offering their opinions.

The council gathers within the Hall of Echoes, a vast chamber carved high into the cliffs above Thalen river. Narrow and tall, its stone walls are designed to catch and carry sound, ensuring that every word rebounds throughout the chamber. Its a rule that decisions are made here, will echo through the lives of all who dwell in Rakenthu.

Most matters are decided by majority vote, but certain grave issues such as declaring war, breaking treaties, or exiling an entire clan. Disagreements are constant, and shouting matches often strect for hours. Yet the Rakenthu's government is messy, quarrelsome system has endured for centuries, and no single clan could ever rule Rakenthu alone.

Military

The Iron Discipline of the Iskoisia

Rakenthu's military power rests chiefly in the hands of the Iskoisia clan, who have forged themselves into the city's professional soliders. Any gender is required to join military, Iskoisia children are drilled in discipline, strength, and art of war. Iskoisia military wear red sashes and polished armor even off duty, this is their sign of dedication and commitment. Their training grounds, carved into the cliffs themselves, every day and night echoes sound of clashing wooden weapons and barked commands.

The Iskoisia lead the city's garrisons and patrols, but they do not fight alone. Every clan must contribute 50 warriors for Iskoisia's role is to shape these scattered strengths into a single shield against the kin'toni.

Roles in Military

-Cliffwardens

These soliders patrol the sheer walls of Rakenthu's cliffsides. They are armed with hooks, spears, and heavy nets, and tasked with keeping the kin'toni away from scaling rhe limestone faces. Their battles are often fought dangling on ropes or from precarious ledges, where single misstep means death.

- River Guards

These soliders are positioned along the banks of Thalen, their job is to protect the lifeblood of the city. They have lightest weapons, and that includes javelins, bows, and slings. They are trained to fight quickly and retreating is never an option.

- Forgeborn

These warriors have the heaviest weapons such as war hammers, axes, and iron shoields. Many fight with armor reinforced by their own forge-craft, and their blows are feared even by the kin'toni. They are slow because they carry the heaviest but devastating in close battle.

Training and Discipline

The fifty warriors from the seven clans undergoes mandatory training. The Iskoisia demand the most rigorous standards since they have the experience and knowledge about military. The Lisive and Chadast, often needed in fields and workshops, send seasonal levies who are trained quickly in spear use and wall defens. The Assira train their own warriors, experts in fighting from the cliffs and using the terrain to their advantag. Iskim scribes, though not frontline warriors, but contribute in their own way such as preserving maps of raids, and maintaining rosters of the fallen. The Assadar has fifty warrior too, but instead of fighting, they offer blessings before battle and tending to dying afterwards.

Burden of Service

Military in Rakenthu is not a choice but a dedicated duty. Refusal of service is judges as cowardice, punished by enforced induction until redemption is earned. Their goal is to keep the kin'toni at bay, to defend the cliffs, and to buy more years of survival in a world where the ice and the enemy grow every close.

Religion

Scared Flame

The Assadar priests keep the Scared Flame in the Temple of Ash, it is the heart of Rakenthu's faith. It has burnes withoug pause since the city's founding and is seen as the soul of the people. Every major event in life is tied to this fire. Newborns are carried before the flame so their names can be spoken into its light. Warriors dip their weapons in its smoke before going to war, seeking blessing and courage. At funerals, candles lit from the flame are placed beside the dead before their ashes are set to drift in the river. To polluate or steal fromt the flames is one of the greatest sins, judged only by the Assadar priests. The people believe the flame is bout protection and memort, and the fire of ancestors burning still agaisnt the darkness.

Thalen River

Thalen River is connected to the life of Rakethu. It waters the fields, feeds the people, and carries away the candles of dead. Where the flame is endurance, the river is renewal. Its current is believed to carry the voices of ancestors and murmuring beneath the water's flow. The river is well honered through seasonal rites. Farmers gather at its banks each spring, where preists sprinkle water on their fields as blessing. At birth, infants are anointed with river water on the forehead, a promise that they belong to Rakenth. The Festival of Lanterns is its greatest celebration, every family floats painted clay lanterns down the river, each light symbolozing a life remembered. To defile the river by poisoning it, spilling blood in it, or blocking its flow is to strike at the survival of the city. Such desecration is punished with exile, for harming the river endangers not just the body but the soul of Rakenthu.

Miscellany

Life in Rakenthi is full of small customs and habits that are not only easily replaced by the law, culture, or religion but still bind the people together. One such custom is the carrying of tokens, nearly every citizen keeps a charm or known as a carved bead, a hard of metal, or a polished stone. Every charm serves as a personal reminder of survival. Soliders carry a fragment of broken weapon, while farmers wear dreid seed pods tied on strings. To lose such token is considered ill forttune, and may replace it quickly with another.

Another practice is the city's love for storytelling competitions. In taverns and communal halls, storytellers challenge one another before an eager crowd. The Winners are rewarded with free drinks, or more rarely, a carved token from the listeners.

Superstitions are woven into daily life. It is common to leav three grains of bread on a windowsill at night, an offering to wandering spririts so they do not bring misfortune. Children are taught never to whistle in the stone walls, foe the echoes are said to call the attention of kin'toni lurking outside. When a storm strikes the cliffs, families gather in silence, listening to the thunder until it fades, believing the noise to be the ancestors walking overhead. These practices may seem small, but they carry deep weight in Rakenthu, shaping the rythm of its peopl's lives beyonf their wars and councils.

Nearby Groups

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Rakenthu City Zu'aan

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