Cordac’s Guidebook: The Gates and the Lost City
Kaizeph was originally created as a school, a place of higher learning. The goal was for Muges from any tribe to be able to come to the city and share their knowledge without being criticized for intermingling with other tribes or being accused of sharing secrets. It was created in hope that the desire for knowledge and understanding of the world’s mysteries would be stronger than that of tribal alliances and could one day end all of Perim’s wars.
And it worked for sometime. Creatures worked together to uncover the puzzles of the elements, bringing back skills that didn’t match their tribe (Underworlders learning water attacks, Danian’s learning wind), and becoming empowered by the energy in the very land the city was built on and the lake that surrounded it.
Teamwork reigned until theories began forming that perhaps the four natural, elemental towers in the center of the city were somehow connected to the fabled Cothica. It was possible, some creatures figured, as no one knew how the towers got there, only that the city was built around them. Fights began to break out and non-muges arrived at the city, ready for a fight to begin to gain control of Kaizeph to keep it from the other tribes.
The world’s most powerful Muges took the situation into their own hands.
Najarin of the Overworld, Vroshee of the Underworld, Teebis of Mipedim Valley, Iozil of Castle Pillar, and Aqil-koq of the Crystal Range, the strongest Muges of the five tribes, band together to stop the fighting before it starts. Together, they sink Kaizeph into the depths of Lake Ken-i-Po, and erase the very idea of the city from existence. They vow to keep the secret to themselves, and agree that maybe in the future, when Perim is in a better place, they may raise the city to share it’s knowledge once again. Najarin builds his home over the remains of the city, making sure no one comes searching for it and to study the properties that remain in the air even with the city hidden from sight.
Four gates are created and hidden among the world, made for emergencies and only accessible by a Muge.
Hundreds of Solans pass and while the world is nowhere near perfect, the tribes have shown that they can, at least once, ban together to fight a common enemy. Najarin is not a hopeful man, due to all that he has seen in his very long life, but he has been outvoted at the most recent meeting of the High Muges that now is the time to at least try.
With the assistance of Captain Arrthoa, Enre-Hep, Kopond, Lore (all three decedents of the original High Muges), and Najarin preform a ritual which raises the forgotten city of Kaizeph into the sky to float freely in the Overworld’s skies.
The Gates are slowly unveiled. The Storm Gate buried deep in the Mipedim Desert rises from the sand. The lavafalls south of Underworld City part to reveal the Flame Gate hidden behind them. As the Danians expand their lands northward, they unintentionally excavate the Tremor Gate. The Wave Gate sparkles at the deepest point in the northern Riverlands.
The High Muges wait to see what the modern world will do when discovering that a place of legend is true, and if history will repeat itself.
