Telárkharóth, City of Stars

Telárkharóth was a city built on a foundation of hope. It was named prophetically after the scarcely remembered Aëdr homeword of Telárhis Prime, where the Násr once ruled over a galaxy. Upon its shining emblem were emblazoned four stars – one for each of the great cities of the Lánaraï and their Rhïan servants – set as a symbol of their combined efforts to return to their distant home among the stars. Northernmost of all Lánaraï cities, it was founded in the broken lands known as Starfall Chasm, where a great starship fell during the War in Heaven, tearing a great hole in the earth. This bounty of immeasurable value made the hope that Telárkharóth represented a truly practical one and a potential reality.

But it was not to be thus.

Early excavations in the city’s vicinity yielded great discoveries, and those years served to reverse the losses of Aëdr technology. While the stars still remained beyond their grasp, the Lánaraï grew greatly in strength, combining science with arcane might to forge powerful weapons. But those Rhïan who were sent into the shadowed depths of earth to recover the lost treasures of the Aëdr found something else.

The fall of Telárkharóth took less than four days. The few Lánaraï survivors that remained fled to the skies to take the dark news of the city’s loss to the south. The Rhïan conquerers cast down the works of their former masters and desecrated the golden idols of The Fire in Heaven. Calling themselves the Mórin, they forever turned their backs on the light of Rhïarrh.

The military response of the Lánaraï was swift and their judgement upon the traitors would be terrible. Great and shining armies from each of the four cities rallied to the call and descended upon the north. Yet as they drew near, the ground began to tremble and abyssal chasms yawned open at their feet. The armies of the Lánaraï fell back and could only watch in horror as their once fair city was enveloped in the tendrils of some nameless power and drawn down, sinking forever below the earth.