Barak-Edth

The Last Seclude

The largest remaining Dvar settlement, Barak-Edth is a massive mountain city that is largely uninhabited, its lofty halls and grand chambers populated by a mere fraction of their intended occupancy, crumbling into ruin.

Description
The Seclude of Barak-Edth was the largest of the Dvar fortresses, and is the largest that still remains. Occupying a small mountain range that borders Dathan to the East and Jarculn  to the West, the labyrinthine network of tunnels, chambers and halls that comprises the Seclude stretch throughout the mountain range.

Few of its chambers and halls are now occupied, however. A tiny fraction of the Dvar remain, and many wings of the Seclude are now completely sealed by Dvar Mindbenders, the secrets of their buried chambers lost.

What does remain is still ornate and grandiose. Barak-Edth has existed since long before the Burning, when the talents of the Mindbenders were at their strongest. Each chamber has a theme, and is intricately detailed in fitting with that theme. The Elemental chambers of Air, Fire, Water, Thunder, and Stone are considered the most impressive of all, though they are matched by the sinuous contours of the Chamber of Whispers.

The Hall of the Ancestors is the spiritual home of the Dvar, a grand chamber filled with statues of the ancients, whom the Dvar revere. Some speculate that the stone forms are in fact the bodies of the ancestors, long since returned to the stone.

Once these halls were lit by huge Matter stones set into the ceilings. Some of these remain, casting arcane light into the room below, but many have faded. Some of these have been replaced with simple torches in wall sconces, though many have been left, plunging some corners of the larger chambers into darkness, or obscuring their ceilings entirely.

Culture
Dvar culture is centred around the importance of their religious beliefs, their reverence of their own Ancestors. Though the Dvar do not pray to their forebears, they acknowledge representations of them with humility and respect at all times.

In Dvar society, there is a belief that with age comes wisdom. Dvar are long-lived creatures, many surviving to several hundred years old if not more, before eventually succumbing to the Stone Slumber. Barak-Edth is ruled by the Venerable, a council of the 6 oldest Dvar currently in residence, with the figurehead of the council – the oldest Dvar – known as the Stonefather.