Colonnade
Colonnade is a Free City in the Realm of Ghur located three-days march away to the south-west from Sascathran Desert.[1]
The Colonnade was built upon a granite platform held aloft by two rows of giant perfectly cylindrical polished granite pillars. Each was fifty feet wide and two hundred feet high, and plunged another two hundred feet into the ground, acting as pistons that rose up and down as predatory lands of Ghur shifted, ensuring that the city remained stable. [1b]
The city was destroyed when they attempted to betray their Avengorii allies.[1r]
Contents
History
Age of Sigmar
The Colonnade was built as a representation of its people who believed themselves to be above the bestial nature of Ghur.[1b]
It came closest to destruction when an Arcanite cult attacked them from the air using discs of Tzeentch but the city was saved when the rear ranks of the tzaangors suddenly collapsed which the city attributed to the sheer power of the Colonnade’s purity when in reality it was due to the Avengorii attacking the rear of the enemy host.[1b][1h]
Fifteen years later it came under the threat of a Twistfray Beastheard led by a Beastlord named Orgo alongside a never seen before shift in Ghur that would cause land around the city to rise up to the level of the Above. Despite opposition from the city Attela Reigehren, a young member of the council proposed an alliance with the Avengorii. Attela left to the Sascathran Desert as a diplomat and was allowed to enter the massive underground city of the Avengorii Dynasty where she gained the audience of Lauka Vai and the ruling Vengorian Lords where she proposed the alliance. The Mother of Nightmares agreed and sent Kavak Anvarheim, a Vengorian Lord and a former Freeguilder of Colonnade as her representative. [1b][1d]
The Colonnade considered the presence of the Avengorii as a threat to its purity over the bestial nature of Ghur while the Avengorii saw it as a chance to teach the city a lesson for its pride by forcing them to tolerate their presance in the city. The Avengorii demanded that the two armies would fight side by side and the legions of the Avengorii will base themselves outside the Colonnade while preparing for the assault on the beastherd, Lauka Vai would enter the city and that Avengorii will have a permanent diplomatic mission in the city consisting of two vampires. The council was forced to agree to the demands when news came that the Skykeep has fallen to the Beastherd.[1e][1f] Hevat Grask, another Vengorian Lord began feeding on the population of the Long chain giving the Blood Kiss to his victims. The Above ignored them and as tales spread in the Long Chain many more only began to seek him in the night to escape the suffering of the lowest levels of the city. He was removed from the delegation after he was caught when he tested the limits of the treaty while feeding on a woman of the Short chain the treaty remained as his victim willingly embraced vampirism.[1l][1m]
However the nobility of the Colonnade blinded by pride and vanity conspired to betray the Avengorii encouraged by a bard named Jaras Anvarheim who found his brother's acts as a betrayal of the city and its values of purity. Baveth Ullior, the Scholar of Tides slightly changed the maps to ensure the armies of Colonnade would be late for the battle. Thus during the march immense granite slabs shot straight up from the ground delaying the troops by almost an entire day. While on the march the commanders of the army were convinced to destroy whoever survived. Lord Tarvynde secretly encouraged this by ignoring them to maintain plausible deniability. The Avengorii vanguard crashed into the Beastherd creating confusion among the ranks for the enemy but when their allies did not arrive they were forced to attack again but the Beastherd counter-attacked its Shamans summoning two Wildfire Taurus spells that ravaged the Avengorii forces. However, in the end, Avengorii fought on giving in to their bestial frenzy they massacred through the sea of Beastmen and when they regained sanity the battlefield had been turned into a swamp of blood and corpses that streched for miles across. When the forces of Colonnade arrived the battle was already over and Jaras turned the Freeguilds into a mob that attacked the Avengorii and the Stormcasts were forced to protect the mortals when the Avengorii counter-attacked. However, the Colonnade severely underestimated the might of the Avengorii Dynasty who despite having taken heavy losses at the hands of the Beastherd wiped out the Stormcast of the Maelstrom of Light Stormhost and began turning the battle into a bloody slaughter. The Freeguilds who were forced to retreat in shame.[1k][1n][1o][1p][1q]
Attela realising the vanity and obsession with purity of the city blinded them to their lack of honour turned against it and was turned into a Vampire. Ten days later the Avengorii led by Lauka Vai attacked the city with Attela who had become a Vengorian Lord. On the eleventh night the sky was filled with winged monsters and a tempest of blood washed over the city washing away those on the streets. Chains, rope ladders and suspension bridges were destroyed. The Mother of Nightmares then directed it towards the pillars eroding them and causing them to crack and crumble. Finally, barrages of arcane bolts and magic of decay destroyed the pillars one by one causing the platform that held the city to fall.[1r]
Government
Colonnade is ruled by a council that gathers at the base of the Diamond Spire. The Lord of the Colonnade sits on a high dais at the apex and below him in an elevated row sit the nobility of the Colonnade, the families descended from the founders of the city. A private box on Lord's right belonged to the representative of the Maelstrom of Light. Other positions included the General of the Freeguild and the Scholar of Tides who is responsible for calculating the changes of land in Ghur.[1b]
Military
The Maelstrom of Light Stormhost maintains a modest garrison in the city.[1b]
The city’s Freeguild was strong enough to maintain a long period of relative stability around the immediate region of the Colonnade.[1b]
Economy
Realmstone shards were used as a currency in the city.[1g] The fields around the city were used for crop farming, with Maize being a particularly common crop, while mining was carried out in the mines south of the city.[1b][1h]
High-end rugs were brought in by caravans from Fangshield. [1a]
Locations
- Castle of the Diamond Spire : Situated at the eastern end of the Above, the Castle of the Diamond Spire was the highest point in the Colonnade. The castle’s walls gleamed with blinding white marble and its high tapering form was sheathed entirely in diamonds. [1b]
- The Above : The Above consists of a series of terraces that increased in elevation as they became closer to the Castle of the Diamond Spire. Considered the Colonnade proper, the houses were built by stone and finely hewn timber.[1b]
- White Tauralon : A mid-terrace tavern and theatre made of white marble columns and walls decorated with interlocking fronds of gold leaf. Notable for its extravagant performances with costumes of excessive colour and materials.[1g]
- The Beneath : The undercity which was the home to the poor of the Colonnade, the workers of farmlands and the mines in the wider region under the city’s control. It was hung from the underside of the granite through chains some of which were short as short as twenty feet, almost close the Above while others reached halfway down to the low-tide ground level. This further divided it into Short chain and Long chain regions with the quality of life becoming worse downwards.[1b]
Outer Territories
- Skykeep :A Freeguild fortress that projected Colonnade’s power into the west. It was built upon a single hundred feet wide pillar.[1c]
- Farwilde : Small village west of Colonnade.[1i]
Sources
