Sha'Dar

History

Sha’Dar exists because of power. Long before it was a city, the site was recognized as one of the most potent ley convergences in Lorithandar, a place where multiple forms of magic intersect in a way found nowhere else on the planet. Sorcery, magecraft, and other magical currents bleed together here naturally, making it an ideal location for long-term enchantments, magical constructs, planar conduits, and conveyances that rely directly on ley access.

During the Elari War, the site became a strategic prize contested by the immortal races. It was ultimately claimed by Tay’Morn Thul, one of the original Elari Ascendants who consumed their gods and claimed their power. Tay’Morn Thul was not merely Ascendant but a master of Mechanus sorcery, later mastering Magecraft as well and achieving the rare synthesis of multiple magical disciplines. His refusal to abandon forbidden Mechanus practices led to his expulsion from the Elari Council and marked him as an enemy of both Elari and Faerie alike.

To secure his dominion, Tay’Morn Thul constructed The Guardian, an immense golem of obsidian and rune-bound core powered by Mechanus Sorcery, capable of rivaling lesser gods and dragons. The construct served as both weapon and deterrent, allowing him to survive wars that destroyed entire civilizations. After the Elari War and later the God War, Tay’Morn Thul withdrew into a deep torpor beneath the site, allowing empires to rise and fall above him while retaining his power.

In the ages that followed, Sha’Dar was deliberately founded by Koolong as a controlled city of vice. Designed as a release valve for mages and sorcerers whose power and appetites conflicted with Koolongi ideals of restraint and honor, the city offered indulgence without consequence. What happens in Sha’Dar stays in Sha’Dar. Over millennia, the city grew beyond Koolong’s ability to control it, becoming an independent city-state and eventually the most powerful magical metropolis in the world.

When Tay’Morn Thul awakened, he found himself buried beneath layers of history and empire. Rather than destroy the city, he claimed it. For decades he ruled anonymously through fabricated identities, most notably as Gabrielle von Torshane, manipulating the council and allowing corruption and Void influence to surface. When the Cult of the Void overreached, Tay’Morn Thul revealed himself, awakened The Guardian, destroyed the old religious order, and reshaped Sha’Dar into its current form.

Geography

Sha’Dar occupies a uniquely strategic position, both magically and politically. It sits near-equidistant between Koolong to the east and the duchies of Devin to the west, with the ruins of the Troll Empire and the scarred lands of southern Karn extending below it. This positioning has made it a neutral ground during conflicts, most notably the century-long war between Koolong and Devin, during which Sha’Dar declared itself fully independent and threatened annihilation to any power that interfered.

The city itself is incomprehensibly large. It has expanded both outward and upward for tens of thousands of years, supported by magic that renders conventional limits meaningless. Entire districts are built atop the ruins of earlier empires, while vast subterranean layers house collapsed cities, sealed vaults, and the sprawling Black District. Ley nexuses beneath the city act as latent planar anchors, allowing pocket dimensions, teleportation networks, and planar trade to function at scales impossible elsewhere. It's true scale difficult for outsiders to grasp. The city sprawls outward in vast concentric named/colored districts, each immense enough to function as a city in its own right. Monumental stone causeways connect the primary entrances, with western routes leading toward Devin, eastern roads toward Koolong, and southern gates opening onto the ruins of the Troll Empire and the wastelands beyond.

Sha'Dar City Layout

Sha'Dar Districts

Color	Name	Description
Red	District of Blood	Violence, Gambling
Pink	District of Flowers	Prostitution, Sex
Brown	District of Taste	Food, Drink
Gold	District of the Mind	Knowledge, Magic
Silver	District of Song	Music, Art, Performance
White	District of Law	Originally the Counselor Citadel, now home of The Guardian
Black	District of the Forbidden	Slavery, assassination, forbidden magic

The city also exists on multiple vertical layers. Beneath the streets lie extensive substructures including sealed vaults, forgotten wards, ancient ruins, and extradimensional annexes created over centuries of arcane expansion. Several major ley nexuses intersect directly beneath the city, flooding it with ambient magical energy. Persistent enchantments, unstable phenomena, and localized distortions of space are a normal feature of the urban landscape.

There are three primary entrances to the city of Sha'Dar, and large grey stone areas leading from each of them between the districts. The western entrance points towards the neighboring kingdom of Devin, and the eastern entrance towards Koolong, while the southern entrance points towards the ruins of the troll empire and the wastelands of Draxion and Blackmarsh.

Sha'Dar has numerous Wards or Districts which cater to specific needs of spellcasters. Most of the Wards are dedicated to various fetishes to allow spellcasters to indulge in their vices.

Politics

Sha’Dar is stable because it is ruled absolutely. Lord Tay’Morn Thul governs without ambiguity, enforcing his will through omnipresent surveillance, arcane supremacy, and the silent threat of The Guardian. The ruling council exists as an administrative body only, composed of surviving power brokers, district rulers, and representatives of the Mercenary Kingdoms whose authority derives entirely from Tay’Morn Thul’s tolerance.

Irrilandrilla, Goddess of Desire, is explicitly recognized as Tay’Morn Thul’s divine ally. Her temple is the only sanctioned religious institution within the city. It is led jointly by her Godling daughter Ilya Ebonheart and by Childress, Irrilandrilla’s Herald and Avatar. Childress, once an Avatar of Alkaizer, betrayed the God of Light and Order and taught Irrilandrilla the secrets of avatar channeling. Their union produced Ilya, a being born ascendant and exempt from divine sanctions, and Childress is now married to his divine daughter. Together they preside over the temple and exert direct influence over the Black District.

The Cult of the Void has not been destroyed. It has been driven underground, fractured and hunted, surviving only in the deepest layers of the Black District where even Sha’Dar’s permissive laws no longer apply.

The Ruling Council of Sha'Dar

The surviving council includes powerful figures who proved indispensable during the fall of the Cult of the Void. Several members of the Mercenary Kingdoms group now serve as de facto councilors, controlling districts tied to violence, trade, and security. Their authority is real but conditional, existing only so long as it aligns with Tay’Morn Thul’s interests.

Economy

Sha’Dar’s economy is powered by magic and sustained by excess. It is one of the only places in the world where the buying and selling of powerful magic items is routine. Artificers willingly sacrifice fragments of their own soul in exchange for wealth, knowing that Sha’Dar alone offers an endless supply of indulgence, safety, and opportunity in return.

The city imports and exports through teleportation rather than caravans. Food, raw materials, and exotic goods arrive from across the world and from other planes entirely. Planar trade agreements supply magical ingredients, sustenance, and luxuries that would be impossible to sustain otherwise. Ruins throughout southern Karn continue to be stripped by adventurers, with relics, weapons, and lost knowledge flowing north into the city. If a Blade of Draxion can be found anywhere, it is here.

Important Places

At the city’s exact center stands The Guardian, a colossal obsidian golem over two hundred feet tall, dormant yet ever-watchful. It is both symbol and enforcement of Tay’Morn Thul’s rule, answering only to him and possessing power on par with a lesser god.

The districts of Sha’Dar are vast cultural ecosystems rather than simple neighborhoods. The District of Flowers dominates the city by size, functioning as a generational industry of consensual indulgence and communal support. The District of Blood hosts arena combat, blood sports, and gambling on a scale unmatched anywhere in the world, with wards capable of containing battles between ascendant beings. The Brown District supplies cuisine and drink to the entire city, distributing magical food and indulgence far beyond its borders.

Beneath all of this lies the Black District, an underground sprawl of ancient ruins and tunnels where the city’s worst crimes are committed. Slavery, torture, assassination, Void rites, and forbidden alchemy persist here, now largely controlled through the Temple of Irrilandrilla.

Life in Sha’Dar

Sha’Dar cannot function without magic, and its citizens do not attempt to live without it. The city is too large to traverse by mundane means. Teleportation pads, arcane transit circles, flying conveyances, and ley-powered vehicles are commonplace. Entire professions exist solely to manage movement through the city.

Magic saturates daily life. Illusions mark streets, wards regulate violence, and enchantments hum constantly beneath the senses. Ascendants walk openly among mortals. Immortals linger for centuries. For many, Sha’Dar represents freedom from consequence. For others, it is a trap of endless indulgence. Those who falter or lose purpose often slide into the hedonism encouraged by Irrilandrilla’s influence, trading ambition for bliss. This quiet surrender is one of the mechanisms by which Tay’Morn Thul maintains control.

Noteworthy NPCs

Tay'Morn-Thul

Lord Tay’Morn Thul is the absolute ruler of Sha’Dar, an ascended Elari whose command of arcane, political, and historical power is unmatched within the city. Irrilandrilla, Goddess of Desire, rules alongside him through her established temple. Surviving councilors, high priests, underworld figures, and powerful independents each command significant influence, but all operate under the shadow of Tay’Morn Thul and the silent vigilance of The Guardian.

Ilya Ebonheart

Godling daughter of Irrilandrilla and Childress, serves as high priestess of the Temple of Desire, the only temple remaining in the city.

Childress

Childress himself acts as Herald and Avatar of Irrilandrilla, presiding over the temple rites and excesses with his daughter/wife Ilya.

Lady K

Lady K, secretly Ojo Kusanagi of Koolong, maintains a sanctioned presence within the city as a foreign stabilizer and political counterweight.