Ruins

The Tablelands are fairly covered with ruins. Decaying towers rise out of the sandy wastes. Abandoned fortresses loom over the stony barrens. The white-crusted crowns of half-buried palaces protrude from the salt flats. Long-lost dungeons lie tucked away in the hidden corners of badlands labyrinths. The architecture of these ruins, both in the great cities and in the isolated buildings, is that of ancients, with an abundance of gracefully arched doors, windows, and gates. The walls and towers are built of thousands of more-or-less flat rocks, carefully shaped and fitted into place, then mortared with lime cement. The top of the towers and walls are capped by square crenelations designed to protect men as they defended the top of the wall. Generally, the windows of the exterior walls are no more than slits through which soldiers can fire bows and crossbows at besiegers outside the castle. The interior walls are more generous, large enough to let an ample amount of light and air into the dank rooms. The most common ruins are solitary remnants of the glorious age that preceded ours. As you travel through the Tablelands, you'll find bridges spanning long dead riverbeds that have not known the taste of water in centuries. You'll cross cobblestone lanes laid down more than a thousand years ago, and if you turn to follow them you'll pass shattered guard towers that must have seemed like lonely and forlorn posts even when the road ran heavy with traffic. Most often, these ruins are simply places to hide from the sweltering sun or take shade from the merciless wind. Occasionally, there will be a hidden opening that leads to a basement or lost tunnel system. Sometimes, these subterranean tunnels even hold priceless treasures - an ancient steel sword or breastplate, for example. Just as often, they serve as home to some vicious or brutish creature that will appreciate an unexpected meal entering its lair. Although not as common as the solitary bridges and towers of the previous age, more substantial ruins are not rare. Archaic castles stand along ancient roads and dry riverbeds. Even if the castle itself has been reduced to a ruin, the foundations often still exist. The dark rooms and twisting tunnels inside those foundations sometimes contain valuable weapons and other treasures - but like the ruins of the previous age, they are also prime lairs for vicious creatures. The largest castles are surrounded by villages. Most of the village buildings have long-since collapsed, and their walls have disappeared, but valuable items such as coins, weapons, and metal tools and utensils still lie among the foundations. There is usually a large, ruined stone building that once served as a temple where the ancients practiced their religion. The vaults beneath these temples sometimes contain vast treasures. Unfortunately, those who have entered these temples also report finding unusual numbers of strange creatures - both living and undead. In the Tablelands of the Tyr region, a handful of ruined cities lie half-buried in dust, sand, or sak. Although the locations of these cities are well known, they are relatively untouched. Exploring a city ruin is a major undertaking, for they cover tens of thousands of acres and are often buried beneath a thick layer of windblown sediment. In addition, most serve as either the home of a raiding tribe or the lair of dozens of vicious creatures, so it is common for adventurers entering city ruins to not return. The eight cities that I know of (and have visited personally) are described in Chapter Four: Atlas of the Tyr Region. The vast majority of these ruined cities date from ancient times. In many ways, they resemble the ancient village ruins, save that everything is on a much grander scale. In the center of a city, there is a massive fortress-town in place of a castle. There is dozens of huge temples instead of a single small one; there are thousands of collapsed buildings, each with a cellar or basement in its foundation. Finally, most have large subterranean sewers and catacombs into which much of the city's treasure has been dragged over the centuries by successive generations of monsters. Two of the ruined cities that I know of date from our own era. Of course, they resemble our modern cities in layout. The prime areas of economic importance (the merchant emporiums, the noble estates, the templar houses, and the sorcerer-king's fortress) have already been thoroughly explored and looted. There is little reason to visit these two cities except for curiosity's sake. Considering what abides there now, I am not that curious. Of course, there may well be cities that no one has discovered yet. Who has not heard stories of a lost city of steel lying buried beneath a mammoth mekillot dune, or listened in awe to the bards who sing of the dwarves, Lost City of Gold?