Ardis Vala is a fallen magical city and the descending stone complex beneath it, at the waterfalls three days north of the village, on what was once Mount Hermon. Every domain, faction and cult of the region defines itself by its place within it.
| Type | Place (ruined city, mega-dungeon) |
| Other names | Ardis Bala, Ardenbul, Ardipala, Arden Vul |
| Founders | Maristo Bell and Coyote Hundun (disputed) |
| Population | c. 1,600 humans (tentative) |
| Spanish entry | Ardis Vala — el cristal de diez capas |
Name and origin
The Book of the Watchers calls it Ardis Bala, the summit where the 200 descended; Ardemón is named alongside it. It is the point of the cosmic puncture, five or six thousand years ago, through which creation emerges, and where the angels gathered on the day of the rebellion. Of the whole world’s troubles one says: “things are not well in Ardis Vala”.
The Castle of the Prism, lighthouse of the gods, fell here; the adventuring group the Pantheon came for it, and two of its members founded the city on top.
Layout
- Above: the city, ruined in a magical debacle twelve hundred years ago, with a waterfall and an inn for adventurers. At the top, beyond any known company’s reach, there is said to be a dragon.
- Below: worked stone “inside a mountain”: modules, chambers and tunnels in superimposed levels and “4 or 5 volumes” no one knows whole, with natural cracks onto grottoes. A great crack divides high from deep. Sublevels up to 12 are known (9, 10 and 12 are named).
- Air: mists cover the reconfigured valley. A pressure, attributed to the mixture of technology, magic and the pre-elven forests, draws in sorcery-sensitives and almost fuses them with their surroundings.
Economy and politics
Colonists come for gems and magical modules; the site has been looted for over a millennium, and one in a hundred who descend returns. Debts are collected in order of precedence among rivals.
There is no single authority, only factions with shifting alliances. Salorquí runs experiments level by level; the Sortians hold the sixth; Pope Alexander VI appears as religious authority, bringing “a new justice in Ardis Vala”. The domain of Caladan reaches everyone inside. A single embassy of light, where “a redemption of the solar cult” began, is “the only place of light there is”.
Memory
The city is proud of old battles against the lizardmen; albino beastmen and the macaques (primates of Thoth) also figure in its fights. In the message of the egg, beside the name of Queen Raj, a voice said: «yo fui hada, hada de Ardis Vala» (“I was a fairy, a fairy of Ardis Vala”).
Conflicting accounts
- The catastrophe: a magical debacle twelve hundred years ago, a cosmic devastation, or a city “razed by the sea” — one blow or several.
- The dragon: one account puts it at the top; another names it as if it were the place itself.
Open questions
- How summit, mountain interior, waterfalls and valley form one site.
- Whether the founders’ names are right, and whether “Ardis” (Greek arrows) is known in the world.
- What degraded the former “ecology” of treasures.
- The faction list, the currency, and the condition of the 1,600 humans.
- The total depth.