Isidora is a region of the Invisible Cities on the Silk Road: not a city but the whole shore of Lake Nildir. It lies some 30 km from Diomirra, two days by caravan, out of phase with ordinary reality and partly in the dream world.
| Type | Place (region) |
| Founder | Kyrios |
| Spanish entry | Isidora |
Geography and history
Lake Nildir, “which some call an inland sea”, is closed water with a central abyss and no outlet to the outer seas. It yields coral and pearls, seven in ten of them black. The region has a Coral Coast and a Snail Coast. Kyrios founded its cities about a thousand years ago; they lie on the Great Khan’s coast but predate his rule, and great lords govern them. Isidora grew rich from the Silk Road and tribute.
The twin cities
Everything comes in pairs: two twin cities, each double — one on an island near the central abyss, one at the river mouth.
- The island has 4,700 inhabitants. A main avenue leads to the manor: a towered mansion with a porch of chiming bamboo boards, an open double door and rice-paper panels.
- Palaces have spiral staircases inlaid with seashells.
- A great lighthouse is being built; shelters are planned to evacuate the city.
- Recorded places include Eeltown and a doubtful “street of the dozens of smiles”.
Crafts and customs
Isidora makes violins and spyglasses. The violin is a hunting instrument that lures leucrotas; a centuries-old ritual for leucrotas needs both crafts and an enchanted harp, and Isidora is its only supplier. Cockfights end in bloody brawls among bettors. A local rule: “when the stranger hesitates between two women, he always finds a third.” A temple grants a wish when a word is said three times. A “false Apollo” is worshiped.
The dream
Its coasts belong to the dream world, as do those of Noble Plains. One voice holds that Isidora has no real city and arises from the desires of whoever seeks it. Its dreamer is young yet arrives old, and sits at the square’s low wall where the old watch youth pass: “desires are already memories.”
Barbatos
Beneath Isidora lie a dark creature and a cult of Barbatos. Should the darkness appear, “those above” would bombard the cult and the city. Isidora prepared its defense while ships were active in the marine space; the deadline to destroy the cult was set at 3 a.m. Its cities were then freed “from the attack of Barbatos”.
Conflicting accounts
- The founding is dated 1,000 or 1,100 years ago.
- The deadline alternates between midnight and 3 a.m.; the last setting is 3 a.m.
- Isidora has people, a lighthouse and shelters, yet one account calls it unreal.
Open questions
- The twin cities’ names, and what the lords owe the Great Khan, are unrecorded.
- The manor’s owner and the temple’s word are unknown.
- Whose trapped sarcophagus the records mention, and where, is unknown.
- Who “those above” are, and what the ships are, is unknown.
- Whom the “false Apollo” imitates is unexplained.
Gallery
