Argiri

The Castle of Mercy is the military headquarters of the Argiri. Barracks, weaponsmiths and training grounds abound. Once each month, it is also the site of The Contrition, a ritual whereby disgraced Argiri commanders, diplomats and administrators first publicly confess their crimes and failings, then beg that their family should be spared any repercussions for their sins, and finally drink poison.

The Halls of Care is the headquarters of the Office of Cleansing, which is responsible for organising the physicians, criminal investigators and prisons across the Argiri strongholds. Visitors are advised to visit (from the outside) the Great Hospital, which is considered a triumph of elven architecture, its carvings and frescoes a complex meditation on life and suffering and compassion; executions are held daily on the front steps.

In the months after the Sundering a group of elven refugees - administrators, soldiers, scholars and craftspeople - settled a new town here. The cataclysm had separated this little island from the rest of Glanhad, and they hoped to make a little home here for their people. Today, the Argiri have developed far beyond these early imaginings.

When the leaders of New Hope had spread their influence across the islands of Glanhad, they built seven shrines here, dedicated to the blessings which they vowed to bring to the lands. Today, a great stronghold has grown around these temples, but the seven still stand at the heart of the city - monuments to Teaching, Dedication, Correction, Perseverance, Piety, Inspiration and Guidance.

Looking across the seas to the holdings of the disrespectful New Light, the port's stunning public buildings, intricately worked and faced in silver, are designed as a testament to the skill, intelligence and organisation of the Argiri. Foreign visitors are intended to marvel at the architecture, which was built over decades by dozens of artists, hundreds of craftspeople, and thousands of slave labourers.

The religious centre of the Argiri, the street plan is based on traditional eleven temple designs, so that the whole city can be walked meditatively, as if it were a single huge, bustling religious site. Visitors are advised to watch their step in the roads, however, as the streets are punctuated with iron grilles, which provide light and air to the huge prison labour-colony which stretches under the city.