Sijan

Sijan, often known as the City of the Dead, is a metropolis located in the Scavenger Lands east of the River of Tears, west of the Avarice River, and south of the Black Chase. It is a city surrounded by vast fields of tombs, known for being home to the Funereal Order of Righteous Morticians and Embalmers, more commonly termed the Morticians' Order, and as a place where the living and the dead coexist so those who have passed from life may recieve proper reverence.

History

Prehistory

The history of Sijan is among the longest in Creation, the metropolis known now as 'Old Sijan' having arisen in the Prehistoric Era and grown to become home to millions of inhabitants, perhaps the largest of mortal cities during that era (though of course exceeded by the divine city of Meru). The city was stable and prosperous, and when the Primordial War erupted it did not side with the Incarnae and their Exalted against the Primordials.

The official histories of the Solar Deliberative stated that a great battle was fought in Old Sijan against the Primordial known as Jheel-Khan, Whose Laughter Turns the Skies to Blood, the Primordial's attacks and later death throes destroying the city, slaying its populace, the Primordial's body contaminating the land where it fell to eventually birth the Shadowland known as the Black Chase. Certainly some truths lay in such descriptions, but in the wake of Primordial defeat there were reprisals for those who had opposed the Most High. One way or another, at the end of the War no original inhabitant remained alive and no building still stood.

First Age

With the dawn of Solar rule over Creation, the ruins of Old Sijan were suffused with death, and measures were taken to stabilize the region. The new dangers and possibilities of the Underworld were little understood, and the Solar Deliberative quickly acted to repopulate the city so that knowledge might be gained. The first new inhabitants fared poorly among the ruins, but with time knowledge was gained and the rebuilt city emerged as a source of experts in funeral rites and quieting ghosts, who were sent across Creation to assist in such work. From this expertise was born the Morticians' Order which rules over Sijan in the present day.

Among the First Age developments in Sijan was a grand public works project to establish a system of interconnected canals, arrayed in rings, which might serve as basic transportation, conveyance for funeral processions, and to link the River of Tears with the Avarice River. The islands between the rings and connecting channels were home to many structures, but the natural barriers meant construction tended to descend below, resulting in tunnels and warrens which themselves connected to the buried remnants of Old Sijan.

Shogunate Era

Sijan existed as a neutral state through much of the Shogunate Era, providing morticians to the Shogunate and to various daimyo throughout Creation. Faced with the Great Contagion, the Morticians proved little more capable than any others of preventing disaster, and their neutrality meant local military forces were hardly ready to face the Fair Folk. Instead, Sijan burned all its bridges, leaving desperate refugees outside its outermost ring of canals and isolating each island from the rest. The dead from the Contagion were many, those from starvation and privation more still, and the Morticians' presence across wider Creation was minimal once recovery began following the rise of the Scarlet Empress, for every Mortician was needed for service at home.

Age of Sorrows

When the Scarlet Empress attempted to assert control over the Scavenger Lands in RY45, Sijan declared its neutrality and this was accepted without objection by the Scarlet Empire. Thus Sijan's Morticians tended to the dead on all sides during the First Realm Invasion of the Scavenger Lands. In RY75, at outset of the Second Realm Invasion of the Scavenger Lands, the Scarlet Empress demanded Sijan accept the stationing of a token garrison and the request was accepted by the Morticians. The garrison, a single talon of the 4th Imperial Legion, held its post throughout the Second Invasion, but suddenly vanished without a trace in RY77. No replacement garrison was assigned by 4th Legion strategoi Vondy Beulen, and Sijan remained neutral without military forces present through the Third Realm Invasion of the Scavenger Lands.

In RY95, Sijan was among the first powers to join the League of Many Rivers. When that alliance was reformed into the more militarized Confederation of Rivers Sijan joined as well, with the overt statement that while they would embrace and act according to its trade and regulatory demands they would never respect the mandatory military provisions of the alliance and would remain neutral in any conflict. At various times this has caused some tensions in the Confederation, but so far other member states have been content not to challenge their ostensible ally when it ignores ostensibly binding Confederation requirements.

Despite its membership in the Confederation the Scarlet Empire continues to accept Sijan's claim of neutrality in the diplomatic sphere, but its trade and its Morticians still face a great deal of hostility due to opposition from the Immaculate Order, which claims the role the Morticians wish to play in funerary rites on the Blessed Isle and in many other regions of Creation. Still, while the Immaculate faithful would never entertain such ideas, some members of the Scarlet Dynasty are most willing to interact with the Morticians, on occasion even arranging lavish funerals and tombs to mark their passing.

The rise of Mask of Winters and that Deathlord's conquest of Thorns has raised suspicions among Sijan's neighbours due to the city's clear connections with the dead. Such suspicions are hardly unjustified: Sijan maintains cordial relations with not just the Mask but other Deathlords as well, and the obvious question of why an Order ostensibly devoted to making the dead rest in peace would be friendly with lords of death leading armies of undead remains unanswered.

Geography

Sijan is a circular city defined by numerous rings of canals and additional canals that connect them. While the islands between are home to courtyards and alleyways, it is the canals which serve as the city's streets. Most of the canals are not wide, suited for river boats and other smaller craft, but four are of width and depth sufficient to carry larger vessels, most often the black Funeral Galleys of the Morticians' Order as they bear mourning parties to the tombs or set out to travel the rivers of the Scavenger Lands. The islands between the canals are sometimes joined by bridges, across which passage is restricted to the dead, but most transit between them is restricted to ferry barges and gondolas, exclusive to either the living or the dead. The islands are almost entirely occupied by tombs and mausoleums on the surface, with residential and entertainment buried deeper below. Because each island is small, they are rarely home to significant industry or agriculture, and even in the sphere of commerce most traders eschew storefronts in favour of trade barges and Food Gondolas.

Grand Canal

The Grand Canal is one of the four deep canals, running in a straight line from the nearby Avarice River to the southeast, through the city and out towards the River of Tears in the northwest, passing through the Plains of the Dead with numerous docks and smaller branches allowing funeral processions to reach intended burial sites. Its straight course is interrupted at only one point, the very centre of the city, where it halts as it joins the Embracing Canal that circles the central Mortuary Isle. Vessels must turn along the Embracing for a spell before rejoining the Grand.

Though it is not deep enough for most ocean vessels, many merchants prefer the Grand Canal to transiting between the two rivers where they join to the southwest. There, the Salt Marsh is prone to shift silt and stone into the Avarice on occasion, a risk requiring an observant pilot to keep a vessel sailing.

Embracing Canal

The innermost of Sijan's deep canals, the Embracing Canal encircles the Mortuary Isle at the centre of the city, serving as the connection between the southeast and northwest stretches of the Grand Canal when that isle's presence blocks the Grand's course.

Exchanging Canal

The Exchanging Canal is the middle of the three deep canals circling the city, connected twice to the Grand Canal. Its central location within the canal network makes it the favoured anchorage for Sijan's numerous trade barges and Food Gondolas when they rest before heading out on their routes.

Expelling Canal

The Expelling Canal is the outermost canal of Sijan, and one of the city's deep canals, connected twice to the Grand Canal. It serves as the outer boundary of the city proper, beyond which lie the Plains of the Dead. Eyes scanning either bank of the canal can marvel at the contrast, for on the islands of the inner bank lie tombs of those ancient or grand enough to earn place in the city proper, while on the outside lie simple markers for the thousands who perished there during the Contagion as they begged to be allowed entry.

Mortuary Isle

The Mortuary Isle is the centre of Sijan, and the headquarters of the Morticians' Order. Its surface home to high towers and vast chambers housing the renowned libraries of Sijan (for which many academics throughout Creation thirst for access) and facilities for the preparation of corpses and grave goods as well as the coffins, sarcophagi, tombstones, and the like. The island is even home to a shipyard of not-insignificant size, for construction and repair of the Morticians' black funeral galleys.

Beneath the surface can be found administrative offices for the Morticians and the municipal government, as well as facilities for housing and training the Morticians themselves. The libraries, known across Creation for the rare and esoteric knowledge they have accumulated, spiral deep.

Libraries of Sijan

Located on the Mortuary Isle, the Libraries of Sijan are a vast collection of knowledge, both ancient and new. Their primary focus is on matters of death and the dead, though the years have seen many texts gathered concerning other subjects as well.

The Morticians are protective of their libraries, but willing to accept visitors seeking out the knowledge within, so long as those visitors offer desirable contributions to the libraries in terms of further ancient tomes and the results of new research.

Trovis Isle

Trovis Isle is an island located at the southeastern connection between the Grand Canal and the Expelling Canal, on the Grand's west bank. Unlike almost all other islands in sijan its surface is not home to a tomb but to a fort, whose low walls and parapet surround a central courtyard and a stairway spiralling deep down to catacombs that once might have been a dormitory or barracks of Old Sijan. Once centuries ago it played host to a garrison of the 4th Imperial Legion, which vanished mysteriously in the Trovis Disappearance. Today it serves as base for a contingent of mercenaries from Lookshy's Seventh Legion, tasked with mundane security against organized bandits and raiders when they encroach upon Sijanese territory, as the Morticians' Order does not maintain military formations. For dealing with matters of the dead, the Morticians take care of such things themselves, while for individual graverobbers the dead are more than able to terminate unwelcome intrusions.

To the frustration of the Lookshyan officers assigned to Trovis, perhaps the most common task assigned them by the Morticians is to hunt out flocks and nesting sites of Sijan Storks which enter the Plains of the Dead in search of carrion.

Isle of Avarice

The Isle of Avarice is an island located at the southeastern connection between the Grand Canal and the Expelling Canal, on the Grand's east bank. It is the city's primary trade port, the place one is most likely to encounter foreign visitors and least likely to meet with the dead. The island's surface is not home to tombs but to warehouses, its depths to taverns and inns. The most prominent structure on the Isle is a factory of The Guild, which plays a major role in commerce, as well as in banking... for those who come to plan funerals and find themselves desiring grander memorials than the purse can bear, Guild loans can most certainly be arranged.

Isle of Visitation

The Isle of Visitation is an island located on the eastern bank of the Embracing Canal where it meets the Grand Canal at the southeast of inner Sijan. Its surface is home to some of the most grand of Sijan's mausoleums and museums, while below are facilities operated by the Morticians to host guests who have come to arrange funaral rites and burials. For the most high class or wealthy, the suites are generous if perhaps not as luxurious as one might expect elsewhere. For those of lesser importance the rooms are more austere but certainly not cramped or uncleanly. These facilities are provided free to guests making arrangements with the Morticians, though the food is only basic and many guests seek repasts from the Food Gondolas which hover near the bank well aware of the money to be made.

Guests who wish finer facilities can seek out alternative housing, most commonly the Grand Thereafter Hotel or the Inn of Memorable Life.

Isle of Emergence

The Isle of Emergence is an island located on the western bank of the Embracing Canal where it meets the Grand Canal at the southeast of inner Sijan. It is notable as location of the Grand Thereafter Hotel, operated by Blushing Spring. A rival with the Inn of Memorable Life for best inn of Sijan, the Grand Thereafter is the more costly of the two, but more conveniently located and known for almost-slavish devotion to the wishes of its clientele.

The Isle's underground is also home to a manor controlled by the Dynastic House Ledaal for hosting its members, who would typically visit the city to consult with its libraries.

Isle of Conclusion

The Isle of Conclusion is an island located on the eastern bank of the Embracing Canal where it meets the Grand Canal at the northwest of inner Sijan. It is notable as location of the Inn of Memorable Life, operated by Wandering Heron. A rival with the Grand Thereafter Hotel for best inn of Sijan, the Memorable Life is known for having the finer wine cellar and better food of the two, but its owner shows little restraint in confronting and berating clients who annoy him.

The Isle's underground is also home to a manor controlled by the Dynastic House Cynis for hosting its members, who would typically visit the city to explore funeral arrangements.

Isle of Ash

The Isle of Ash is an island located at the northwestern connection between the Grand Canal and the Expelling Canal, on the Grand's east bank. Its banks are home to docks for trading vessels, though not as extensive as those of the Isle of Avarice to the southeast. It recieves some trade, particularly from Linowa and Tien-Wo, but it is also visited by local barges bearing cargoes of Black Ash wood from the Black Chase. While mausoleums cover the isle's surface, beneath can be found woodworking workshops and sawmills which process that wood, mostly to supply the needs of the Morticians but occasionally for export. The Isle's workshops also process other wood into forms required by the Morticians, including cedar from Miwoc and Belbac.

Isle of Chisels

The Isle of Chisels is located in northwest Sijan, on the outer bank of the Exchanging Canal. Beneath its surface mausoleums can be found the workshops of numerous skilled stonecarvers working tombstones, urns, and components for tombs, primarily out of Marble, Granite, and Alabaster.

Isle of Feathers

The Isle of Feathers is located in southeast Sijan, on the inner bank of the Exchanging Canal. Beneath its surface mausoleums can be found workshops for craftspeople working with feathers, particularly those of the Sijan Stork, transforming them into fans, grave goods, and bedding.

Isle of Howls

The Isle of Howls is located in northwest Sijan, on the inner bank of the Expelling Canal. Beneath its surface mausoleums can be found breeding pens and training halls for Gravehounds.

Isle of Devotion

The Isle of Devotion is an island located at the northwestern connection between the Grand Canal and the Expelling Canal, on the Grand's west bank. The Isle is in fact many small islets, linked by bridges and piers, for it serves as home port to the black galleys and gondolas of the Morticians' Order when they seek rest between their missions to maintain tombs in the Plains of the Dead or ply rivers far afield for their duties.

Plains of the Dead

The Plains of the Dead are a vast canal-riddled expanse stretching out around Sijan, stretching westward to the Salt Marsh and north to the River of Tears and Black Chase. The westmost reaches of the Plains become swampy, home to the most impermanent forms of burial, while in the north the land supports grander constructions but the dangers of the Shadowland loom larger. The most valued placement for tombs is to the east where the plains stretch out along the north bank of the Avarice River: here the structures are observed not just by mourners and Morticians but by the ships sailing the river. The true number of the dead buried in the Plains may be beyond counting, and times of chaos mean even the Morticians' records are likely incomplete. In some places time has sunk tombs and seen new ones raised atop them, layer upon layer creating hills and valleys in the landscape. Yet each day thousands of Morticians set out into the Plains' canals to maintain the tombs in their charge, trimming weeds and cleaning stones, descending shafts to care for long-buried tombs as devotedly as for those standing on the surface.

With its surrounding lands devoted to graves, Sijan produces almost no food of its own, relying entirely on imports from Linowa and the Confederation of Rivers to feed its populace. Those who argue that some sections of the Plains might be converted to agriculture are quickly dismissed.

True Sijan

True Sijan, or Under-Sijan, is the city's counterpart in the Underworld. It is a very different place than its counterpart in Creation, and yet the two are fundamentally entwined. Not only due to the passage of the dead between them, but in administration as well, for both are controlled by the Morticians' Order.

Museums of Sijan

On several islands between canals, mausoleums which for one reason or another were never occupied have been repurposed as Museums of Sijan. These facilities house rare and beautiful works of art donated to the Morticians, and those loaned by the dead from among their grave goods, so they might be enjoyed by the public living and dead alike.

Politics

Sijan is ruled by the Morticians' Order, of that there can be no doubt. As the Morticians' do not dedicate training to municipal administration, this rule is in large part assigned to the most junior apprentices under the disinterested eye of senior overseers, who in turn answer as does the whole of their order to the leadership in the Underworld.

Military

Sijan does not have a standing army. Within the city a small constabulary maintains civil order under command of the Morticians, while more difficult tasks are handled by the Morticians themselves or their Black Watch. When organized military threats emerge such as large bandit gangs, the mercenary contingent from Lookshy is dispatched to end the threat.

Culture

Sijanese culture is guided by the city's nature in many ways: life revolves around the raising and maintenance of memorials to the dead. Even for those not members of the Morticians, life focuses upon death and ritual. Sijan's inhabitants tend to not be farmers but craftspeople versed in carving and construction. Literacy is high as most find themselves called to recite chants and obituary recitations as part of funeral processions. Ritual prayer is common for that same reason, though little of it ascends towards the gods or Yu-shan... it is not that the divine is not recognized, but that priorities lie elsewhere.

Sijanese cuisine follows that of the wider River Province, though the level of spice and heat tends to be quite high, with heavy employment of chilis in the city's favoured dishes. 'Ful', a dish of spiced lemon and beans, is a constant staple, and local Spun Wraps invariably include a generous amount of chili paste.