Nine Lanterns
Open neighbourhoods
Gith, Ruinbound, Gnoll, Worg, Medusa, and Gargoyle households belong to a neighbourhood order that treats air, light, and passage as common goods; see City Diasporas.
It's not just one city; A confederation of nine Nimrun cities connected by tunnels, underground rivers, and voice communication lines. Although the ninth city is lost, its vacant seat is still in the parliament.
City identity
Function: crystal optics, cartography, water engineering and tunnel guidance. Population: 3.4–4.6 million across the nine cities; the total includes sealed shifts and traveller galleries. Peoples: Svirfneblins of Nimrûn; Rock Gnomes, Kobolds, Warforged, and surface merchant minorities. Faith: First Echo and Silent Gem.
Nine cities
First Light is the council, Deep Lens is optic, Echo Well is law, Blue Stone is water, Broken Lantern is army, Thin Bell is trade, Sleeping Ore is mine, Shadow Meter is map, Last Glow is the lost city on the border of Stagnation.
Crisis
A new sealed ballot for the Last Glitter has been revealed. The Broken Lighthouse demands extraordinary military authority; The Bluestone reserves slow down, Kar-Dur demands right of way, and the Warforged lay claim to the legacy of the old cities.
Location in Avarra
| Field | Record |
|---|---|
| Layer | Hollow Countries |
| Regional threshold | The network of water and crystal between Kar-Dur’s old roads and the Stagnation boundary |
| Physical site | Tunnels, underground rivers, and sound shafts linking nine separate cave cities |
| Main approaches | Sealed descents from Kar-Dur; echo routes safe only with a Union guide |
| Nearby ties | Kar-Dur, Copper Chimney, and the closed tunnels toward Last Glow |
Nine Lanterns maps not area but light, water, air, and collapse time. Knowing the shortest tunnel is not enough to reach First Light: without the right lantern’s shift sound, a traveller can walk the same path for hours.