During the privations of the Lyr invasions, the Great Lyran himself relied on a simple formula. He would arrive at the gates of a city with his host, and proclaim that the city had two options. It could request his protection, which he would gladly grant, and garrison the town in exchange for tribute. Or it could refuse, which would represent a personal insult, after which the town would be taken by force and, without the Great Lyran’s protection, it would be subject to whatever privations his host saw fit to visit upon it.

The fortified town of Geldstadt, protected by high walls and towers of the old Verdant Empire, responded to this offer with scorn. Desiring not to share their wealth, and confident in relief from the Elector, the citizens rejected the Great Lyran’s offer and barred their gates against him. They had every right to be optimistic, for Geldstadt’s walls withstood the Lyr for eight months, frustrating the Great Lyr’s campaign for an entire season. But the Elector never arrived, preferring instead to marshal his forces for the disastrous Battle of the Bloody Fields, so when the walls of Geldstadt were finally breached, the full fury of the Lyr fell on the town. Ordinarily, the Great Lyran would allow three days of plunder and pillage upon cities that defied him, but Geldstadt had left him in a foul mood, and as a result, he ordered every man, woman, and child in the city to be slain. He spared only the city council and mayor, driving them away to spread tales of depredation and fear.

Geldstadt had, as it happened, been hewn out of stones quarried from a layer that was rich in magicite and other naturally magick-conducting materials. The result was that the minerals were highly charged with the negative energy from so much death and suffering in such a short span of time. This caused the city, itself, to develop a rudimentary intelligence gestalt of a sort. It is capable of communicating, but rarely does so, preferring instead to use every means at its disposal to repel intruders, from collapsing masonry to feigning sounds.

High Inquisitor’s Note
Several groups of settlers have attempted to use the still-intact infrastructure while turning the Dead City to a more useful purpose. Most were driven away, but others were slaughtered, and the question of what happened to their spirits–dissipated, or joined the gestalt?–remains to this day.

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