OOC Info [Zinrah] Codex

[Traverse]

Zinrah is a dark secluded place filled with some of the most dangerous Dhani in all of Mizahar. Though driven to the brink of extinction by the Myrians, the Constrictor and Viper Dhani of the city do more than simply survive Falyndar's constant and ever present dangers, they thrive in the dark winding tunnels. With centuries to scheme, learn, and hone an individual's skills, most Dhani are out for themselves, yet the care of their snakelings, and therefore their future is that of utmost priority to all who dwell within the city. Zinrah is a city of the privileged few that are too precious to its subterranean community to be risked outside the city, and everyone else who is working to attain such a position of power. Though life in Zinrah is a constant struggle, with a Myrian blockade on their doorstep, small numbers, and harsh climate, the Dhani are never ones to wallow or whine about their situation. Zinrah is a place of lavish parties, fine goods are sneaked and smuggled in from trading with brethren on Black Rock, and a small but lucrative slave trade commences between the Rajor of Kenash and the Queens of Zinrah. The Myrians might sleep better at night imagining dank stinking tunnels and hopeless serpents trapped behind their armies, but the reality is anything but, and Dhani will never forget their former glory that they hope one day to win back from the barbarian monkeys outside their walls.

Contents:

• Linkmap
  
• General City Information
  
• FAQ

[Traverse]

The above image shows one dimension of Zinrah's many pathways. Tunnels extend all across Falyndar, and the Dhani inhabitant merely one portion of them. 1, 2, and 3 display exits from the city. 1 is the entrance that the Myrian Blockade stand guard in front of. 2 Is the exit through the ruins above Zinrah, and though the quickest way out of the city, is also more hazardous as it requires making sure one doesn't run into Myrian patrols that occasionally scout the ruins. 3 is safer but longer, leading off the map shown here out two miles before surfacing in the jungle. It is used by many hunters and those looking to leave Zinrah and stay far away from the Myrian blockade. The path leading straight down leads into the depths of Zinrah where few travel, but shops like The Fence reside. The other pathway leading off map below exit 1 leads to the many steam baths and beyond.

• The Tunnels New arrivals should post here first.

Outside of the Tunnels:

• Zinrah’s Ruins

PC Dwellings - If you would like your dwelling listed here, submit a write up to me for approval, I'll make a fancy header for your home and then you can post it up as a location!

• Scarlet Cavern - The residence of the Dhani Viper, Aka
  
• Xen's Cavern - The residence of the Dhani Viper, Xen

Central Locations

• Caiyha's Nook
  
• The Nurseries
  
• Sissicillys (The Heart) -Guard and Hunting Hub
  
• Siku’s Shrine
  
• The School
  
• The Training Gallery
  
• The Steam Baths

The Market

• The Art of Cunning - Jewelry (Insect)
• Skins, Furs, and Pelts - Skinning
• Hide n' Seek - Tanning/ Leatherworking
• The Hundredth Hole- Herbal shop
• Sinuous Crockery - Pottery
• True Beauty - Make-up/ Body Art
• Hisszling Garments - Tailor
• Ixam Eyes - Fletching/ Bowing

Political

• The Queen’s Lair Moderation Required
• The Gathering of the Queens Moderation Required

Recreational

• The Distillery - Bar and Lounge
• The Red Room - Massage Parlour
• The Snake Coil - Perfomance Hall

Far Below

• Arcessere - Summoning
• Bastille of the Wretched - Zinrah's Dungeon
• Marrow - Malediction
• The Scenery- BDSM dungeon
• Sitria, Sphere of the Elements - Reimancy
• The Fence– Zinrah's Pawn Shop
• Buried Treasures - Glyphing

[Traverse]

Appearance

Zinrah's tunnels are a myriad of size, shape, texture, and even the type of rock that makes up the lining of the tunnel. This is because an amalgamation of Geomancy and Slave labor has gone into expanding, shaping, and improving the tunnels within the city. By and large, as with all caves the type of stone that comprises Zinrah's network is Limestone. Dhani are fickle and moody creatures, however, and with centuries to learn more than a few architects, Queens, and simply the curious have learned of other types of stone and rock and incorporated it one way or another into the tunnels. The Red Room is a prime example of this, and perhaps the most obvious, most other examples one would need to be allowed into a lesser Queen's chambers in order to see, as they have the power and wealth to enable more dynamic changes by Geomancer within their quarters.

The quality of limestone depends on the tunnel one is traversing. Many tunnels were naturally form over milennia with the constant flow of water throughout Falyndar. Places such as the hub of Steam Baths, and most spaces Dhani find to call home have never been carved or altered. Places like Siku's Temple, or the Distillery are entirely different stories, and some more widely used tunnels have been widened and supported with wooden frames to discourage collapse. Only recently has more care gone into non Queen dwellings, which are the most intricate and lavish of anywhere save Siku's Temple. In the Winter of 514, many commonly used tunnels around Dhani dwellings, the temples, and many shops were further widened, and carved into creating murals of Dhani pride, prowess, and grace in the face of the horde just outside their city.

Zinrah is not a comfortable place for non-Dhani. There are not beds, chairs or tables in the traditional sense. If these things exist they are carved out of rock. Most textiles get wet and rot, unless you are a Queen who has access to drier climbs. The tunnels are beautiful and harsh in equal measure, displaying both carved and natural wonders, and a perfect mirror to the deadly and entrancing serpents that live within.

City Defense

Because of the treaty, there is not truly a need for Zinrah to have armies or guards, not that they have the numbers to sustain such forces even if they wanted to. That being said, there are two main jobs in Zinrah, that of hunters and that of guards, many times the positions overlapping. Guards are stationed at each entrance, even the one leading straight into the Myrian Blockade waiting for the day that the uneasy truce is repealed. The two more covert tunnels are Zinrah's best kept secret and guards and hunters ensure this remains, taking pains to keep them well hidden, and remaining vigilant to anyone or anything that does happen to come across them. More than one individual not welcome in Zinrah has found one of the two hidden entrances, but none have ever lived to tell of it.

Little known to most of Zinrah, Tanabis has numerous contingency plans if Myrians do invade their tunnels. They are kept quiet, the idea of discussing the failure of the small Dhani foothold in the jungles almost unbearable to discuss.

Demographics

• 85% Constrictor Dhani
• 14% Viper Dhani
• 1% Other

There are generally 200 adult Dhani in Zinrah. This does not count the 100 or so snakelings that are being raised at any given time down in the Nurseries, but Dhani do not count their young before they're learned all three forms, and are prudent to do so. The 1% are outsiders, most of whom are slaves to lesser Queens, if you are not a slave and not a Dhani you are always under watch by hungry eyes.

Laws (Or lack thereof)

The Dhani of Zinrah do not have written or recorded laws, they are governed by a singular all powerful Queen and the lesser Queens below her, but daily life is rarely effected by this loose and often vicious monarchy. The Dhani of Zinrah generally follow a set of basic principles:

• Snakelings are the future of the Nest, and must never come to harm, no matter their perhaps unfortunate parentage
  
  
• Numbers are too small to murder your neighbors. If you feel such urges, maim or disgrace them socially them to get your revenge
  
  
• The Queen is above reproach...even when she isn't. If you have treacherous things to say keep them to yourself or have trust in the one you are speaking to.
  
  
• Only trust in yourself

If you are a Dhani born outside of Zinrah the amount of harm that might befall you if you cross the wrong Dhani on their home turf is much more severe, though murder would still be looked down upon. If you are a non Dhani, unless under a Dhani's protection in some way shape or form, there is not limit of the pain that might befall you, any rules or principles one Dhani might hold to other Dhani are not applied or even considered when dealing with non Dhani.

Style

By and large Dhani, and especially the Dhani of Zinrah do not have a lot of use for clothing, wearing little to nothing in Dhani and Serpent forms, but this does not stop trends from running through the city depending on textiles garnered by Queens from Black Rock shipments. Generally Dhani in human form wear little to nothing, but all Dhani enjoy jewelry whether made out of metal or bone. Most take the shape of serpents or are carved and shaped to look scaled, symbols of pride for Dhani even when not displaying scales themselves.

Another always popular trend is the tinting and or enhancing the color of one's scales with dusts, dyes, and other cosmetics usually made from jungle creatures and plants. Though these types of make overs do not last long in Zinrah's damp climbs, it is not uncommon for Dhani to be tinted, painted, and otherwise decorate themselves before events at Siku's Temple or wild parties.

Trade

Zinrah is a largely self sufficient entity. The major needs of the nest are Food, which is something the majority of the nest provides for themselves and the Queens. Because of the influx of animal remains, bones and hide are utilized often, and clay is another common resource. What cannot be found and gathered is painstakingly received from Black Rock, usually frivolous goods for the Queens. Very rarely do the Dhani return payment to their brethren on Dira's Isle for the goods they receive, but if a Dhani on Black Rock ever made their way around Falyndar to approach Zinrah more safely through the west side of the jungle, they would always be welcome within the city. On occasion Zinrah will trade with the Rajor of Kenash in Myrian slaves, getting a more varied racial crop for their own uses, while giving strong, if not rebellious stock to those in Kenash.

[Traverse]

How do you get to Zinrah?

Zinrah is not a place that is easily found. A lot of PC's just like to waltz in, but travel by oneself or even with a single companion (PC or NPC) is extremely difficult in Mizahar, and this goes doubly for Falyndar where every plant and animal can turn on you in an instant. By far the easiest way to get there is to be born within the city. If you are desperately looking to start in the city and weren't born and raised there the second easiest way is to have traveled there pre-creation of your PC somewhere in their history. You can do this a couple of ways, either being guided through the jungle, or captured by Dhani and dragged back to the city. Both require just chatting with your local ST about a feasible and logical way you arrived at Zinrah and avoided the Myrian blockade that surrounds the front entrance of the city. If you want to travel there IC a modded thread is required to explain how you survived at least a portion or your journey.

What kind of jobs can I get in Zinrah?

Though secluded and cut off from any easy way to gain supplies that might come more easily to any other city, Zinrah has collected most anything that one might need to work on a variety of trades. Anything involving fire such as Blacksmithing is not going to happen, though one potter has successfully vented his kiln in order to fire his pottery, but jobs such as weaving, herbalism, and crafting in general are respected in the city. The most common jobs by far are that of guards and hunters, two jobs which can often overlap, but not always. Queens are always in need of protection and food is always needed to subsist the ever hungry residents of Zinrah. Have a specific job in mind and aren't sure about it? Send me a PM

What is the overall vibe in Zinrah?

Zinrah is a strange place. It has an extremely small population, but most Dhani are pretty self involved so unless they have reason to they don't go out of their way to get to know newcomers or individuals they find beneath them. Despite the haughty air of the Dhani, however, someone always knows something about everyone, news travels quickly, rumors more so, and guards and Queens looking to gain an edge are always hunting out information they can lord over others when the time comes. If you are a Dhani born and raised in Zinrah you are at the top of the food chain, Constrictors a bit more so than the Viper varieties only because there are more of them. Next comes Dhani from other nests, then non-Dhani visitors, then slaves. The drop off between Dhani and non-Dhani is a steep one, and unless you have gained favor with Siku herself or lesser Queens in the city a non-Dhani will never hear the end of insults and jabs at their seeming lesser qualities when compared to the wondrous Dhani.

How do the Dhani survive with the Myrians always on their doorstep?

The benefit to Zinrah's small numbers is that they can move in and out of the city without being detected. The Dhani of Black Rock smuggle goods seasonally to Zinrah, their carriers generally sailing around the coast on the opposite side of Falyndar to drop them off to waiting Dhani of Zinrah to bring in fine goods the residents of Zinrah might not normally see. A similar pattern happens with a small slave trade between the Rajor of Kenash and a couple enterprising Lesser Constrictor Queens. Though the Myrians have their forces trained on the most obvious entrance of the city, the other two are kept under constant watch and have never been discovered. Myrian patrols are few and far between in the depths of the ruins and allow Dhani to make their way out of the city, skirt around the blockade and hunt towards the Kandukta Basin, for a safer route, head out through the western tunnel and hunt closer to the coast opposite the blockade. Though to any who would look at the Myrian forces it seems as if the Dhani are on the brink of destruction, the Taloban Armies' presence is just an empty threat, and one the Dhani of Zinrah are adept at working their way around.

Got a question you want to see on the FAQ? Send me a PM and I'll happily add it in here!