Sulianpoli, the City of Heroes

[High_On_Math 398]

OOC NOTE:

Spoiler

OOC NOTE: Hi!!!! Welcome to our forum post for our 100% totally BASED Bronze-age culture.  Our goal is to provide Bronze-Age themed RP integrated into the LOTC fantasy setting.  We’re a community heavily influenced by Orc and High Elf culture, but we’re 100% inclusive of other races.  We’re also pretty influenced by Ancient Greece, but we welcome characters inspired by Bronze-Aged cultures all around the world!  Thank you, and hopefully you read the entire thing and become convinced that our city is BASED AND THAT YOU SHOULD TOTALLY MAKE A BRONZE AGE CHARACTER AND MOVE HERE! :)

Sulianpoli

 

 

 

       Esoteric secrets lay beneath your feet as you walk through the City-State of Heroes, for the denizens of this city follow Qarkah, the Spirit of the Immolation of what is Impure and Weak.  Carved into the flaming mountain is a reflection of Qarkah’s Spiritual realm – a maze chiseled turn by turn, passage by passage, to match the hellish Labyrinth of Qarkah.  The winding realm is not vacant.  No! It is home to many creatures . . . none of which are pleasant.  What brought the monster-slaying Heroes of Sulianpoli to harbor such things beneath their pure streets?

Sulianpoli Culture

 

 

History

       

       Sulianpoli, a small settlement built upon the side of an active volcano in Krugmar, began as a Haelun’orian colony.  It’s founder, Pamphilos Callidora Hyptos, is both a Pure Mali’thill and a Honorary Orc.  Both nations, Haelun’or and Krugmar, recognized the valiant deeds Pamphilos and his Lads had done in pursuit of Heroic Fame, and thus supported the Band in their endeavors to create the city.

       The land, which borders a fiery hellscape, was not chosen arbitrarily.  For Pamphilos’s ancestors, Great Mali of Old, had settled there long ago, many ages before the bulk of descendent kind had immigrated to Almaris.  Yet Time had conquered even these Valiant Men and Women, for the Great City of Sulianpoli had withered to its brick and clay bones.  No Hero had walked on that land for thousands of years, and the city was only ancient ruins.

       Now, Pamphilos’s Bronze Band of Heroes returned life to the land, constructing Great Temples and cultivating the purest vineyards, the largest beets, and the most worthy olive trees.  Now, Sulianpoli is once again a Grand City of Heroes, where Brave and True warriors of all races may come to gain great spiritual Honor and Fame, a concept known as Kleos.  But beneath the feet of the heroes lay the ruins of the city of the past, and along with the ruins, the Esoteric Secrets of the Ancestors . . .

 

Spirits

 

        The city is dominated by large, imposing temples built upon the city’s hills.  The temples were constructed in honor to different Spirits.  Scorthuz, Qarkah, Leyd, and Kezt are the main Spirits worshiped in Sulianpoli.  Scorthuz is the personification of purity; Qarkah, as stated in the introduction, is the personification of immolating impurity and weakness; Leyd is the personification of physical strength and domination; and Kezt is the personification of honor and bravery. 

 

         Pamphilos, the city’s founder, is a mali’thill and shaman, and denizens desiring blessings or contact with the spirits will approach him and request a ritual.  Rituals take place in the pure pools of the Black Acropolis.

 

Pamphilos looking at the Black Acropolis

 

        The veneration of Scorthuz in Sulianpoli reflects the city’s Haelun’orian heritage.  Rather than rejecting purity, the denizens of the city have found a new and more fulfilling way to pursue it.  This emphasis on purity-worship leads the denizens to focus on personal health and aesthetic.  They take frequent baths, both ritual and regular.  They care for their skin and hair with various ointments and salves, and they often anoint their bodies with olive oil. 

 

A ritual to Scorthuz

 

         The veneration of Leyd both binds Sulianpoli to Krugmar and enables the city to engage in a greater pursuit of Heroism.  Both the orcs and the members of Sulianpoli value strength, and the two cultures often heft together.  Truly, one does not need to ask “Do you even lift bruh” in Sulianpoli, since to live in the city is to be a frequent hefter.

 

         The pursuit of Heroism is aided by this veneration of strength because the denizens of the city shed all weakness, becoming the ultimate warriors able to cull any wicked beast which crosses their path.  This is especially true of the Mighty Lads of the Bronze Band, the city’s sacred brotherhood of elite heroes (note: Females can also be lads, and a member of any race can become a Lad!).  

 

         For more information about the Bronze Band, see this post!

https://www.lordofthecraft.net/forums/topic/209769-the-bronzed-phalanx-akaleh-misthios/?tab=comments#comment-1894590

 

         At the intersection of strength and purity lies Qarkah.  Because Qarkah burns away impurities and weakness, some seek him out in an effort to burn away the imperfections of their bodies, minds, and souls.  Furthermore, Heroism in and of itself is an expression of Qarkah, for to be a hero is to be one who culls what is impure and weak.

 

         The Labyrinth, left over from the City of the Ancestors, serves as a way to test and challenge Descendants who think of themselves as heroes.  The warriors are given a quest to retrieve certain sacred objects from inside the Labyrinth, and in attempting to do so, they are either proven weak and culled, or proven strong by culling the foes they meet in the tunnels.  The most deadly of foes are the Minotaurs, the children of Qarkah, who have been captured and placed into the Labyrinth as a sacrifice to Qarkah.  Furthermore, they make the Labyrinth more dangerous, thus enhancing the Glory of all who succeed in navigating it.

 

         The temple to Kezt is the largest, and it rests upon a mound in the center of the city.  While the worship of Leyd, Qarkah, and Scorthuz mostly involves pursuing physical strength and beauty, Kezt demands the strongest character.  He smiles upon acts of honor and bravery, pleased with the heart behind the action rather than merely physical might.  Oaths are sworn before Kezt, and being the Spirit of Honor, he ensures that those oaths are kept.  He appears to Descendants as a Silver Hoplite.  All Bronze Lads strive to reflect his character in their own.

 

         For more information on how the denizens of Sulianpoli view the Spirits, see this forum post:

https://www.lordofthecraft.net/forums/topic/216904-a-formal-interpretation-of-the-shamanistic-spirits/?tab=comments#comment-1937829

 

Ancestor Veneration

         The denizens of Sulianpoli honor their heroic ancestors, ever seeking to grow more like their forebearers.  There exist hidden rituals surrounding discovery of one’s heroic ancestors, and each member of the Bronze Band wears a bronze ancestral mask, depicting one of the wearer’s heroic ancestors.  This tradition is in line with other cultures, such as Malinism, that venerate and worship their ancestors, creating common ground for strong inter-cultural relationships.

 

Economics and Politics

         Sulianpoli is a democratic city-state where all citizens are expected to vote on civic matters, and the majority-vote wins.  However, not all who live in the city are citizens.  Only the members of the Bronze Band are granted citizenship.  Thus, in order to have a voice in the political affairs of the city-state, one must first prove themself to be a holder of heroic virtues – of bravery, might, loyalty, and determination.  This prevents weak, no-life, tea-drinking nerds from being able to corrupt the city.

 

         Sulianpoli’s currency is salt mined from Haelun’or’s original location on Almaris, the Silver Isle.

 

Favorite Sulianpoli Pastimes:

 

• Drinking Pure wine from the local vinyard
• Gladiatorial games
• Hunting beasts and going on adventures
• Alchemy
• Philosophical discussions
• Spirit worship rituals
• Hefting competitions in the gym on top of the volcano
• Sacred, esoteric pool parties
• Selling salt and fine bronze metals
• Wearing togas

 

            Here’s the link to join our Discord group! https://discord.gg/PFDY9t9u If that doesn’t work, DM me at TheTruthIsOutThere#5784, or Pamphilos at Tyto#0435, or Edgars at Zuko#2906.

 

 

 

[SteppeNomad 1552]

"BLESSED Sulianpoli! Oh my sacred Polis! GREAT Silver Colony, how you have stood high upon the hill! Shining beacon to what is Good, and True, and Heroic! May you shine ever more, as the notions of our great ancestors are carried forth! Anaxagoras, Philosopher-King, founder of many cihis! Gaze upon your child, Pamphilos, and smile for my deeds have wrought great KLEOS and brought about change in this world! Sulianpoli, land of The Blessed, Sacred Cihi of The Holy Krugmenistani fields! To you, I sing! To you, may they fly!"

 

[RyuTheCoolest 176]

A Scydri Horselord smiles seeing the missive. Long has he served as a policeman in that Citystate. A Scydrian Archer. "For being a walled city of settled men, this is truly the greatest of their sort" he grins, pockets full of gold he hadn't needed to fight gryphons to take

 

 

Loyal, a proud hoplite stands. A proud silver extremist smiles brightly. "May Haelun'or and her colonies stand ever more. Sulianpoli, city of the blessed and true!" He thrusts his spear upwards alongside the rest of the Lads of The Blessed Band