Overview
Maraveth is the ancient capital of the Malverand Empire in Valrindor and later the ruined capital of Shroudvale. By 2151 BX, the newly named city is already the largest in the known world, with more than one hundred thousand residents and mandatory registration for new arrivals.
At Malverand's height, Maraveth bears the title Eternal City for its vast scale, white-stone towers, golden skybridges, and endless skyline. The Maraveth Ascendant Consulate stands at its center as the seat of imperial rule, first under Barachiel and later under Michael and Raphael.
City and Society
Maraveth grows around magical labor, urban planning, and essence technology. Earth mages shape houses and roads, water mages redirect channels, ice mages preserve food and cool homes, and researchers build spell-containing devices for food preservation.
Barachiel and Arcanis accelerate the city's transformation after arriving in Maraveth. Arcanis's inventions create essence lights, essence cores, skyships, and spells stored in physical containers. Farmlands move beyond the city core, districts become more specialized, satellite settlements supply the capital with food, materials, and labor, and a mining town in the eastern Maraveth mountains supplies crystals for essence technology.
At its height, Maraveth has enormous white walls, layered streets, skyship docks, glass and metal bridges between towers, constructs moving through streets and corridors, and elite magical institutions, including the academy where Jeremiah teaches cosmic magic.
Government
Maraveth begins with an elected city council that includes Michael and Raphael. The council debates expansion, new settlements, mage labor, and the lands around the city before choosing Barachiel to lead Maraveth.
Barachiel names the expanding realm the Malverand Empire, with Maraveth as its capital. The Guardians of Malverand gather in the Ascendant Consulate for imperial councils, shard decisions, regional governance, Barachiel's succession, the spiral-shard trial, provincial rebellions, and guardian disputes. The Malverand vault is built deep beneath the consulate to hold dangerous artifacts, god cores, Malverand hearts, second-generation cores, strange weapons, shield generators, essence-engine prototypes, and glass casings.
After Barachiel disappears, Michael rules from Maraveth. Raphael remains in the city, keeps access to the vault, and becomes the guardian Thalion Zenith's alliance must kill before it can claim Maraveth. The capital houses the succession meetings, rebellion intelligence, vault access, and guardian disputes that eventually bring the empire down.
Ruin and Shroudvale
During the Fall of Malverand, Raphael's retreat to Maraveth draws John and Ignatius into a battle against him that shatters walls, destroys towers, drains the land, and leaves the city blackened and barren. This destruction precedes the Great Shaper War and leaves the ruins that become Shroudvale's capital.
After Malverand's fall, darkness advances on the already-broken capital. Malcairn, Zharrek, Zal'therak, and Malverand's remaining scholars develop the essence-infusion process deep beneath Maraveth. Zharrek later traps Zal'therak in a crystalline prison, transforms the remaining population into essence shapers, and the ruins become Shroudvale's capital.
In 5365-5368 AX, Maraveth is an empty wasteland with sparse buildings, a massive black tower, dead land, and little nearby water. Garrik's coalition, Eremion's Blackcrag forces, Raphael-aligned forces, and the surviving shapers all fight or maneuver around the city, the black tower, and the vault below.
Sites and Landmarks
- Maraveth Ascendant Consulate, the government complex of ancient Malverand.
- Malverand vault, the hidden artifact chamber beneath the old capital.
- Arcanis's workshop and later research compound on the outskirts of the city.
- The elite magical academy where Jeremiah teaches cosmic magic.
- Eastern Maraveth mountains and the crystal-mining settlement that supplies essence-core production.
- White towers, golden and glass skybridges, skyship docks, constructs, and massive city walls.
- The black tower at the center of ruined Maraveth.
- Garrik's fortified settlement outside the ruins during the Maraveth War.