Barrule (sunken isle/city; Sea-King Site of Power)

Steel Realms

The ancient and sunken city of Barrule (on the island of the same name) is nothing more than myth and fable. Even to its finders – the Sea-Kings – it is thought to be a fanciful tale of a wreck and ruin that was merely washed away in a cataclysm. The tales say the city was built too high for such a small and an earthquake claimed it, others that the folk of it left the ways of the Elancil and she drowned them in her wrath. Either way, it is meant as a lesson to always embrace the way of the sea. Once it was said to be a powerful enclave of the north for the Sea-Kings. Now, it rests on the floor of the sea… so goes the myth.

About/Chronicle of Barrule

Knowledge is broken down by ease of discovery/availability; Any attempt to know more than what's Pervasive will require a reference, source, knowledge, check, or access to someone who can get or provide either of these.

Knowledge is broken down by ease of discovery/accessibility. If nothing is indicated, assume it is Pervasive.

Uncommon Knowledge / Average Difficulty

The “city” of Barrule started as the outpost of Farrinth; little more than a lonely cave and watch point in the desolate and cold waters of the north that was found by the Sea-King people after a boat managed to stumble across it looking for any safe port in a storm. It was said to have a odd rock wall around a cove that could fit 2 ships and no more – though they could weather out the most intense storms safe from the gale north winds.

Scarce Knowledge / Hard Difficulty

When the priests of Elancil finally blessed its remote location 100 years later, and officially made it part of the empire, something strange happened. The isle slowly rose out of the waters by a hundred feet, revealing more caves and strange structures cut into the rock itself. Elancil was silent, and slowly, the “city” once occupied by unknown dwellers, was inhabited by the Sea-King peoples. The safe port was lost, though a smaller rise off the southern tip of the island had a flatened surface, perhaps the top of a structure, and a ruined wall around it which served as a quasi dry dock and port. Three boats could be lashed safely with chains and spacers. It was treacherous to get to in bad weather though, and so entry and egress were at the whim of the weather. The city grew to a population of nearly 500 – a stop over safe port in their explorations of the north.

Rare Knowledge / Very Hard Difficulty

There remains very little details, for unknown reasons, about the new “city”, but the name was taken from an inscription written in some dialect of Feyloise, carved into the “great hall”. Though the Oceanfolk of the Sea-Kings uncovered numerous ruins, they stopped at some point and went no further – the exact reasons are unknown, though likely because it may have been unstable.

Obscure Knowledge / Near-Impossible Difficulty is not available in known references; It is not necessarily Forbidden Knowledge.

Hidden knowledge text here between P tags; type over this!

Barrule is part of the Baru Lille Gofna – ‘Exiled of the Betrayers’ roughly translated. Eleven entities that sought refuge in the realms of Helca. The ocean aelves, Aelflings adapted to exist in the seas, had carved their city from the rock on an isle that glowed with the deep green of Equitas Crystals on the nights of the full moon. Like all the Aelflings of Helca, they had become more primitive and simple over the eons. Beauty, art, song, and simple pleasures were their life in the city they once called the “Green Crest” (for the greenish tinge when massive waves would slam the island’s shores on the nights of the full moon). Then, the sky cracked and the light from a distant sun filled the sky (‘The Sunfold’ according to Aelven history) – and the eleven fell entities tumbled from the sky. Into the sea of the north they fell, and when they struck its waters, death struck with them. Killing everything nearby, they took in the life of the seas to survive their event. The Aelves of Helca went to war with the eleven, and few lived to tell the tale. They took the city, conquered the peoples using their powers of undeath and necromancy, and set out to subdue the world. All that was known is that they were exiled from their own world across the gulf of stars, for some betrayal they perpetrated. It is remembered in Aelven records only by their gap in the deepest memories of the Soul Trees as “The Green Empty” and by echoing memories that linger on the Aelfpaths of Helca. Eventually, the sea Aeflings were completely eradicated from Helca – and the last of their bodies animated in a war with their brethren. Four were killed in a battle that lasted for days. The remaining seven of the Lich Ring as they were known, were sealed in the bowels of the city, chained by Equitas and the spirits of the ocean aelves that willingly separated from the Soul Tree, and the Aelfs of sky and land ‘cast aside’ the memory of their collective so that none may find them and be tempted to unchain them or tap into their power. They have slowly been extended their power through introducing Barulian Rejuvenation to the Orrish.

Realm's Aptitude Powers: Divine, Occult, and Psychic