The Cities of Danu

Four cities – Falias, Findias, Gorias, and Murias – were the center of the Seelie Court’s power during the reign of Queen Danu in the Dawn of the Gods. Danu‘s court had embraced mortals’ desire for ownership of land as a tactic to get them invested in its preservation, but they let themselves go astray. They became more interested in the means, the people and their ownership, than the original ends, the land itself and the power of life. As the fey rejected their wayward monarch, these cities fell into disuse during the reign of Queen Aeval. Their ruins linger unlike most fey cities (which usually vanish with hardly a trace if left uninhabited for long) as a reminder of the mistakes of Danu and her children, the Tuatha Dé Danann. Due to the shifting of Ladinion in the intervening time, the cities are lost to the four corners of Faerie and difficult to locate.

Murias, City of the Eternal Sunset, is still remembered by some as the first of the Cities of Danu to be lost, sinking into the western sea through the neglect of Danu‘s steward. Now, it is said, Murias’s cracked bells ring out of their own volition from towers built for beings larger than any humen. Their mournful sound presages times of great sorrow, such as the foul bargain struck between Queen Aeval and Lilith, the Lord of the Sixth Hell.

Another story holds that a magical crystal egg lies in Murias, and that within the egg sleeps the fabled Swan of Endless Tales who knows the stories of many ancient secrets now forgotten by most of Creation. It was meant as a gift from Semias, the ruler of the city, to Atlas, the Ancient Titan.

Findias, the City of Dawn in the east, is believed by many to contain relics from Nuada’s time as Grand Duke of Spring, such as the Sword of Life, capable of repulsing even age itself. Findias was the second city to be lost when it was overrun by a coven of terrifying hags who killed and eventually devoured all the remaining inhabitants.

Gorias, to the south, was called the City of Midsummer and once was home to the House of Summer. It was the third city to fall, devastated by invading Fomorians who sowed the earth with salt and turned the surrounding land into a supernaturally dry wasteland.

To the north was Falias, which was often home to Queen Danu herself. It was the City of Winter’s Night, the last permanent home of the House of Winter before its power base shifted to the Unseelie Court. It rests on a giant iceberg which once was larger than a mountain and harder than diamond, but it is now steadily melting. Even so, this city is the best-preserved, since it retained inhabitants longest. As the Tuatha Dé Danann began to neglect fey politics, their steward Sebille recognized that something was wrong and stayed behind with the Seelie Court in Falias. She coronated Queen Aeval there, legitimizing her succession of Danu. Sebille eventually organized the Order of the Lake as a more restrained replacement for the outreach which had led the Tuatha Dé to go astray. Falias was sacked and abandoned during the Plague War. Although it may not be the same place, a fomorian warlord named Lyonesse recently founded a new kingdom on watery ruins which resemble Murias. Since she makes it difficult for anyone to explore and identify the origin of the buildings, many suspect she knows the truth of the matter and simply wants to loot its wonders before anyone else knows what she has.