Pharn
Location: Pharn is located on an island southwest from the island that houses the southern district of Sha-Liden. It's only a train ride away.
Description: Pharn, for lack of a better phrase, is reminiscent of a concentration camp setting. Most of the area that Pharn occupies is one vast prison, containing all sorts of questionable, shady characters and magic users that committed acts of treason or heresy. The prison, since it occupies most of the area, has become a focal point of the island and the “city” in general, and has gained infamous repute. No one wants to be condemned to a life sentence in Pharn. Encompassing this enormous prison in a semi-circular build are numerous, militaristic posts in several forms. Barracks, towers, and training yards are only some of the points of mention.
Dotting the area are almost ramshackle houses, leaning this way or that, considering that the entire city was built upon a once glorious Winglie city. Since it was altered to now be a prison and military outpost, there wasn’t very much need for reconstruction, just patchwork here and there to make conditions more livable. The only occupants of Pharn are either affiliated with the operations of the prison or military, some that are affiliated with the military only staying within Pharn for a day or so, at times. In this prison-city, the technological advancements of Derendil are no less apparent, as cannons can be found lining the edge of the city’s border.
More frightening and less-known inventions can also be found within the startlingly claustrophobic walls of the prison itself, being a multitude of horrific and unorthodox torture machines, to the jail cells themselves. One of such inventions can only be described as a suppression field of sorts, specifically geared toward the deterring of magic use within the cells to prevent untimely escape from Pharn’s prison. The device is powered by a diamond, which has been slightly altered to retain an electrical charge that acts as a triggering mechanism of sorts. What happens, is when magic is provoked into being by a person occupying such a cell, it triggers a reaction within the crystal to emanate a field which will engulf the entirety of the cell and, with the combination of electrical energies, coinciding with the propertions of the diamond (nullifying and trapping, but altered through the infusion of electricity only slightly) to react in a certain way with specific plates of metal located within the stonework of each cell, will cause the magics to either simply fizzle, or backfire in horrible ways.
One reported occurrence was an air wizard who was jailed for instigating rebellion against the outlawing of magical study. He attempted to blow a hole in the wall, by first charging his hands with lightning in regards of a continuous current and was preparing to send the energies into the wall with enough force to rip a hole. When the magics reached a specific point of force in which the suppression field could register with and trigger, the field was activated and the energy was broken down swiftly, turning in on the caster as raw energy and blowing a hole through his chest, instead. No one was scheduled for cleanup, and the cell was reoccupied with another “heretic against the Derendil Empire”.
Yes, there are horrific ways of dealing with blasphemous individuals within the walls of Pharn’s prison.
Another thing worthy of mentioning here is the fact that above each doorway within Pharn are Winglie bones, arranged in no particular fashion as a sort of shrine to that dead and buried race, since the place in which the prison stands was once the central square of “Old Pharn”. To some, it’s homage, but to others it signifies the ends of their mortal lives once they pass beneath these bones.
Government: Being that Pharn belongs to the Derendil Empire, the government is the same government that controls the rest of the Empire, the Senate.
Current Leader: The Senate is effectively the current leadership of Pharn.
History: Pharn’s history used to be one of prosperity and the advancement of the Winglie Kingdom of Sohar. However, the Seekers put quite an abrupt stop to those thoughts and aims during The Blood War, finally laying Pharn to waste in a blaze of magic and destruction. This act all but entirely obliterated Pharn, leaving it a smoldering waste littered with battered buildings and blackened remains. Years past, and Pharn was nearly forgotten until the rise of the Derendil Empire.
The Empire moved on the former city’s location and began construction of a large jail where the city square was once located. Upon completion, the unlivable buildings were reconstructed only as much as needed; along with some buildings becoming barracks or guard towers that stand as a vigil at the entrance and along the borders. The prison was then filled with those who would dare commit a crime against the Empire, mainly the practice of magical acts that were deemed as an act of heresy or blasphemy. The teachings of the Derendil Empire are those that dictate “The use of magic dips into the stores of power reserved for the Gods, and such an act takes away from their glory and might, which is used to guide us in our lives on this world of Fou Lu”.
From this point on, Pharn slowly gained quite a reputation as a hellishly terrible place. A place where whoever becomes a prisoner within will see the end of their lives through days that seem like years, and years that seem more like centuries. This reputation was gained through everyone that has ever been imprisoned here to eventually meet their end, being tortured horrifically all the while, the word of such thing being spread by military personnel in their ventures outside of the prison. Only a few have effectively escaped their jail cells, and were met with the swift response of a guard carrying a gun, shooting them quite dead on sight. Since then, the prison breaks have been lessened through alterations made to each cell, and the inclusion of the suppression field at each cell door. This is to deter mages from escape. Those without magely prowess, however, have to find a way to pick at least five masterwork locks, and then pass each guard stationed through the prison, and outside of it.
With such a reputation preceding itself, anyone who finds themselves on a transport to Pharn either go completely insane with fear itself, or remain cool and collected, though their deaths are presumably quite imminent. Though death is never quick or subtle in Pharn, being rife with torturous happenings and any other such thing that would make even seasoned veterans beg for their lives.
While this now dark present might seem as barbaric or unnecessary, the Derendil Empire finds no problems with how they carry out the sentence of anyone imprisoned. Treason is a high-class offense, alongside heresy, and requires no humanitarian efforts in how these sentences are dealt with. Torture within Pharn is commonplace; the blood is never washed from the walls, screams echo throughout the hallways and stairwells. It’s a truly gruesome sight to behold, and the reputation has spread all across Fou Lu. Fear is the greatest way to keep those of your Empire in line, it seems.
Culture: There isn’t much culture to speak of in Pharn. The occupants of the city are all geared toward the operation of the military or the jail itself. And the only people that live here are working.
Empire: Pharn belongs to the Derendil Empire.
Population: Roughly 20,000 people occupy Pharn, of all assorted races but mainly human. This population count includes the prisoners, which make up a decent fraction of the population (roughly 8,000 alone at any given time, give or take). 1,000 to 2,000 of the population are all affiliated with the operations of Pharn’s enormous prison. Being that Pharn is a gruesome place, with a gruesome jail, there are even about 500 to 600 people responsible for acts or torture alone, and each come equipped with their own ogre assistant (accounting for another 500 to 600). The remaining rough figure of 10,000 are all military personnel either stationed permanently, or running through training drills for the Derendillian Army. As stated, the population is composed of many races, but mainly human, followed by dwarves, and then ogre. The more brutish, the better.
Military: Pharn’s military is quite large, having at least 10,000 members in the city. Typically each member is garbed in chain mail, carrying any sort of weapon, and stationed along the border of the city and several areas within. They double as guards for the jail, preventing any likelihood of escape in the unlikely chance that someone breaks out from their cell. It’s maybe happened once or twice since the jail was built. The guards along the towers in the city of Pharn are all armed with the guns which their Empire has developed through much experimentation and even failure, and several guards within the prison itself are equipped with such dangerous weapons, as well. This further prevents the likelihood of prison breaks quite effectively.
