Lost Bahssikava
Lost Bahssikava was the place of entrance of the slithzerikai to the Exile. It was warded with powerful magic to keep the banished sliths out until they had learned the virtues of patience and peace.
History
The decision to create the wards by homeland sliths was begotten because of an uprising led by Sss-Thsss the First. The uprising eventually spiraled into a bloody civil war. The homeland sliths emerged victorious, and quickly decided to banish Sss-Thsss the First and his remaining followers. The darklings, as they would come to be known, settled in Exile around 617 IE.
Entrance tunnel
The homeland slithzerikai sealed the tunnel into their lands with two sets of powerful doors. The outer doors could be opened only by completing a puzzle within the door by placing six metal triangles within it, forming a six-pointed star. It is theorized that either a number of voluntary guardians or the inventors of the seals were buried between the two sets of doors, to later serve as undead gatekeepers, also known as slith avatars.
While the external defences comprised of a corporeal puzzle, the inner doors were warded to open at a later, unspecified time when the enchantments had judged the exiled sliths to be worthy of returning home.
Banishment
Shortly after their banishment, a number of Sss-Thsss' followers became repentant and disbanded from the main group. One pack wandered south and presumably founded Gnass, while another pack stayed within the vicinity of the entrance, and founded a colony to the caverns near the entrance tunnel somewhere during 617 IE. This was the first iteration of Bahssikava, their inhabitants called sliths of the Bahssikava Deeps.
Alas, for reasons unknown the temple complex was abandoned. Some scholars propose that the city was destroyed in 777 IE during a powerful cavequake.
Upper Caverns
After abandoning the temple complex, the remaining sliths of the Bahssikava Deeps migrated to the Upper Caverns in 777 IE. They were confirmed to be the same sliths from around the time of the banishment, as was testified by one Sss-Tass within the colony. They still believed that they were meant to achieve holiness within themselves to pass through the deep tunnels to their homeland. They were called sliths of the Lost Bahssikava.
Roughly during the First Slith War, in 817 IE, an expeditionary force was sent down into the lower caverns to investigate if a return was feasible. Alas, the expedition was a disaster, rendering the bulk of the force dead. The expedition's leader, Legare, stayed down in the caverns to meditate on the loss.
A few months later a pack of human adventurers cleared the tunnels again, gathered the six metal triangles required for the external doors and found Legare from the cave he had been using as a meditation chamber. Unsurprisingly, the adventurers failed to penetrate the inner doors, but they did report their findings back to the sliths of the Lost Bahssikava within the tunnels above.
During Empire invasion
Between the years 820 - 821 IE, Imperial Exploratory Forces found and killed the sliths of Lost Bahssikava, and destroyed the city within the Upper Caverns. Since the colony received very little visitors from either slithzerikai or humans, the accurate time of destruction could not be verified. The devastation was witnessed by at least Empire War Heroes.
Rebuilt Bahssikava
| Source: Kelandon canon |
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(Here follows the account of Librarian Kelandon of the Fifth Circle, written on 861 IE.)
After the Empire-Avernum War, in 837 IE, Legare left the lower caverns and headed for Gnass with the sole intention of raising an army of followers. The revolution within the city did cause a bit of an uprising, but the proceedings remained peaceful just the same. Hundreds of slithzerikai rose up to the task and followed Legare, then called the Prophet.
The Prophet divulged the location of the fabled Bahssikava city to his followers; had them build Temple of the Goddess; and also professed to possess the knowledge on how to open the internal gateway within the Deeps, which had stood in indefatigable vigil for over two hundred years. These sliths would be called eventually the Prophet's Followers.
Shortly after the Temple of the Goddess was finished, Legare contacted a group of famous adventurers, whom he recruited to aid in his grand quest. He led the sliths down into the original (Lost) Bahssikava, and disappeared from Exile lands.
(The account ends here.)
Naming conventions
The original city of Bahssikava was built by the desperate sliths close to the entrance tunnel. The city was later abandoned to time and decay after a powerful cavequake decimated the township. The same brood of sliths rebuilt another Bahssikava to the tunnel leading to the Exile Caves. The sliths of the new Bahssikava referred to the old one as Lost Bahssikava, as was reported by Hawthorne's Assassins.
When the upper Bahssikava was destroyed - presumably during the Empire-Avernum war by the xenophobic imperial invaders in their attempt to continue their quest of genocide - the location was left a secret to the rest of the civilized slithzerikai societies within the Exile. During this time, both of the lost cities were referred to as Lost Bahssikava together.
| Source: Kelandon canon |
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When Legare came out of his meditation well after the war with the Empire was over, he informed the other sliths of Lost Bahssikava's location, and ordered the rebuilding of the city. The final composition of the city led it to be known as the Rebuilt Bahssikava. The old temple complex decimated by the cavequake, earlier called Lost Bahssikava by the sliths of the upper caverns, became to be known as Bahssikava.
Iterations of the cities
- Bahssikava 617 - 777 IE. Lost Bahssikava 777 - 837 IE. Bahssikava 837 - Present Day. — Located in the Deeps.
- Bahssikava 777 - 820 IE. Lost Bahssikava 820 - 837 IE. Rebuilt Bahssikava 837 - Present Day. — Located in the Upper Caverns.
Timeline
- 6?? — Sss-Thsss the First succumbs to demon worship.
- 61? — Homeland sliths emerge victorious in the civil war.
- 617 — Sss-Thsss the First banished. The darklings arrive in Exile. Bahssikava founded.
- 777 — Bahssikava destroyed by cavequake. Lost Bahssikava founded.
- 820 - 821 — Imperial Exploratory Forces destroy Lost Bahssikava.
| Source: Kelandon canon |
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- 83? — Legare leaves the Bahssikava Deeps and arrives in Gnass.
- 837 — Lost/Rebuilt Bahssikava fends off Gnass' invasion. Temple of the Goddess built; Legare leads sliths to old Lost Bahssikava.
Appendix, sources
- Sss-Tass in Lost Bahssikava stated during a visitation by Hawthorne's Assassins that the slithzerikai of the Upper Caverns called the ancient ruins within the Tunnels and Deeps also Lost Bahssikava, sometime in 817 IE.