Xin (city)

Xin

(City)

Nation

Thassilon

Leader

Emperor Xin (formerly)

Source: The Dead Heart of Xin, pg(s). 18–53

The island-city of Xin was the capital of Thassilon during the reign of its namesake, Emperor Xin. It sank to the Arcadian Ocean's floor after Earthfall in -5293 AR but rose from the depths in 4712 AR off the coast of modern-day Varisia.

Geography

Xin was located in southwestern Thassilon, bordering Bakrakhan. From Earthfall until 4712 AR, it had been on floor of the Arcadian Ocean some 100 miles west from Magnimar. Its skyline was dominated by the Crystal Palace, Xin's home.

History

Xin served as Thassilon's capital during the reign of its founder, Emperor Xin, who arrived to Avistan in -6530 AR. After Xin's explosive death in -6420 AR, the Runelords who opposed him allowed the city to fall into ruin over the next millennium; Xin-Cyrusian, capital of Cyrusian, replaced it as Thassilon's de facto capital. The Crystal Palace of Xin, haunted by the First King's ghost, became a forbidden place.

Earthfall sank the island—and most of southwestern Thassilon—into what is now known as the Arcadian Ocean and Varisian Gulf, and by the modern era knowledge of the city of Xin's existence had become obscure among even the most learned Thassilonian scholars.

Recent history

A group of adventurers who reassembled the Sihedron, a powerful artifact created by Xin, triggered the raising of the island that the city was built upon from the bottom of the ocean in 4712 AR. The resulting earthquake and tsunami caused widespread destruction in Varisia, especially in Magnimar, and even damaged the more distant island-nation of Hermea. As of 4712 AR only part of the island had surfaced, and more of the city remained underwater.

Locations

The Crystal Palace, final resting place of First King Xin, is the island's sole intact structure. Other structures are largely coral-encrusted remnants of walls and foundations.

Hollow foundations of interlocked towers are all that remain of Black Bile building located east of the Crystal Palace, which had become home to a tribe of chardas. A partially buried clockwork leviathan is surrounded by marble sculptures south of the Crystal palace, and the Palace's former courtyard is covered with damaged Xin legionnaires.

A crevice between towers of the southwestern Crystal Palace emits a cloud of necrotic energy and houses the coagulated spirits of people killed in Earthfall. A former open-air courtyard southeast of the Palace is now little more than collapsed materials, and archival vaults in the waters west of the Palace and on land east-southeast of it are largely damaged or destroyed. Malfunctioning devices create hazards northeast, north-northwest, and west-southwest of the Crystal Palace.

References

Paizo set part of The Dead Heart of Xin in Xin, including maps of the resurfaced island and levels within the Crystal Palace.

For additional as-yet unincorporated sources about this subject, see the Meta page.