Editing Akinah

{{settlement
|map=Akinah city map.jpg
|nation=Aimia
|world=Roshar
|universe=[[Cosmere]]
|books=[[The Stormlight Archive]]
}}{{spoilers|sa3.5}}
{{quote
|It is rare I must guard [Akinah] so . . . aggressively. Men must not again discover this place... There are those who could pull secrets from your soul, and the cost would be the ends of worlds.
|[[Dysian Aimian]] cook to [[Kaza]]{{book ref|sa3|i|4}}
}}
'''Akinah''' is the ancient capital of the [[Silver Kingdoms|Silver Kingdom]] of [[Aimia]] on [[Roshar]].{{book ref|sa3|i|4}} In more modern times, it is also known as '''The Rock of Secrets''' and '''The Void's Playground'''. The city itself was destroyed long ago, and during the [[Era of Solitude]] it exists only as a ruin. It is the location of an apparently functional [[Oathgate]] and its underwater caverns formerly contained a [[Dawnshard]].

== Appearance ==
Akinah is located on a small island in the northern section of Aimia, somewhat near the large main island.{{book ref|sa3|i|4}} The city seems to have once been grand, with ornate buildings arranged in a tenfold symmetry radiating out from a round central hub.{{File ref|Four_Cities.jpg|Kabsal's Cymatics notes}} This tenfold symmetry is related to the tenth name of the [[Almighty]], He Who Transforms; the [[Soulcasting]] fabrials and the specific Dawnshard found in Akinah; and the concept of change.{{wob ref|8614}} From above, the city looks like a flower with radiating petals.{{book ref|sa3.5|4}}

The island features dark, tall rock formations along its center that look almost like the walls of a city{{book ref|sa3|i|4}} and uniform buildings in the "tips" of the flower petals as seen from above.{{book ref|sa3.5|15}} The ruined city&mdash;which [[Rushu]] speculates is fake, concealing the real city which sank into the [[crem]] years ago&mdash;is covered with crem and the rocky beach around the city is cluttered with the corpses of dead [[greatshell]]s and deceptive, fake gemhearts.{{book ref|sa3.5|15}}

=== Caverns ===
The caverns underneath Akinah housed the city's Oathgate and the [[Akinah Dawnshard mural|Dawnshard mural]].{{book ref|sa3.5|15}}{{book ref|sa3.5|18}}

Great pains had been taken to hide the Oathgate. A chamber with a false, seemingly defunct Oathgate was built atop the true Oathgate. The real Oathgate was housed underneath in a room about twelve feet high and expansively wide.{{book ref|sa3.5|15}}

Akinah's other secrets were hidden beneath the island in a cavern accessible only via underwater tunnel. Inside the air-filled chambers, a corridor that had been carved out of the stone featuring murals of people falling through portals led to a small room with a large mural on the far side, a set of Shardplate, ornate weapons and clothing, and eight [[Soulcaster]] devices. A metal door on the left side of the room opened to a larger corridor with six huge [[larkin]] skulls.{{book ref|sa3.5|15}} The large mural - which was not an ordinary mural - was formerly the Dawnshard.{{wob ref|14315}}

=== Soulcast Defenses ===
The island is ringed by a wall of enormous Soulcast stone spikes around forty feet tall and guarded by additional Soulcast underwater spikes, seemingly designed to pierce the hulls of approaching ships.Three underwater spikes and one wall spike were removed by Soulcasting during a failed expedition in 1174.{{book ref|sa3|i|4}}

=== Protection Storm ===
A terrible and persistent storm - an unusual weather pattern - bolstered the island’s defenses {{book ref|sa3.5|1}}, but had been weakened by 1174.{{disputed}} [[Sleepless#hordelings|Hordelings]] that had bred with larkin and were thereby able to drain [[Stormlight]] flew through the clouds as a safeguard against [[Surgebinding|Surgebinders]].{{book ref|sa3.5|19}}

Sleepless hordlings in the form of giant sea monsters also protected the island.{{book ref|sa3.5|17}}

== History ==
=== Capital of Aimia ===
The origin of the city is unknown, but it is quite ancient. At some point in the past, air was Soulcast into massive spikes surrounding the city.{{book ref|sa3|i|4}} In the Heraldic Epochs, Akinah was known as the ancient home of the Soulcasters,{{book ref|sa3.5|2}} and it was where people would come to get Soulcasting devices.{{book ref|sa3|i|4}} Its Oathgate gave it a direct connection to [[Urithiru]], allowing rapid travel to the city. After Urithiru was abandoned, one of the [[Willshapers]] ventured to Aimia to explore its undersea caverns, leaving their maps in Akinah.{{epigraph ref|sa3|63}} At some unknown time, the city was destroyed, perhaps in the [[scouring of Aimia]]{{book ref|sa1|36}} or due to the influence of the [[Unmade]] [[Dai-gonarthis]].{{epigraph ref|sa3|113}} [[Jasnah Kholin]] was previously confident that the Oathgate was destroyed and the link with the Urithiru severed.{{book ref|sa3|107}} [[Dysian Aimian]]s took up the task of guarding the city and its secrets because the [[Lancer|Guardians of Ancient Sins]] were all but extinct.{{book ref|sa3.5|18}}

=== Abandonment ===
Over the following time, the city itself entered into the realm of myth and legend, earning it the names The Rock of Secrets and The Void's Playground and a sinister reputation.{{book ref|sa3|i|4}} Due to the city's historical connection to Soulcasters, rumors spread among Soulcasting [[Savant|savants]] that the secret for reversing the prolonged decay caused by using a Soulcaster was located in Akinah. However, some factual knowledge of the city remained. The general layout of the city was still known, and it was discovered that its pattern could be produced by cymatics.{{book ref|sa1|33}} The ardents of the Vorin Church used this as a piece of evidence for the existence of the Almighty. Brother [[Kabsal]] showed this to [[Shallan Davar]] during her time in [[Kharbranth]].

=== Vazrmeb's Expedition ===
In 1174, a [[Thaylen]] man named [[Vazrmeb]], captain of the ship ''[[First Dreams]]'' followed a map to Akinah with the goal of recovering the [[gemheart]]s of the Aimian greatshells that had died around the city.{{book ref|sa3|i|4}} He was accompanied by a [[Liafor|Liaforan]] Soulcaster named [[Kaza]], who hoped to discover some way to reverse her gradual transformation into smoke. A Dysian Aimian in the guise of a [[Reshi]] woman serving as the ship's cook also joined the crew. She attempted to warn them several times not to come to the island. After the ship made it through Akinah’s storm, the Dysian Aimian cook fed the crew a poisoned meal to prevent them from making it to the city.

Afterwards the crew took several dinghies towards the shore, where [[Kaza]] Soulcast several of the spikes surrounding the island into smoke.{{book ref|sa3|i|4}} At that point Vazrmeb and his crew, beginning to feel the effects of the poison, collapsed and died. Due to her growing inhumanity, the poison impacted Kaza less severely, so she managed to row her boat in alone, collapsing on the shore. When she regained consciousness, she crawled towards the city itself before collapsing again. The Aimian confronted her there, revealing herself as the poisoner. In her last moments before the poison killed her, Kaza Soulcast the ground beneath them both into smoke.

=== Rysn's Expedition ===
Five months after Vazrmeb’s doomed expedition to the island, [[Yalb]], now crewing for a Thaylen military vessel, spotted a ghost ship limping along at sea. Revealed to be ''[[First Dreams]]'',{{book ref|sa3.5|prologue}} the ship's discovery prompted [[Navani]] to issue a request and a reward for another ship to travel investigate the region where Akina’s ruins were rumored to be found. Rysn accepted the mission some two months after the discovery of ''First Dreams'' in the hope that bringing [[Chiri-Chiri]] to Akinah would restore Chiri-Chiri’s failing health.{{book ref|sa3.5|1}} With a full crew, the incognito Dysian Aimian [[Nikliasorm|Nikli]], [[Lopen]], [[Huio]], [[Cord]], Rushu, and Chiri-Chiri, Rysn began the ''[[Wandersail (1174 ship)|Wandersail]]'s'' voyage to Akinah.{{book ref|sa3.5|4}} The expedition wildly exceeded expectations, yielding the Akinah Dawnshard, a fact known only to the Dysian Aimians, Rysn, and Cord; the location of the Oathgate, which appears to still function; eight Soulcaster devices, three of which will go to the Alethis and five to Thaylenah; Shardplate, now owned by Cord; and a mountain of real gemstones.{{book ref|sa3.5|epilogue}}

== Notes ==
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