Urithiru

Urithiru
by Ben McSweeney
World	Roshar

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“ Urithiru was said to be the center of the Silver Kingdoms, a city that held ten thrones, one for each king. It was the most majestic, most amazing, most important city in all the world. ”

— Jasnah's opinion of Urithiru

Urithiru is a tower-city on Roshar that functioned as the home of the Knights Radiant and the central point of the Silver Kingdoms during the Heraldic Epochs.

History

Pre-Recreance

Though its unclear whether it was originally built for this purpose, Urithiru was the headquarters of the Knights Radiant orders, as well as the center of the Silver Kingdoms, holding ten thrones, one for each king. Even following the temporary end of the cycle of Desolations, it remained an important location as both the home of the Radiants and the Oathgate hub. During that time, Urithiru had a large populaion of not only Radiants, but also ordinary people - servants, traders, craftsmen and so on. At one point, the Unmade Re-Shephir invaded the tower, and was trapped and sealed by an unknown Lightweaver.

Eventually, the unknown systems that allowed people to inhabit Urithiru - most importantly, raising its temperature to allow people to live comfortably and grow foods - began to fail for unclear reasons. This forced the Knights Radiant to abandon the tower, leaving behind only the gem archive where they coded their last messages.

Between this and the Day of Recreance, the Oathgates in the 9 surviving cities were sealed, leaving Urithiru locked away from the world.

Era of Solitude

Some time after the tower was abandoned, Re-Shephir broke out of her confinement, but remained within the tower.

Though Urithiru had faded into myth by the Era of Solitude, Szeth was familiar with it, and would visit it often after becoming a Truthless.

Jasnah Kholin began an effort to rediscover the city after growing convinced that a new Desolation was coming. While she herself was unable to do so, her student, Shallan Davar, managed to complete her works and pinpoint the location of Stormseat, an ancient city that possessed an Oathgate, but was destroyed long before Urithiru was abandoned. She eventually managed to locate Stormseat - now called Narak - and, as the Listeners summoned the Everstorm, transported the Alethi army through its Oathgate, rediscovering Urithiru.

True Desolation

Following the arrival of the Everstorm, Urithiru became the centre of Alethi military power, with most highprinces, chief among them House Kholin, relocating there along with their armies. The Alethi began to reinhabit the tower, although they were unable to reactivate most of Urithiru's systems, such as the heating or the main elevator. Following a string of strange accidents, Re-Shephir was tracked down and banished from the tower by a team led by Shallan Davar Several Oathgates - that of Vedenar, Azimir and Thaylen City - were unlocked to reenable fast transportation across the continent.

As a prelude to the Battle of Thaylen Field, the Voidbringers attacked Urithiru through the subverted Kholinar Oathgate. Although initially somewhat successful, they were eventually pushed back and out of the city.

Location

It is said to be somewhere near the middle of Roshar but the exact location is unknown. It is known that many wished for it to be built in Alethela but it has been confirmed that it was located west of Alethela in the place "nearest to Honor."There was some disagreement as to whether or not Urithiru was accessible by foot. Varala and Sinbian both claimed that it was inaccessible by foot but in Nohadon's eighth parable from The Way of Kings he claimed that he walked from Abamabar to Urithiru (Which he confirmed in Dalinar's dream that he did not use an Oathgate, only a guide which was akin to "taking a ferry across a river."). There is an entrance at the bottom of the mountain which the unmade Re-Shephir used to escape.

Urithiru is located on the east side of a mountain.

There is a village in the foothills of the mountain to the south of the tower. Szeth had gone by this village so many times that he mused that at some point they had started thinking of him as some sort of god, leaving out tributes of spheres for him to use for stormlight.

Appearance

Urithiru consists of 10 levels, with each level being 18 stories tall. Each level is wider going down and there are numerous balconies on the sides of the tower. The roofs of the lower, wider levels have gardens built into them. On the Stormward side of Urithiru there are large glass windows. Remarkably, this glass has stood for thousands of years and is still intact. Urithiru is surrounded by the ten plateaus of the Oathgates. The interior of Urithiru is filled with tunnels that twist about in strange curves, Dalinar hypothesized that this was to fool invaders. Each tunnel had distinctive patterns of strata, for instance, the corridor to Dalinar's quarters had alternating red and yellow strips of strata that sloped upwards while the strata in the bathhouse where Vedekar Perel's body was found spiraled and corkscrewed. Known strata colors include shades of brown, yellow, red, orange, and emerald green. The stone itself was smooth to the touch and hard enough that it could not be scratched with a knife.

Notes

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