User:LadyLameness/Kharbranth

{!{settlement |map=kharbranth.jpg |region=Frostlands |world=Roshar |books=The Stormlight Archive }}{!{spoilers|book=sa3}}{!{update|book=sa3}} Kharbranth, City of Bells, is an independent city-state on Roshar, ruled by the King Taravangian. Colours of Kharbranthian royalty - burnt orange and white

Geography and Ecology

Location

It is located in a natural harbor on the the Tarat Sea, in the western most regions of the Frostlands, in an area that was formerly under the control of Thalath, one of the Silver Kingdoms.

Features

- May be older than the Last Desolation - at least one in world source claims it was built during the shadowdays - BUilt on raw, unbroken stone like most of Roshar. - A small politically fragile city state but also a free city The city-state consists of only Kharbranth - Vorin Kingdom - Docks open to all regardless of nationality or status - Animals can be found around the docks (and presumably throughout the city): skyeels, crabs, haspers, mink - Built up a steep incline/mountain - Wedge shaped - Built into a natural lait, like a wide crack in the stone. One of the most sheltered major cities in the world - Considered by Captain Tozbek to be a 'safe city' - "a man pulling a curious contraption with two large wheels and a canopy-covered seat. " - Long/Scenic and short/direct route from the docks to the Conclave - Roadways are cut up the hill in switchbacks - The story goes that the bells were initially set up to warn of the Highstorm as it was so soft that people wouldn't notice. - Bells are everywhere - displayed in shops, hung from rafters. Hung under every lamp in a lantern poles, on transport carts such as the one Shallan takes through the city - Strong smells to the city. Spicy scents of food, the pungent smell of alleyways. Shallan describes the city as not having a clean smell. - Noisy. A hundred voices called to one another, mingling with doors slamming, wheels rolling on stone, occasional skyeels crying. The ever-present bells tinkled in the background, louder when the wind blew.

- The mountain that protects Kharbranth is hit hard by the highstorms and this can sometimes lead to cave-in's within the structures that have pierced the mountain though they are rare(such as the Conclave). Avalanches on the stormside can sometimes occur after highstorms and these can lead to the cave-in's.

- Bells can be heard even from deep within the Conclave/mountain

- The main throughfare from the docks to the Conclave is called the Ralinsa and leads down the hill with switchbacks - The city continues to function late at night and the streets are still busy and full of noise from voices and bells - Kharbranth has a theatre district

- Kabsal compares Kharbranth to Kholinar, believing them both to be made by the Almighty. - A cymatic of Kharbranth has not yet been found

Buildings

- Blocky and colourful. A majority of the buildings are red and orange, with the occasional blue or yellow. - Buildings are grouped by colour which also indicates purpose - Violet for clothing, green for food. Homes are also painted but in pastel colours with a different pattern. - Constructed from some sort of mud/daub/crem - The Conclave, Palanaeum and King's Palace are located at the top of the city - Most buildings set directly on rock, while some are carved from it

- Kharbranth has a large number of hospitals that are frequently visited by Taravangian

The Conclave

- Painted white and carved from the rock face. The roof outcroppings have squat domes that are painted in metalic colours - Inside it is a large rectangular hallway lined with Stormlight lamps. Broad, high and long, with grand chambers lining the sides and smaller corridors branch off from the main room.

- The hallways are particularly long and drill downwards into the mountain

- There is no gate before the Conclave

- Another reference to the Conclave being underground - Jasnah and Shallan's quarters are within the Conclave

- Shallan and her drawings became well known around the Conclave fairly soon after she was taken on as Jasnah's ward.

- The baths in the Conclave are carved directly into the ground and heated by fabrials. The Conclave has heated plumbing (the water is pre-heated using fabrials) and water is delivered to the baths via pipes. - Heat fabrials are also used in Kharbranth to heat rooms. - Books from the Palanaeum are not to be taken into the bathing chambers.

- Guests staying in the Conclave can leave their spanreeds with master-servants and be notified when they have received a message - The palace gardens are varied, but not as extensive as those on Shallan's family's estate. Some are structured like mazes made of stone - the walls are tall enough to shield someone from view when sitting but not when standing.

- It is a long walk from the Palanaeum to the guest quarters. - The guest quarters are guarded by master-servants who fulfil the purpose of both concierges and guards and monitor who enters and exits the area. - The roof of Shallan's room has been left intentionally rough and resembles the roof of a cave. - The maids that work for the king were carefully chosen

The Palanaeum

- Set in the Conclave within the mountain - Both the Palanaeum and the Veil predate the founding of the city. Some on Roshar believe that the rooms were built by the dawnsingers.

- The Palanaeum is open throughout the evening The Veil

-Before the Palanaeum proper is the Veil - a waiting room that stretches upwards into the mountain and with sides pocketed by private balconies. - The door to the Veil is an intricate geometric design that incorporates circles, lines and glyph's and creates a chart, split across the two doors. - There are stone shafts around the room with manually controlled elevators set into them to take people to the different levels. Four Parshmen are needed to operate these elevators - The balconies can be accessed through hallways set into the stone surrounding the room. - They are round like a turret, with a waist high stone rim and topped with a wooden railing. - Desks connect to the rim of the balcony and follow the curved shape.

Epigraph - The original Palanaeum was involved in a fire

The Palanaeum Proper

- The Palanaeum proper is accessed through a small chamber full of soulcast crystal partitions. - The chit of admittance for the Palanaeum proper is of one thousand sapphire broams, which pay for the many hospitals in Kharbranth. There is no fee to use the Veil. - There are over seven hundred thousand seperate texts in the Palanaeum - more than even the Holy Enclave of Valath

- Shaped like an inverted pyramid down into the rock, with a walkway running around the walls to form a giant square spiral. There is also a series of lifts to reach levels at a quicker pace. - The bottom of the room cannot be seen from the top - The Palanaeum proper doubles as the Kharbranthian royal treasury and the cities wealth of emeralds are used to light the walkways. They are periodically changed out by ardents from the Devotary of Insight - The books, manuscripts and scrolls stored in the Palanaeum are stored in rooms with tall bookshelves that branch outwards from the walkways. - Inside each room is troughs containing white powder. Shallan theorises that this is why the room are never damp - The size of the Palanaeum and the high admittance fee makes it unlikely that people will run into each other while searching. - Ardents and servants are available to collect volumes on request - The Kharbrathian filing system is standard for many of Roshar's libraries and archives. - Books are organized by the date that they entered the Palanaeum and the top level of the Palanaeum proper contains large cabinets filled with indexes - The head of each (bookshelf) row is carved with a symbol indicating the date the book had entered the Palanaem

- Ardent's will reshelve books - The Palanaeum proper has 57 levels - The main shaft of the room predates the creation of the city of Kharbranth. The rooms that branch away from the ramps and hold the books were cut out from the stone by Kharbranthians. - The point of the inverted triangle aligns with the nadir and within it sits a large infused diamond. - The Palanaem proper has a system of lifts that span the 57 floors (instead of one single lift for all floors)

“The only things Kharbranth has to sell are fish, bells, and information. The first two are hardly unique to us. But the third … well, the Palanaeum has the finest collection of tomes and scrolls on Roshar. ”

—Master Servant to Shallan

History

Kharbranth was formerly a pirate town in its early years, before becoming a real city over the course of decades.Template:Annotation ref It is culturally diverse, with people from all over Roshar both visiting and residing there. The city is home to the Palanaeum, the largest library on Roshar. Kharbranth is also known for the quality of its hospitals, and people come from all over the world to train in medicine.

1173: Shallan arrived in Kharbranth on the ship, The Wind's Pleasure, searching for Princess Jasnah Kholin who had relocated to the city. Jasnah used the Palanaeum in her research of the Voidbringers.

Jasnah saves Taravangian's granddaughter after a cave-in following a highstorm. In exchange, she is granted access to the Palanaeum

After being initially denied her request for wardship, Shallan waited for the Brightwoman in the Veil, while Jasnah was within the Palanaeum. It is here that she first meets Kabsal, an Ardent who had come to the balcony also looking for Jasnah.

Jasnah was not initially impressed to see Shallan, snapping at her and sending her away. Not long after she apologised and after being further petitioned gave Shallan the chance to re-petition her once she had filled some of the gaps in her knowledge. Shallan met up with Yalb outside the Concave and on their way back to the Winds Pleasure, he inspires an idea in Shallan about how she could speed up her chances to re-petition Jasnah. They visit a Thaylen bookstore, where Yalb pretended to be a servant from a rival merchant to help bring down the price of Shallan's purchase. Heading back to the Palanaem, Shallan rented the balcony next to Jasnah's with the intent of cramming information. Jasnah joined her before she could begin and accepted Shallan as her ward, after first perusing her sketchbook and it's annotations.

Shallan spoke via spanreed with her brothers about her progress in securing Jasnah's soulcaster. She learned that the estate had been visited by members of the Ghostblood who had supplied her father with the soulcaster and now wished for its return. Later in the Veil, Jasnah joined Shallan while she studied and the two spoke about the nature of scholarship and historians until they were joined by the King, Taravangian. The three ate lunch together and Shallan sketched a picture of the King at his request. The King asked Jasnah about her soulcaster, however, she refused to answer his questions. They then discussed religion. Shallan was unable to give the King her drawing as she had unconciously drawn cryptics in the background.

Shallan was sent to the Palanaeum proper by Jasnah to locate a copy of the book Dialogues. Shallan used this time to also locate Shadows Remembered, a book that she had previously seen Jasnah reading. Shallan was disappointed to learn it was a book about darkeyed children's stories. Later, Kabsal expressed his concerns to Shallan about her spiritual wellbeing and the effect that Jasnah's hearsay may have on her. Shallan denied that she was being influenced by Jasnah's lack of religious beliefs. Kabsal tried to convince Shallan to change to his Devotary and shows her the cymatics patterns that can be found in the structure og four of Roshar's major cities: Thaylen City, Kholinar, Akinah and Vedenar. Jasnah was not impressed by the cymatics patterns and Kabsal left shortly after she arrived. Jasnah warned Shallan that he was trying to obtain her soulcaster and would try and turn Shallan to get her aid in doing so.

Presented with the opportunity to switch the soulcasters, Shallan found she was unable to follow through. She went with Jasnah into the city late at night and the pair were attacked by criminals. She soulcast the four men, one into fire, one into quartz and two into smoke, saving both her and Shallan's life. Jasnah had deliberately taken them to a specific street where the criminals had been attacking, robbing and killing people. She had planned to dispatch of the men as a service to Taravangian who she felt had put himself in a more precarious position than he realised when he allied with her and allowed her access to the Palanaeum. After retiring to their rooms in the Conclave, Shallan switched the soulcasters while Jasnah was not looking, motivated by her revulsion over what Jasnah had done in the alley.

Alone in her room, Shallan contemplated morality and the different philosophical views of ethics, while recreating drawings of the encounter in the alley. By doing so she is not only forced to examine Jasnah's actions, but also her own; both in her plan to steal Jasnah's soulcaster but also her role in the death of her father. Lost in thought, she unconsciously drew a scene from her childhood; the death of her mothers lover. Spooked by the drawing, Shallan left her quarters, but was interrupted by a master-servant who had brought her spanreed which had activated. Shallan spoke with her brother and informed him that she had secured the soulcaster but would be unable to leave until she knew she would not be implicated. When a maid arrived to clean the rooms, Shallan transferred the soulcaster to her safe pouch and left to draw in the garden. After spending some time sketching, Shallan attempted to figure out how the soulcaster worked, however, was ultimately unsuccessful.

After two weeks of thought over the incident in the alley, Shallan gives Jasnah her philosophical conclusions over the Alethi princess' actions. Jasnah excused Shallan from her study for the rest of the day and Shallan retired to her room to again try to work the Soulcaster. While taking a break, she hears a disembodied whisper within her room. She quickly realises that the maid is in the main room doing her daily clean. Despite admitting to herself that the words had come from inside her room and had been softly whispered, she convinced herself that she had misheard the sounds of the maid cleaning and interpreted them as words. Shallan realised that the maid had gone into Jasnah's room by mistake to clean, despite strict rules not to. She sent the maid away to apologise to Jasnah then used the opportunity to snoop. In the room, she found several of Jasnah's journals - one on Urithiru, one on the voidbringers and one on New Natanatan, The Shattered Plains and the Unclaimed Hills. She is pulled away from searching by Kabsal, who arrived offering her lunch. In the gardens they flirted and talked about Shallan's father and soulcasting. Kabsal hid when Taravangian entered the gardens, and confessed he was supposed to be working instead of having lunch with Shallan. He left shortly after and Shallan returned to her rooms. Back in her rooms, Shallan found a note from Captain Tozbek of the Wind's pleasure advising that they would be returning to Kharbranth in a weeks time and would be able to take her back to Vedenar. Shallan returned to the Veil to join Jasnah in her study, wanting to make the most of the time she had left in the city to dedicate to scholarship.

While studying the death of King Gavilar Kholin, Shallan noted that he had been incredibly interested in the Parshendi people and their culture for a man who had never before been interested in scholarship. Jasnah confirmed her fathers interest in the Parshendi had begun from his first meeting with them, a fact many often overlooked. Shallan, unsure of why Jasnah had her studying Gavilar, asked her mentor why she had been set to study what the princess had lived through. Their conversation carried them to the topic of Urithiru and the Voidbringers. Unable to get many answers out of her mentor and wanting to make the most of her dwindling access to the Palanaeum, Shallan excused herself under the false pretense of finding a copy of Tifandor's biography of Gavilar. After finding little in the way of conclusive information about the Voidbringers, Shallan began to make her way back through the Palanaeum, intending to rejoin Jasnah, however ran into Kabsal who had been looking for her. On their way back to the Veil, Shallan asked him about the Voidbringers, leading the two to discuss Jasnah's research. Taking her study to be about undermining Vorinism and the devotaries, Kabsal expressed his anger at the way the ardents were treated, before getting his emotions under control. Shallan, knowing she couldn't continue to hide her plans to leave, told Kabsal of her intentions. After he requested a portrait from her, the two returned to the Veil, where Shallan had left her drawing materials. He quickly requested a second sketch, this one of both of them, paying her for it with one of the King's spheres. To the second drawing, Shallan added the forms of several Cryptics to the background. Panicking, Shallan hurried away from the alcove, running back towards her rooms in the guest quarters. Along the way she continued to take Memories, drawing them out quickly to show the spren following along after her. After locking herself in her room, she takes one final Memory and discovered the beings to be crowded around her. Frightened, she began to summon her shardblade before being interrupted by one of the Crytics speaking to her. Prompted by his words, she speaks a Truth and she is transported to Shadesmar, where she unwittingly soul casts the goblet on her desk into blood. Returning to herself in her room, she hears Jasnah in their shared common area, coming to find her and make sure she was alright. To hide the fact that she had soulcast, Shallan cut a gash in her arm to pretend that the blood was her own.

Lirin desired to send his son Kaladin to Kharbranth to train as a surgeon at the Great Concourse of Kharbranth.

Politics

- Vorin ranks - Taravangian would be on the level of first dahn (?) but does not use the ranking system as it would negatively affect foreign relations - find WOB and confirm Jasnah would rank higher? - confirm against WOB

- Taravangian is a beloved King to the dark eyed citizen's of Kharbranth because of his dedication to building and maintaining a large number of hospitals. Lighteyes, however, find him dull and not a fantastic politician. - Taravangian gained enemies by welcoming Jasnah to Kharbranth

- Several murders occur in the same street near the theatre district, however, the city watch takes no action to prevent further death, despite several reprimands from Taravangian. This may be due to backroom deals between the commander of the city watch and his cousin who is a politically influential lighteyes in the city. There is also rumors that the criminals are bribing the watch. - Jasnah worries about the trouble she may bring Taravangian through his alliance with her.

Culture

- Kharbranth owns no soulcasters

Peoples

People

` - Wide variety of people and cultures. - Jah Keved - shirts and trousers that lace at the front for men, skirts and colourful blouses for women - Tashikk - clothing of single sheet wraps - ?? - ankle length coats, open at the front - Natanatan - gloved hands and slightly bluish skin - ?? - tall stately people dressed in robes of black - ?? - Men with beards bound in cords, looking rodlike

- Kharbrathian's prefer soup for their lunch

Religion

The ardents hold a lot of sway in the city but so does Taravangian. He is not worried about them when he enlists Jasnah to help soulcast a rock and save his granddaughter.

"The king keeps careful track of his ardents"

Notable Citizens

• Taravangian

Taravangian goes for walks at midday and often walks through the gardens.

See Also

Plot:

Notes

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