Soul District of Grimthorn

The Soul is named for Kāalva's sword, Soul-Scream. This seaside District overlooks the Bay of Swords to the north and the Iron Sea to the west. Additionally, it is separated from the rest of the city by congested Lake Dēalled, a sheltered water body shared by the Soul, the Char, and the Grave Districts. It has long been considered to have the most beautiful vistas of any District in the city. The Soul is connected by two bridges: River's Gate (to Char) and the multi-tiered Widow's Crossing (to Grave).

• Ruler: Alzaril Dār
• Footholds: Blackport, Leeward, Scrapside, Southwharf, Windward

Landmarks

Dār House

The new home of House Dār is the seat of King Alzaril Dār of the lost Kingdom of Vīkis. Grimthorn scholars have scoured the tomes and scrolls of Academy Hill but found no mention of the King's homeland. There is no question that Alzaril arrived on a splendid ship laden with gold and treasures of some wealthy nation, but he may as well have sailed from the misty depths of Fey as come from an established state beyond the Iron Sea.

Until recently, Dār House itself was Dēalled House, an august noble house of the city. When plague ravaged the last remaining members of that family, as they had nearly done before Alzaril fled Vīkis, King Alzaril and his entourage took the opportunity to establish him as the city's newest Pentarch. Fear of the plague and its causes have prevented others from trying to overthrow the Occultist King.

Heralds' Guild

The smallest guild by membership, the Heralds of Grimthorn are a private fraternity of artists and historians. It is their charge to catalog and register all heraldic devices for people, business, and orders, and to keep extensively genealogies of peers for the purposes of inheritance, trusts, wills, and successions. Members of the Heralds' Guild wear deep blue robes with sashes displaying their family devices. Though they mostly stay isolated in their offices and libraries, they are sometimes called to serve as court experts throughout the Districts.

Overlook House

A massive manor house on the westside of the Soul, Overlook House is so named because its uppermost balconies peer over the District walls, offering unparalleled views of the Iron Sea at sunset. The first few stories of this building are built with fitted megaliths, unbroken by doors or windows. The only way into the building is by a series of rope-elevators that carry people and supplies to balconies forty feet high.

As far as can be remembered, Overlook House has never been a noble house. It was likely built by a wealthy sea merchant due to its proximity to the Seamans' Guild. Today, the building is divided into numerous wealthy apartments for people that literally want to live above the noise, smell, and squalor of the city.

Seamans' Guild

The wealthiest guild house in the city belongs to the Seamans' Guild. The exterior of the building, though grand in scale, is unremarkable. Inside however one sees that the entire building is a container for a full masted sailing ship that is supported by the statues of four mermaids, each thrice the size of full-grown human man. The ship is several hundred years old, and is believed to be the resting place of the first Guildmaster. Climbing onto the ship is forbidden, and many drunken sailors have been murdered upon the tails of the mermaids for that offense. Climbing upon and groping the statues however cannot be controlled.

Each encompassing mezzanine hosts a bar, with increasing importance the higher one climbs. The topmost bar, the Admiral's Table, has a select membership though lower guilders can enter if invited. Guilders visiting bars outside their standing is the cause for most fights within the guild house.

Trāvim's Market

At the head of the steeply sloped Southwharf Tunnels is Trāvim's Market, one of the only District marketplaces that is still fully utilized. Goods from Southwarf are brought up the twin tunnels every morning to be sold in hundreds of stalls and stores at the center of the Soul. Not all products that stream up the tunnels stop at the Market however, as long lines of wagons also continue through the East Gatehouse to Widow's Crossing. Between the two markets, there is little that cannot be purchased or sold in the Soul.

Vault of Soul-Scream

Entombed beneath the Soul lies a great iron door emblazoned with wispy ghosts being drawn into a crack. That's what historians claim. The location of Soul-Scream's vault has not been a secret for many years. The location was discovered by a party of adventurers enlisted by Queen Irēis Dēalled. Disobeying the Queen's instructions, when the vault was located, a member of the band tried to open it with Primal magics. The resulting explosion left a large crater above the vault door, exposing the vault's location to daylight. The vault remains intact, but any in the Soul that wish to visit can gaze down from the crater's edge, or rappel onto the black and scattered remains of Queen Irēis' expedition.

The Legend of Kāalva holds that her son placed Soul-Scream into the vault for safekeeping, until it was again needed in the defense of Grimthorn.

Well of Graves

The Soul is one of the most attractive locales in all Grimthorn, but it is also host to one of the most macabre locations on the Island of Īll. In the southernmost reach of the walled District, there gapes a giant well that descends 100s of yards into the island's bowels. The walls of this well are delineated by rows upon rows of tiered mausoleum embrasures, marking the final retreats of millions of Grimthorn dead. Once upon a time, a crane presided over the grim aperture, but it has many years since a new resident was added to the Well. The earliest interments into the Well date over 600 years ago.

Those concerned with such matters, believe that the Well of Graves is one of the few open entrances to the city catacombs.