Tanah-Chook
"We have sewers now. Sewers! No one's building them in Venderbight."
Tanah Chook is a tomb-colony, notable among other minor tomb-colonies in the Neath, located on an island not far away from Venderbight. The city of Tanah Chook is located around a vast ziggurat – seat of its leader. City itself is rather small and not defiant, constructed out of sandstone with very few notable places. Tanah Chook, after all, is not a tourist attraction. Your usual Londoner hasn`t even heard of it, as the only connection of Tanah Chook with the world of living is irregular postal exchange. Of things that are notable in Tanah Chook, there are Main Marketplace, House of Exertion, Great Library and, of course, newly constructed sewer system.
The main marketplace is where tomb-colonists of Tanah Chook satisfy all their shopping needs. As a result of island being such enclosed society, trade here goes way more tranquilly than anybody who have seen markets of Spite could imagine: voices are quiet, trade itself goes on a reflex level, and robbery attempts are almost non-existent. And those that do exists are motivated by boredom rather than greed.
House of Exertion is a place where tomb-colonists of Tanah Chook exercise their physical vigour. Two most popular kinds of exercise are dancing and ruthless duels – both are approached with the same amount of rivalry. But to say if it is too tense for a dance or too friendly for a deadly duel is impossible for any outside observer.
Those tomb-colonists who wants to take a break from exercising their bodies pay visit to the Great Library to exercise their minds. The library itself was accumulated for centuries, and holds vast amounts of books, that cover all possible reading needs of Tanah Chook citizens. For those who, however, are tired of reading dusty books, library also organizes cultural events, like public chess tournaments and concerts. Also, the library is a home for, most likely, Tanah Chook’s most elegant cafe, if not the only one.
Tanah Chook was found by a faction of rebellious third city tomb-colonists, who were unhappy with how things were in Venderbight. As a way of going against the order of things, they also arranged a process of Emergence – of tomb-colonist at the brink of death “hatching” into frost-moth, who has been growing inside colonist’s chest.
But as newborn republic started to demand proper management, original revolution leaders “disappeared”, giving way to the Ebullient Undertaker, who rose to the ruling position in just three days. She set up democratic groundwork by making three main ways for tomb-colonist to depart: The Surface, the Sanatorium and the Emergence — accessible to everyone, and by proclaiming universal voting rights, be that living or dead. Literally.
Ascended to the Surface to get burned by the Sun, moved to the Grand Sanatorium in Venderbight to slowly delve into oblivion, or bursted at the death door as a moth to live a rather short but exiting life as a frost moth – all who died in the end find themselves on the far shore, a place of (presumably) no return. But citizens of Tanah Chook are still expected to participate in city's political life. Those, who chose to meet their end on the Surface, memorize pages of reports to update far shore’s inhabitants on matters and issues of Tanah Chook. Dead’s votes also could return back to the Neath via the Grand Sanatorium, where vanishing tomb-colonists could hear voices from far shore, or via writings on frost moths` wings, who regularly migrate between the Neath and far shore.
