Irem
"Irem, the Pillared City. She will rise from the zee and the ice like dawn. She will be garlanded with red and decked with gold. The Seven-Serpent will watch you longingly from its high pedestal. You will always arrive as a stranger, but when you leave, some part of you will always remain."[1]
Irem will be an archipelago located east of Avid Horizon.
A Place of Rare Truths[edit | edit source]
"The city will be vast, a metropolis of stone rising from the zee, surrounded by ice, blanketed in roses. Her streets will meander into curls and tangles, obeying no clear pattern."[2]
Irem will be a vast city of stone rising from the zee, surrounded by ice and blanketed in roses. It will be built of granite and marble, and connected by labyrinthine streets.[3] At its heart, where all roads converge, will sit the seat of the Seven-Serpent, amidst towering stone pillars and grand staircases that ascend into nothingness.[4] The northern edge will be choked by biting wind and frigid cold, and filled with the scent of roses; few will dare to linger before turning back.[5]
The city will attract many kinds of people: zailors, merchants, priests, and, of course, prophets.[6] Though the city’s market will be small, its wares will speak of distant shores: trinkets from every corner of the Unterzee,[7] tea-leaves steeped in futures yet to unfold, and tapestries embroidered with secrets.[8] A cup of Iremi coffee will be frothy and dense, tasting of roses.[9] The local instrument of Irem will be the zither, said to be the finest of all stringed instruments.[10] Irem will lie perilously close to that dream-world Londoners call Parabola.[11][12] Parabola will be Irem’s cousin, its often-unreliable ally.[11] It will always have been, always be, always become — a place where time collides with itself and meaning slips like mist through grasping fingers.[13] Maybe's Daughter will call Irem home, for she will have been conceived in Parabola.[12]
The people of Irem will speak in riddles, their words fished from the sea by those called Riddlefishers,[14] figures cowled in sunset robes.[15] Irem and Whither will be locked in an unending rivalry of rhetoric.[16] The primary currency of Irem will be heptagonal Justificande Coins, infamous for their adverse effects on the ticking of clocks.[17] These coins will have negative value, placing their owners into debt — fitting for a place such as Irem.[18] Given to a Riddlefisher, they will buy relief and comfort.[19] Cast into the Pillared Sea, they will earn secrets from the Seven-Serpent.[20] Traded at the Futures Market, they will sell for wild words.[21]
Time will be strange in Irem: twisting, coiling, evading definition. It will matter deeply to Salt, for Irem will lie dangerously close to its domain in the distant East.[22] Irem’s counterpart will be Kingeater's Castle, where the world ends.[23]
The Seven-Serpent[edit | edit source]
"A monumental pedestal will rise above Irem. The Seven-Serpent will coil upon that pedestal: [...] ruby eyes watching the steps that bring travellers to supplicate themselves. It will receive their offerings and prayers, but it will confer no blessings. It will only be a statue, after all."[24]
The Seven-Serpent will be a monumental serpent statue that coils upon a grand pedestal overlooking Irem, with carved scales, icicle-like fangs, and ruby eyes.[24] The Seven-Serpent will placidly tally the days yet to come, consuming the What-Might-Have-Beens[25] and holding destiny in its teeth, awaiting those who seek to claim it.[26] Most of the time, the Serpent will offer safe passage,[27] but occasionally it will do the opposite.[28]
The Seven-Serpent will be the keeper of fate, and only with its permission will travelers be allowed to alter their destinies.[29] Supplicants will bring offerings to its pedestal;[24] those who know the proper rites[30] will be able to seize the thread of their destiny from the Serpent's fangs.[31] They will be admitted into the Loom,[32] where they may weave the very tapestry of their fate.[33]
When the devils will have made their pilgrimage from Parabola into the Neath, they will pass through Irem. The Fingerkings will find that their bargain with the Devils was a mistake, and a number of Fingerkings will perish.[34] The devils will then fashion the Seven-Serpent from the ruins of a stone serpent, and leave it in Irem as tribute to the future.[35] It will be the devils who will teach Irem to dictate destiny.[36]
Historical & Cultural Inspirations[edit | edit source]
Irem will echo an ancient city of legend. Iram of the Pillars, also called Aram, Iram, Irum, Irem, Erum, or the City of the Tent Poles, is a lost city, country, or general area that is mentioned in the Quran. Iram became known to Western literature with the translation of The Book of One Thousand and One Nights.
From the Quran:
Did you not see how your Lord dealt with 'Aad? / [With] Iram – who built lofty pillars / The likes of which had never been created in the lands / And [with] Thamud, who carved their homes into the rocks in the valley? / And [with] Pharaoh of the obelisks? / [All of] whom transgressed within the lands / And spread much corruption. / So your Lord poured upon them a scourge of punishment.[37]
In other words, the residents of the city (or members of the tribe, as some interpret it) angered God and their settlement was driven into the sands, never to be seen again.
The legend of Iram has spurred numerous expeditions aiming to uncover its remnants. In the early 1990s, archaeologists, guided by ancient maps and satellite imagery, announced the discovery of a site in Oman believed to be Ubar, the "Atlantis of the Sands." which some scholars associate with Iram. This finding, however, remains a topic of debate among historians and archaeologists.
Irem may also incorporate Turkish influences, as the Iremi will prepare their coffee in a manner strikingly similar to Turkish coffee.
References[edit | edit source]
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