The Fourth City
"Who carves horse-head amulets out of bone? Whoever lived in the Fourth City. If all the Fourth City amulets on sale are real, they must really have liked horses."
"...the fourth we remade..."
As the immediate predecessor of London, the Fourth City has been well-studied, and the identities of both the city and those associated with it are known conclusively. The Mongol capital of Karakorum fell to the Neath in 1254 CE, during the reign of Möngke Khan.[1]
The Fourth Fall[edit | edit source]
The Khan's favorite daughter, the princess Cheren (or Shirin), sought the recipe for an immortality-granting drink made of peaches.[2] She designed an elaborate silver fountain called the Silver Tree, and constructed it with the help of a captive of the Khan, the sculptor William of Paris.[3] Cheren and William fell in love, but the Khan would never allow them to marry.[4] Their plight and the tense relationship between Cheren and her father[5] drew the interest of the Masters,[6][7] and Mr Wines was sent to start the negotiation for the eventual purchase of Karakorum.[8]
In late December 1253, the missionary and explorer William of Rubruck reached Karakorum, where he found to his surprise that there was already a community of Christians present, including a few from his native France. Eventually, he was accepted into the court of Möngke Khan; there he learned of a plot between the Khan's sons to instigate an invasion from Cathay[9] (China). The Khan's brother Kublai Khan served under him as the viceroy and first emperor of Yuan dynasty China, but Kublai's sons grew power-hungry, and wanted to challenge Möngke Khan for the throne of the Mongols.[10] Mr Wines planned to exploit this conflict to push the Khan into selling Karakorum.[11] In 1254, the Khan's long-held fears of an invasion from Cathay were realized: Yuan armies descended upon Karakorum. The Great Khan donned his armor and readied his bow — then was told that his horse lay dead, and the enemy was already at the gates.[12] The battle turned swiftly and brutally against the defenders.[13][14] Surrounded and outmatched, the Khan accepted the bargain Mr Wines offered,[15] and Karakorum was sold to the Echo Bazaar,[16]
Accounts vary as to what exactly became of Guillaume and William thereafter, but they are both long since deceased. William's soul was found in a Brass Embassy warehouse, alongside the soul of a Nestorian monk he met in Karakorum,[17] and his dreams are the probable origin point of Yesterday's Clerestory in Parabola.[18] Cheren, who still mourns for Guillaume,[19][20] is still alive thanks to her peach brandy; she is now known as the Gracious Widow.[21]
Adversaries[edit | edit source]
Since Möngke Khan died[22][23] on the Surface,[24][25] and several Khans ruled after him, the era of the Fourth City was filled with tumult and power struggles, and several factions warred with it over its history:
- the Copper, who stuck to the ways of the Third City and may have been connected to the God-Eaters[26]
- the Rosers, who hired devils to teach them the ways of Parabola[27] and eventually fled into Arbor[28]
- the Motherlings, who worshipped sorrow-spiders[29] and were able to create spider-councils by weaving the spiders' legs together.[30] The wife of the last Khan was one of the Motherlings.[31]
- Yesterday's King led a rebellion against the Masters at the Widow's behest, leading to the city's downfall.[32]
During its lifespan, the Fourth city tried and failed to invade the Elder Continent.[33][34]
Internal Turmoil[edit | edit source]
One of the last Khans of the Fourth City, called the True Khan, had a vision of his city's eventual demise, and left with his loyal followers to build the Khanate across the Zee. The Great Khan's departure left the Last Khatun to rule over the Fourth City; she made a crown of Fingerkings to gain wisdom, but unwittingly became their puppet. In retaliation, the inhabitants of the city rebelled and trapped her within a statue.[35] It may have been during this time of ophidian influence that the Fingerkings encouraged the Fourth City to invade Hell,[36] an effort that failed disastrously.[37] The Fingerkings may have done this as retribution for Hell teaching the Fourth City how to imprison them.[38]
Finally, after what may have been decades of upheaval, Yesterday's King rebelled against the Masters, who razed the Fourth City to the ground and began searching for a new city to buy.[32] The Fourth City was dissolved in lacre,[39] and most of it was crushed by the ensuing fall of London.[40] Its remnants can be found in the place Londoners call the Forgotten Quarter, and in the depths of Flute Street.[41] Its survivors and descendants are spread between Port Carnelian,[42] Arbor,[28] and the Khanate.
In the Sunless Skies timeline, after the gate to the High Wilderness at the Avid Horizon was opened, some of the Fourth City's survivors and descendants - at least the entire Eagle Clan, potentially all of the Khanate, and some of the exiles of Khan's Shadow - passed through and established a new Khanate at Eagle's Empyrean.[43]
Historical Inspirations[edit | edit source]
Karakorum was the capital of the Mongol Empire for a brief period of time, built by Ögedei Khan, the third son of the legendary Genghis Khan. It was expanded by Möngke Khan, who was Ögedei's nephew and thus one of Genghis Khan's many, many grandchildren.
William of Rubruck was a Flemish Franciscan friar who embarked on a missionary expedition to Karakorum in 1253. Western knowledge of the city as it was in the days of Möngke Khan exists thanks to William's extensive account of his journey, which he wrote for King Louis IX of France upon his return to Crusader territory in 1255. While there, he met a handful of other western Europeans who had been taken as captives from Hungary, as well as a community of Nestorian and Greek Orthodox Christians led by captives from Greece, Hungary, Russia, and the Caucasus.
William of Paris is another name recorded for the French metalsmith Guillaume Boucher.[44] Boucher was indeed a captive of the Khan who lived in Mongolia thereafter, and according to William of Rubruck, he did craft a Silver Tree for the Khan. However, there are no records to indicate that Boucher and Cheren fell in love; in fact, historical records indicate that Boucher's wife and adopted son were with him at the court of the Khan.
References[edit | edit source]
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