City Image - Thierry

The City of Thierry is colored (literally) by two key beliefs of the city people (who are literally one step away from their tribal ways). The first belief is that the color red is the color of strength, prowess, and courage. The second belief is that the Darbeast (an aggressive, omnivorous, herd oriented, mastodon like creature with a huge tusks) is the creature of great spiritual power (and the totem animal of their successful WarLord).

Cosmetic additions aside, Thierry would be an unremarkable place... a wall city of stone, plaster, and wood, poorly constructed. The walls are thick and made of rough quarried stone. The local stone is dark grey. Since the stone is roughly finished, there are many places that are unplasterable. The wood is softer than most woods, but still usable as a reinforcing support. It is used to make flimsy doors and shutters as well. The plaster is one step away from a mud adobe. It is unskillfully splattered in many places. The roofs here are mostly thatch and plaster combined to make a multiple adobe like roof. It is strong and fire resistants. It is a left over from the tribal construction. The shape of the buildings here, which are roughly round, is also a left over from the buildings of their tribal days. While many buildings (normally important ones) are square, the others are round or ovalish. The streets here are unpaved, but since there is little rain, it is not a big problem. The city folk here are only two generations from their tribal state, so the city is simply a copy of what they had conquered in other areas. So, in some ways, what they have created is quite remarkable.

A red tint is added to most of the plasters here, as well as some of the paints. This color creates a muddy red, the entire range of the color of blood. Many walls, roofs, and most trim on the houses here the reddish color. Some enterprising folks have crushed the plaster pieces up as a gravel, creating some brownish red pathways.

The presence of tusks, and wood carved to be tusks, can be a bit "scary" for people new to the city, until they are used to it. Tusks and horns adorn everything here. They are used along the city walls as decoration and defense. They are used as rails along walkways. They are used as "crowns" (clusters of round upward pointing tusks) on the top of important buildings. Horns adorn lentles and doors. The few towers have two horns sticking out of the sides at the top to emulate the beast.

The Darbeast's face is frequently carved into doors used as a pattern for doorframes. Buildings have them cleverly worked into their design, so windows are eyes, buttresses are tusks, and mouths are doors.

In no place is this more expertly done than in the five story tall royal palace/ main temple step pyramid the dominates the center of the town. If seen from a distance, each of the four sides present a Darbeast face, with the mouth being a massive doorway/gate. As one gets closer, the large faces become harder to make out, and smaller repetitive versions of Darbeast faces make up the walls. Inside the plaster has Darbeasts carved in relief. It is all in an attempt to appease the beast-spirits and to harness their power.

All in all, it is an odd place to be.