Ma'hek, the Stone Crossroads
Ma'hek is one of the few cities of the Desert Runists. It's dark slate streets and grey stone buildings nearly as ancient as the mountains themselves within which the city rests. Located in the Northern portion of the desert lands, it is tucked up between the breaking point between the Rouge Mountains to the South-East, the coastal mountains to the South West, and the boardering lands of Lyr to the North. Ma'hek rests along the foothills which are where the waters from a large mountain spring collect. Water is valuable in the desert.
Ma'hek rests on a large platue which many claim to be man-made ages ago. It is circular in design with four quadrents marked off by the large -now dry- aquaducts which once spread water from the spring in the City's heart all the way to the outter reaches. The quadrents for the most part are set aside for Trade, Housing, Law, and Learning. The great Mana Temple lies in the City's heart.
No one really lives in Ma'hek, but the city is always alive. Since the Desert Runists are Nomadic by nature, each tribe has it's own large house which remains locked while they are not there. No Tribe ever breaks into another Tribe's house, and special runes are needed -unique to each Tribe- to unlock the doors. The Houses are roughly all the same size, those of the Four Fore-Runner clans are signifigantly closer to the city's heart though.
Ma'hek has strict laws against violence, theft, and fueding within it's walls, what 'The actions of the Desert are the Desert's own.' is carved along the walls of most buildings as a reminder. It brings great shame to any Tribe to bring an arguement or fight within the city.
The Temple in the City's heart is a massive plaza of domes and pillars all made from a firey red stone. It is common belief that the stone gained it's crimson color from the Tribes, most notably the Fore-Runners, sheading blood on Temple grounds during the War to keep enemies from reaching the Mana well inside.
The Temple's Inner Chamber is a large dome-like room open to the sky with a deep pit in the center, and always contains at least two people from the Tribes. Generally older or more powerfuls member of the groups and whom all sit along the lines which run across the floor in a large rune to maintain the deep fire mana well.
No one knows why, but intertwined with the rune to maintain the well is a rune to maintain a constant wind, a very powerful cyclon which is the means with which to pull the mana up. The winds funnel the mana upwards through the hole in the ceiling, and shoot up high enough to turn the sky red at night. It acts like a beacon to travelers nearing Ma'hek, and the only time it went out was during the War when the city was almost lost to the Lyrans. The mana firing up used to be funneled off through channels along the cieling on the outside, and join with the aquaducts which start only a short ways through the temple in another building under another dome. But, whatever runes were used have been scraped away by time, and the Tribes haven't yet found out a way to examine what may remain without dousing the beacon.
South of the city is Savana, dry, but not barren, the occasional waterhole or tree providing much needed relief. Farther South, and one comes across the wide expanse of the Runist Desert, flanked both East and West by two mountain chains.
