City Image - Cheza 'city' Betaze '17'

To really appreciate this city image, please check out the Nekron first.

Cheza Betaze is the 17th Nekron urban area found in the Northern Cascades. The reasons why it is the best known of all Nekron cavern cities is that is has an easily accessible surface entrance/ exit which is just off the main Cascade trade trails. Being of recent construction in a time of prosperity, it is a city the Nekron feel proud off.

The entrance to the city that Light Siders come from provides a spectacular view of the city, being it enters the cavern some ninety strides up from the floor. There is a steep and winding trail that leads down to the city floor. The trail from the cave entrance was excavated out, but is used for mushroom farming and as bat warrens. It is currently being widened, as it was not created to handle the amount of traffic it does.

The buildings are tall and square. They are large edifices of large block quarried stone. They can be up an unheard of ten stories tall. Each building has a uniformed one window every three strides or so. The upper corners of almost all the buildings and all visible lintels are all decorated by master craftsmen. The main theme here is bats (being a several large bat warrens in this area of the cavern system). There are bat heads in fierce repose, bats rampant, bats seemingly flying, and the occasional bat like gargoyle lurking on the rooftop looking to swoop down at any reason.

Many of these squarish buildings are linked by bridges, walk ways really. Used to living in a three dimensional environment, and with seemingly no fear of heights, the Nekron can traverse the city quite quickly despite its size on any number of levels. Some of the decoration on the underside of the bridges is both frightening and highly artistic. Spiders are their dominant motif. The scenes are amusing to the Nekron despite their sometime horrific and graphic depiction of being being eaten. (It is some kind of social commentary that you have to know the history of the place to get).

There are also a few mobile disks that float through the air, carrying Nekron up and down between levels and along certain paths. These marvels of magic are somehow tied to the three dominant towers in the city.

The buildings and their decorations are dramatically under lit by the odd harsh purple light that the Nekron seem to favor. While normal light occasionally peers out of a curtained window, most of the light here has that purple cast. This choice in lighting adds to the macabe feel of the city. It is also what makes it hauntingly beautiful.

The four most striking buildings in the city are the City Center and the three magic towers. The Civic/ city center building is a series of blocks, smaller blocks built upon larger blocks below them. Each tier houses a different aspect of their local government and has its own entrance. All the doors here are flanked by two statues of fierce Nekron warriors, much suits of platemail flank doors in castles. The Civic center is lit over every square inch, the reflected light illuminates the ceiling of the cavern.

The tall three magic towers are beautiful. Different from the square blocky buildings, they are round and tapered. They are made of a mix of stone and glass, allowing one to see what one supposes is the 'flow of magic' inside the tower. (There is also some kind of spinning mechanism insides the towers, which empowers an artistic chandelier in the rotunda at the bottom of the tower). They are topped with silvery sphere. On those spheres perch large bat like gargoyles artwork, once facing each of the cardinal directions. Those gargoyle's eyes glow with a bright purple glow.

A horrific, but beautiful place to visit.