Interis-Mal

The Labyrinth Builders

City— An ancient labyrinth extending into the bowels of the world and the geniuses that tend to it.

The People

Ask anyone who the smartest people in Ald-Amura are, and chances are the geniuses of Interis-Mal will come up at least once. It’s a myth that mathematics and arithmetic were invented by Interis-Mal, but it’s certain that it was perfected among the orche canyons and dusty sands. This mastery of numbers is an interesting side effect of the central core of ten thousand years of iterative design and construction of The Grand Project, otherwise known as the Labyrinth. One of the biggest tourist attractions in the entire world, the Labyrinth attracts thousands of people every year from all over Ald-Amura who come to walk along its dizzying walls and to see the latest additions. The bravest of these travelers attempt The Delve—a rite of passage for any visitor to attempt to find the center.

While the Labyrinth’s original explorers believed in a purely preservationist worldview, a chance encounter with Snasher—the arachnid Monster that makes the maze her home—convinced later generations to add to the design, building additional rooms, puzzles, convoluted networks of criss-crossing pathways, and hidden doorways in a grand yearly competition. Thousands of years later, the Labyrinth is one of the great wonders of the world. So complex and vast is this construct, that it’s said only 10% of the maze has been seen by eyes other than their builders.

Maintaining and developing the Labyrinth is a practice as ancient as the place itself. Interis-Mal’s original settlers are said to have discovered the ruins of the original labyrinth deep in the mountains surrounding their valley soon after arriving in the area. Constructing new additions to the space is a something between a noble and sacrosanct tradition, with arcane rites and significant symbology, and a riotous party, with drinking and feasting throughout the streets to welcome home the builders and designers when they return for the evening after a long day of maze design.

As mentioned, this dedication to designing and expanding on interesting, mind-bending mazes has ingrained an understanding of mathematics into the culture and history of Interis-Mal to a degree where most outsiders would struggle to understand even the basic concepts many of the citizens take for granted. This can make conversation somewhat difficult, though the people of Interis-Mal are by no means elitists, and they are more than happy to work to explain their arithmancy to anyone willing to listen.

Local Monster

Snasher is a peculiar looking Monster, vaguely arachnid in shape but topped with a sort of mound of eyeballs, constantly shifting and scanning the environment even when her mask-like face is focused. Legends say she rests at the center of the Labyrinth, guarding the egg of another universe. She is said to be pleasant to speak to, caring deeply for the humans around her, and she frequently guides lost souls from the labyrinth by leaving thin trails of golden silk that lead back to the entrance. She is also known to have the ability to see around corners, with some postulating that her eyes act as a sort of web for attracting, capturing, and devouring light itself.

Notable Sublocations

  • The Matictian’s Guild Historical Villa—At the peak of the mountain housing the Labyrinth is one of the most impressive museums in all of Ald-Amura. A truly bewildering collection of the history of all advanced mathematics, with ancient tools, incredible reproductions of famous minds’ workspaces, and a scale replica of the original labyrinth’s construction. Rumor has it they also have an extensive library of maps that chart every single addition to the Labyrinth since the founding citizens discovered it.
  • The Stables—Navigating the Labyrinth for the purposes of repair or preservation is, as you might imagine, a difficult task. Luckily, Interis-Mal is also known for having some of the best mounts in the world. Special goats are able to read the minds of their riders and slowly, but certainly, navigate their way back to any point in the Labyrinth they’ve already been with minimal fuss.
  • Main Street—The people’s mastery of numbers is reflected in the buildings and roads and streets of Interis-Mal itself. Newcomers to the city often speak of feeling a little unsettled by how precise the city is laid out, by how perfectly every brick, every plane of glass, and every cobblestone appears to have been designed, cut, and placed. Some have come to refer to the town by the affectionate nickname “The City of Angles.” Notable Labyrinth Rooms
  • The Spectral Halls—Advanced building techniques make the walls come alive with spirits and ghosts; sounds made in the room travel through a network of pipes and horns to create a terrifying atmosphere
  • Giant’s Table—This gargantuan chamber imagines a giant’s dining room, complete with magically preserved food, cutlery the size of buildings, and a cyclopean eye peering through a window on the wall.
  • Dar-Don’s Tower—This dizzyingly tall vertical maze, intended to be descended, often leaves its explorers wondering how they ended up ten floors above their previous position.

What Happens When You Arrive

  1. A school trip has gone missing in the Labyrinth, and Snasher is nowhere to be found.
  2. The Labyrinth has begun rising out of the mountain, a bizarre spire of twisting corridors and traps shuddering free from the rock.
  3. Sixteen people have emerged from the Labyrinth speaking a language nobody recognizes, each carrying an ancient scepter in their hands.
  4. Thick mist seems to pour off the walls inside the maze, and those that enter change bodies and personalities with others in the mist.
  5. A seemingly unending torrential flood of water is pouring from the mouth of the Labyrinth, threatening to wash away the town and fill the valley.
  6. Strange, discordant music bounces off the walls within the vast maze, making navigation inside for any length of time impossible.