Maiko's Note
Stone upon stone, dream upon ruin — Danlina is not merely a city, but a memory carved into the flesh of a new world. This is where the skybridge once touched the Theseus.
Where the first fires of civilization were kindled. Today, the megaliths rise higher than ambition dares, veined with knowledge chiseled into walls — fragments of Earth, frozen in time.
The Empire sees glory. I see a mausoleum of forgotten voices, echoing under banners soaked in red. Be careful what you seek here. The stone remembers everything.
The Capital
Shindjal: Danlina
Faction:
Imperi kòu Hanjelani
“Where the sky once touched the ground, power was born.”
1. Overview / Summary
The Capital, known as Danlina in Drabàshabal - meaning “Dunlin City” - is the oldest human city on Madun and the throne of the Imperi kòu Handjelani. Built at the site where the Theseus space elevator once met the surface, it has grown into a sprawling, megalithic megastructure over the course of more than 700 years. As the first landing point and the seat of imperial power, it is the cradle of post-landing civilization and its most enduring monument.
2. Origins & Background
Danlina was founded where the orbital tether once anchored to Madun’s surface, connecting the planet to the generational ship Theseus. The city’s name honors Robert B. Dunlin, founder of the Theseus mission and a symbol of Earthborn ideals. As the lift fell or was dismantled, the foundations became sacred ruins - the literal and symbolic core of the Capital.
What began as a temporary base of operations transformed over centuries into a tiered stone city. Former supply modules, hangars, and habitation units now lie buried beneath temples and halls, entombed in layer after layer of construction.
3. Cultural / Environmental Context
Located right in the center of the empire's coreland on Shawadjàn, Danlina benefits from fertile plains and ocean trade routes coming up the Bvaranal, the large river which cuts the Hanjelani homeland in half. The city’s monumental design serves both practical and ideological functions - temples and plazas enforce order through awe. Daily life is defined by bureaucracy, ritual, and social stratification, enforced by towering architecture and an ever-present imperial gaze.
Architecture & Design
The architecture of Danlina is a deliberate homage to ancient terrestrial civilizations, blending elements of Egyptian grandeur, Mayan sacred geometry, and Roman engineering precision. This triad reflects both ideological intent and technical inheritance: a visual claim that the Empire stands as the culmination of Earth’s greatest societies.
Egyptian influence: Monumental scale, sun-oriented alignments, and the use of carved stone obelisks and colonnades
Mayan influence: Tiered temple structures, intricate relief carvings, and sacred causeways linking ceremonial centers
Roman influence: Arched vaults, grid-based city planning, aqueduct systems, and the enduring ideal of imperial order
Buildings often rise hundreds of meters tall, built from reinforced stone using techniques passed down from Theseus-era engineers. Temples, forums, and the Subrim’s palace are connected by elevated stone roads, emphasizing hierarchy and flow of power. The city is not just lived in - it is performed through ritualized architecture that enshrines the Empire’s legacy in every stone.
4. Role in the World
As the capital of the Imperi kòu Hanjelani, Danlina is:
Home of the Subrim Komándan and the imperial court
Host to the Imperial Temple Complex, where ancient English inscriptions endure
Site of pilgrimage to the Elevator Ruins, once sacred ground of ascent
Repository of the Great Archives, where stone-carved knowledge mirrors the Hall of Records
Its influence extends far beyond its walls, shaping policy, law, and culture across the continent — often to the detriment of the tribes it conquered.
Notably, the largest temples in the Capital are not places of worship, but thematically sorted Halls of Record, where ancient knowledge is carved into vast interior walls. Each is dedicated to a branch of pre-landing wisdom:
The Formularium: A grand stone complex containing carved treatises on physics, mathematics, and engineering
The Lexikonum: Housing language, history, and law
The Corpus Vitae: Covering medicine, biology, and Earthborn ecology
These temples serve both sacred and civic roles - not only as repositories of salvaged Earth knowledge, but as training grounds for the elite and silent cathedrals to the memory of human origin.
5. Language & Terminology
Danlina: “Dunlin” - honoring Robert B. Dunlin
Tisiusul: “Soul of Theseus,” referring to the central plaza and the original landing site
Nodolari: Imperial nobility
6. Notable Locations / Figures
Subrim’s Palace: A stepped fortress-temple where the Komándan rules
Elevator Ruins: The broken foundations of the space tether, treated as sacred ground
Imperial Temple Complex: A religious-political center covered in preserved English and carved commandment-stones
Inner Forum: Central plaza built atop the original landing site
Great Archives: The secondary knowledge vault carved into the city’s underlayers
7. Lore Snippets or Anecdotes
“Danlina is not a city — it is the scar where heaven once bled into earth.”
— Asukul, last elder of the northern mountains“Those who walk below the tether’s bones hear the voice of Earth still echoing in the walls.”
— From a banned pilgrimage manual, now preserved only in the Archives
Maiko's Note
Stone upon stone, dream upon ruin — Danlina is not merely a city, but a memory carved into the flesh of a new world. This is where the skybridge once touched the Theseus.
Where the first fires of civilization were kindled. Today, the megaliths rise higher than ambition dares, veined with knowledge chiseled into walls — fragments of Earth, frozen in time.
The Empire sees glory. I see a mausoleum of forgotten voices, echoing under banners soaked in red. Be careful what you seek here. The stone remembers everything.
