"They call Ascelia 'the Dreaming City.' This seems apt enough to me. Its people spend their days as though hardly awake to the reality of our world; they pray, barter, dance, and toil all as though unaware of the mists below.
I do not know whether to envy or to pity them." —Danar-Kel, Reflections
Its silhouette dominated by the Goddess Tower that sustains it, Ascelia hovers high above the earth, seeming to rise from the very clouds. Ruled by the Guardians who carry out the Goddess' will, it is the home of the Thousand Temples, as well as the guilds who brave Mourclesis. Ascelia also wields what remains of the technology of the Old World, most famously in its airships and its cloning facilities, which can regenerate severed limbs or even - at great cost - entire bodies.
With Arx and Maelthraza locked in their eternal stalemate over what little uncorrupted land remains on the earth below, Ascelia is acknowledged even by the more self-aware of the Eladrin as the greatest power among the three surviving cities of Asherah.
History
DC10: Ascelia was saved from the Dread Sea's coming by the Guardians. They activated the latent power of the ancient Goddess Tower, built by the Dwarves, and with it raised the Dreaming City and the islands it rested upon above the clouds. Where Arx and Maelthraza seem to have been spared by fate's whim, Ascelia was rescued by Man's ingenuity.
The Guardians are an ancient order, having existed since before the historical record begins some 1300 years ago. The Hands of the Goddess are older still.
DC15: Unlike the rest of the world, to whom history more than 1000 years old has been almost completely lost and forgotten, the Guardians have access to more of it, through their Deva. The entire Deva race seems to have been engineered entirely to hold memories of the previous age. Disturbingly for them, they have no access to their own records of history, outside of haunting dreams and taunting visions. Only the servants of the Goddess Tower can extract them properly, a process known to be extremely painful to the Deva.
DC20: Another mystery of Ascelia are its Dwarves. They are known as the architects of the Goddess Tower - this is one of the few truths that has survived from the time before Mourclesis. Yet the ancient and long-lived Dwarves themselves either know as little as the other races of Asherah, or have been reticent for 1300 years.
DC25: The first guild, the Carved Men, was founded 300 years ago. It was Guardian Patriarch Sargon's solution to the increasingly restless caste of young men left idle by the dissolution of Ascelia's military forces after almost a millennium of disuse, given the often uneasy but unbroken peace between the three cities left on Asherah. Since then, about six hundred guilds have been registered with the Goddess Tower. A total of just over thirty are operational in modern times.
Streetwise - Prologue
DC10: A promising new guild, Impervious, was caught by Padan Iskander's raiders and slaughtered to a man. Their airship was seized and has been seen flying with Iskander's colors.
DC15: A rumor that the Goddess Tower will soon deal with the traitor Padan Iskander once and for all is circulating. Guardian Executors Bulov and Castor have been meeting with Grand Executor Eiridan and the Hand of the Goddess Dalavesta every day for the past week. The recent loss of the unfortunately-named Impervious seems to have been the final straw.
DC20: Guardian Patriarch Ward and Gustav Saynn, Guildmaster of Saynn's Riders, were heard arguing on board the Riders' airship, Vanguard. Saynn wants the Goddess Tower to cease allowing new guilds to form until Iskander is captured or killed, believing that a legendary guildmaster-turned-pirate is too dangerous for amateurs to handle. He accused Ward of being responsible for men's pointless deaths every time an adventurer falls to Iskandar's fleet. Many people agree with Saynn, especially after the complete loss of an entire guild and their ship all at once.
