검은 도시

영계를 드나드는 자라면 누구나 검은 도시를 볼 것이다. 이 도시는 변화무쌍한 영계에 몇 안 되는 불변 요소다. 영계 안 어디서든 그 도시를 볼 수 있다. (영계에서 작동하는 유일한 지리적 법칙은 모든 지점이 검은 도시와 같은 거리에 있다는 것이라, 항상 멀리 떨어져 보인다)

성가에서는 검은 도시가 한때 창조주의 자리였다고 가르친다. 그가 영계를 다스렸을 때부터 그곳은 창조주의 자리였으나, 사람들이 그분께 등을 돌린 이후 비어 버렸다는 것이다. 꿈꾸는 자들은 그곳에 가지 않는다. 영도 마찬가지다. 아무리 강력한 악마라 해도 그곳만큼은 피하는 듯하다.

또한 성가에 의하면 그 도시는 한때 황금빛으로 아름답게 빛나는 곳이었다고 한다. 그러나 테빈터 제국의 강력한 매지스터 군주들이 모종의 방법으로 도시에 침입했고, 그들의 존재가 도시를 더럽혀 검게 변했다고 한다. (물론, 당시엔 그 점을 걱정할 틈이 없었을 것이다.)

—마도사 미드로멜 저,장막 너머: 영혼과 악마에서 발췌

 

No traveler to the Fade can fail to spot the Black City. It is one of the few constants of that ever-changing place. No matter where one might be, the city is visible. (Always far off, for it seems that the only rule of geography in the Fade is that all points are equidistant from the Black City.)

 

The Chant teaches that the Black City was once the seat of the Maker, from whence He ruled the Fade, left empty when men turned away from Him. Dreamers do not go there, nor do spirits. Even the most powerful demons seem to avoid the place.

 

It was golden and beautiful once, so the story goes, until a group of powerful magister-lords from the Tevinter Imperium devised a means of breaking in. When they did so, their presence defiled the city, turning it black. (Which was, perhaps, the least of their worries.)

 

—From Beyond the Veil: Spirits and Demons by Enchanter Mirdromel