Ngála
An ancient city on Tekumel. I tried counting how old it is. The current empire, the Empire of the Petal Throne or Tsolyánu, is also known as the 2nd Imperium and is over 2000 years old; the empire previous to that was Éngsvan hla Gánga, "the Mighty and Powerful Empire" – the Empire of the Priest-Kings, which lasted 3000 years, give or take. Before that was the 1st Imperium, Nayari's Empire. That went on for 10,000 years after her death and Ngála was old even before Nayari founded her empire.
You can see it up at the top of this map…
heroesoftheage.blogspot.com/search/label/%C3%89ngsvan%20hla%20G%C3%A1nga
Of course, after 15,000 years nothing could possibly be still extant above ground, right? Yes, well, sure, if one were talking about an ordinary city. But Ngála was no ordinary city, and now is no ordinary ruins. We know the Temple of Hrihayel, the Dancing Maiden of Temptation, uses at least parts of the site for summoning demons so it is not a great leap to think the city as a whole is special.
Furthermore, there are probably multiple iterations of the city, possibly some distance apart as the city developed historically. My "take" is that there is Ngála, the ruins where the Hrihayel priestesses carry out their rituals. This is on the Nyelmayel river, the River of Dreams. At least in My Tekumel, it is! Your mileage may vary, as they say. It is sort of like a Tekumel version of Deadwood, or Bartertown, or the Five Points area on NYC in the 1800's.
Then there is Pála Ngála, literally "Old Ngála", which sprawls further to the West and comprises many of the older incarnations of the city spread over a large area.
Finally there is "Greater Ngála" – I still need to look this up in Tsolyáni. ;) Greater Ngála exists beyond this realm, in the realm of sleep: the Dreamlands. Greater Ngála exists as it was at its height, or as some version of it at its height, or possibly all versions; the priesthoods are still debating these points.
Anyway, this is my take on Ngála. In part 1, I start putting together a test city-scape.
This can be found here: link
