TERAU-NUB-WER

Great Golden Terrace · Farm · Terau-Nub · Khenet-Ura

“From the main avenue looking up at the pyramid buildings on either side, the roofscape is entirely green. I was told that on a clear day, from the topmost level of the outermost pyramid buildings, you can see the Het-Kha boundary, the open sea to the north, and the coast road northeast. I note this because the people who work up there, in the full sun, tending things that grow, looking out at all of those views every day for years, will know things about this city that the people in the rooms below do not.”

— G.C.P.S.A., Descriptio Continentis Australis, 1171 A.P.

Terau-Nub-Wer (‘Great Golden Terrace’) is the collective designation for the uppermost productive terrace level of the outermost Terau-Nub pyramid buildings: the highest accessible points in Khenet-Ura outside the Hut-Sekhara precinct, fully sun-exposed, planted with the most demanding crops and the flower plants that supply the Ankh-Sekhara network, and offering unobstructed views in all directions. The northwest-facing terrace of the building designated Kha-Nub-Ra in the Senedjem-Khet’s building registry is the highest and has the fullest horizon.

Purpose / Function

The Terau-Nub-Wer terraces produce the crops that require full sun exposure and cannot be grown at lower levels: fruit trees trained against the low terrace walls, grain plants in the deeper soil beds along the building’s outer face, the flowering plants whose blooms supply the Ankh-Sekhara shrine network throughout the city. The flower supply is the upper terrace’s most time-sensitive production responsibility: the shrine maintenance schedule requires fresh blooms daily, and the Senedjem-Khet’s logistics function coordinates the cut flower distribution from the upper terraces to the Forus-Sekhara’s shrine maintenance roster each dawn.

Design

The uppermost terrace is approximately eight storeys above the Forus-Sekhara avenue level. The terrace surface is wider than the lower levels — the outer face of the building steps outward at the upper levels to increase productive area in the zone of maximum sun exposure. The terrace wall along the outer edge is low: high enough to prevent material from falling, low enough that a person working at the wall can see over it to the full horizon. There is nothing between the upper terrace and the Het-Kha boundary to the south and east, or between the upper terrace and the open sea to the north. The view is unobstructed in all three directions simultaneously from a single standing position.

Sensory & Appearance

Wind. The upper terraces are the first place in Khenet-Ura where the coastal wind is fully felt — the pyramid buildings below provide shelter at every lower level, and the upper terrace breaks out above them into open air. The smell of the sea from the north, of the Het-Kha’s distinctive vegetation from the south, and of the flowering plants being tended. In the morning, before the coastal haze builds, the horizon is sharp and the Webet-Iteru phenomenon — if it is present — is visible as a specific quality of light below the horizon line that lasts approximately ten minutes after first light.

Denizens

Three workers tend the Kha-Nub-Ra northwest terrace: Kheper-Ra (age forty-four, fourteen years on the upper terraces), Heset-Ra (age thirty-one), and Mer-Kha (age fifty-two). All three have independently noticed the Webet-Iteru phenomenon on the northern horizon at dawn over the past eight months. None knows the others have seen it. Kheper-Ra noticed first, approximately eight months ago, and has been keeping private records; he describes what he observes each dawn in a small personal notebook he keeps in his tool storage. Heset-Ra noticed six months ago and mentioned it to Kheper-Ra, who confirmed her observation and suggested they wait before reporting. Mer-Kha noticed three months ago and has said nothing to either colleague, having reached the same conclusion independently.

DM ONLY

The Webet-Iteru is a bioluminescent phenomenon produced by deep-sea organisms in the waters north of Khenet-Ura. Halfling pilots’ private records document similar phenomena in 1087 A.P. and 1143 A.P. as indicators of significant deep-water current shifts correlating with the six-week period following detectable changes in the Iteru-Nub bay’s water temperature. The bay temperature has been changing for eight months. The organisms are responding. The current shift they indicate has not been shared with the Roman Admiralty or the tabaxi harbourmaster at Neb-Khet. A player who speaks with all three upper terrace workers — asking in a way that demonstrates they already know something unusual is happening on the horizon — will get all three to speak, including Kheper-Ra’s notebook. The notebook contains eight months of dawn observations with dates, weather conditions, and duration. Combined with the halfling pilots’ private current records and the Rift XIII thread, this is one component of a picture no single observer has assembled.

History

The upper terrace planting tradition was established in the second and third centuries of the city’s existence as the Terau-Nub’s pyramid buildings grew to their full height. The flower supply function — producing blooms for the Ankh-Sekhara network — was formalised alongside the shrine network’s standardisation in approximately 720 A.P. and has been the upper terraces’ primary scheduled responsibility since. See Annales Mundi for full chronological detail.

Type

Farm

Parent Location

KHENET-URA

Owning Organization

Senedjem-Khet