Steynmahr

General

A part of the harbor of Steynmahr before the destruction

A part of the harbor of Steynmahr (View from the north)

The castle of Steynmahr burning down (7011 A.I.D.)

The destroyed castle and city of Steynmahr on the following morning

Steynmahr [/'ʃtaɪnma:ɐ/] was the capital of the Kingdom of the Mahr. It was a coastal city built around the coastal cliffs opposite the Dracoš archipelago, with the city's castle built atop the cliffs.

City and castle were totally destroyed by the Dragons of Dracoš in the year 7011 A.I.D.. This event represents the beginning of the Dracoš Arc.

The City

Social Situation

Steynmahr was the political, religious and cultural center of the entire Mahr. Despite the feudal system and widespread serfdom, a wide variety of social groups lived together here.

Until shortly before the destruction, a good 155,000 people lived in the city. Thus Steynmahr was one of the larger cities in Luyieveria.

Cityscape

The city and its composition were entirely shaped by the steep location on the coast. The oldest structures - which were integrated into the keep - were found on the northern cliffs, while the city extended mainly south and west to the sea. The cliffs under the castle were partially hollowed out and integrated into the castle complex.

Originally, Steynmahr was considered one of the ugliest or most unspectacular cities in the Luyieverian Reich, but the number of decorated stone houses increased more and more. A rising citizenry profited from the flourishing economy and participated in the representative decoration of the city, which changed the cityscape profoundly. However, in some neighborhoods that did not receive the same attention, conditions remained precarious.

Aristocracy

The local aristocracy included mainly the court of the ruling family Sereuth, as well as the wider family, knights and finally increasingly ennobled citizens and clerics from the Mahrian religion.

Historical Significance

Steynmahr emerged from a settlement of Mahrian settlers. Human settlements existed in the surrounding area even before the establishment of the Old Empire, therefore no exact date of foundation has been handed down.

In 6546 A.I.D., the High Reich of Luyieverian Estates was founded after a lengthy congress in the castle of Steynmahr.

Destruction

After the royal family of Sereuth had increasingly besieged and hunted the Dragons of Dracoš for years, the latter, after several confrontations, attacked the well-protected castle and managed to set it on fire. As a result, the defense collapsed and both the castle and the city burned down or were otherwise directly destroyed by the Dragons.

A large part of the population perished in the inferno, while numerous people fled and left the surrounding area. The destruction removed the Mahrian political leadership in one fell swoop and destabilized the entire region.

Context

(see: The Dracoš Arc for more details)

The Humans had intensively hunted and decimated the Dragons in the years before 7011. This was made possible by equipping the fortress of Steynmahr with efficient shooting devices and catapults, which used large stones or harpoons against the Dragons and thus secured the city and coast against counterattacks from the air.

It was the intention of the royal family and the military to attack the islands with ships as soon as the Dragons had been sufficiently weakened.

Arriving from Thôsco, the two Magotho Len and Lourem symbolically supported Dracoš in the conflict as heirs of the ancient ruling dynasty of the Old Empire.

However, even though they encouraged the Dragons to continue resisting, the two were militarily inexperienced. For the Dragons, who were also unaccustomed to coordinated military action, this meant that they served primarily as moral support.

When the situation worsened after Steynmahr attacked at sea, the Dragons of Dracoš escalated the conflict in the summer of 7011 A.I.D. and attacked Steynmahr in a desperate assault.

Course of Destruction

Although well equipped, the city's defenses were not prepared for such a massive - albeit ill-coordinated - attack by the Dragons. Dracoš attacked Steynmahr in the early morning hours just before sunrise.

Steynmahr's air defenses initially managed to bring down numerous Dragons, but they reacted too slowly. The Dragons then managed to eliminate individual battle stations, and still others penetrated the air defenses to enter the castle. As a result, the fortress quickly went up in flames. It became clear that Steynmahr's vaunted air defenses had had primarily a deterrent impact against the Dragons and were now failing as they were being truly tested for the first time.

As soon as the castle could no longer be defended, the dragons wreaked great destruction in it. The violence spread in a very short time to the lower city, which was less well defended and therefore completely destroyed.

Large parts of the population, as well as the entire royal family, were killed in the attack.