Cabil

Malazan Empire

The city of Cabil was the unofficial capital of Falar. Located on one of the smaller Falari Isles amidst the Lure Sea, it had been home to the Guiding Council of the Faith from which the Cult of Mael had administered Falar as a theocracy until the region was conquered by the Malazan Empire.

City defences

The city's harbour was enclosed by walls which were traversed via three immense sea gates that forced ships to wind back and forth in a narrow curving channel. Overlooking this path and the outer bay was an army of guards at catapults, onagers, and scorpions, which could throw stones, flaming pitch-coated incendiaries, and long iron-tipped bolts. Only the city-fortress of Strike had walls as high or extensive in all of the archipelago. At the same time, the city's landward walls were crumbling and easily climbable with multiple gates of all sizes that were frequently left open and unguarded.

Temple complex

On the city's waterfront was the extensive complex of buildings forming the Basilica of Mael, which included the chambers of the former Guiding Council, and the famed Abbey of Cabil. The Abbey was the tallest building in the city and housed the priestesses of the Faith. It also contained the Abbess' private library, which stored the most sacred and secret of the Faith's recordings and writings, as well as the Sacred Pool of Mael. The Pool was located at the bottom of a yawning circular stone pit some twenty fathoms high. Sacrificial victims were bled and cast down into the waters from a wedge extending over the chasm as clergy witnessed the ceremony from a narrow landing nearby. Beneath the complex was the cult's main prison and a second lower and deeper prison. It was unclear how much of the complex still existed in its original form after the Malazan occupation.

History

Cabil became the political and religious centre of the Falari Isles after Kynarl, the semi-mythical seat of the height of Old Falar's original civilization, was destroyed thousands of years before by the Jhistal.

In Forge of the High Mage

(Information needed)

Notes and references

List of abbreviations • Paginations • How to reference an article