The Aren Way, Interpretation by Corporal Nobbs
Aren Way was a broad, cedar-lined Imperial road which had been commissioned by Dassem Ultor early in the conquest of Seven Cities. It ran three leagues (10 miles) from an arched gate in the village of Balahn to the city of Aren.[1]
The first third of the road leaving Balahn was known locally as the "Ramp" as it sloped gently downward towards the city. To the eastern side of the road was a series of cone-shaped hills leading all the way to Aren. These were the mass graves of those killed in the Holy City by the T'lan Imass.[2]
In Deadhouse Gates[]
The Ramp was the site of a running battle between Fist Coltaine's Chain of Dogs and Korbolo Dom's army of the Apocalypse. Coltaine's 7th Army fought a delaying action against Dom as Imperial Historian Duiker led a train of thirty thousand refugees south to Aren.[3][4][5]
After the refugees successfully arrived at the Holy City, Coltaine's and his troops were abandoned by High Fist Pormqual and left to be viciously murdered by Korbolo Dom's troops at the Battle of Barrow. Then, thinking that he was leading his troops to rout Dom's retreating troops, Pormqual himself was betrayed by his advisor Mallick Rel who had been secretly in league with Dom. Pormqual's army was also slaughtered by the South Army of the Whirlwind.
Their dead and dying were then crucified on the cedars along the entire length of the Aren Way.
In House of Chains[]
By the time Adjunct Tavore Paran's Malaz 14th Army arrived in Aren to begin its punitive mission against the rebels, the Aren Way had been transformed into a vast, open-air temple. Each tree had been heavily decorated in fetishes and cloths braided into chains. Figures were painted on the trees' bark representing the soldiers who had once died there. For a time, some in the city considered removing the trees, but Adjunct Paran had forbidden it.[6]
Notes and references[]
- ↑ Deadhouse Gates, Chapter 20, US HC p.529-530
- ↑ Deadhouse Gates, Chapter 20, US HC p.531
- ↑ Deadhouse Gates, Map - Coltaine's March, the Second Half
- ↑ Deadhouse Gates, Chapter 20, US HC p.528
- ↑ Deadhouse Gates, Chapter 21, US HC p.546
- ↑ House of Chains, Chapter 11, US SFBC p.412
| Chain of Dogs | |
|---|---|
| Battles | Hissar • Bat'rol • Dryj Spring • Sekala Crossing • Gelor Ridge • Vathar Crossing • Nenoth - The Dry March • Sanimon • Tathimon • Dojal Spring • Balahn • Ramp • Barrow |