Dari (World Guide, Location) (Patreon)

Dari

The modern Dari is a small, highly secluded railroad village located on a large granite outcrop overlooking the conjunction of the Yu-min and Dari Rivers. Despite considerable research by scholars, the history of the region is unclear, thanks in part to the destruction wrought by time, and the secretiveness of various modern businesses and governmental organizations which occupied the area at different times. The following history is merely a brief overview, as currently understood to academia.

The name Dari, or Da'ri, originated in ancient key'vin'ta times, referring to a long since vanished temple located somewhere in the Dari River canyon. The flat granite outcrop on which the later village would be built was simply an empty, roughly cut, natural stone plaza overlooking the spot where rivers came together in a frothing fury before heading south. This served as a rest point for travelers and pilgrims moving between the heavily populated t'kin'to plateau to the north, and the temples of the barren, storm-swept ma'shi'va plain to the south. At some point, a suspension bridge existed, crossing over to a path leading into Da'ri canyon, but only bits of its anchor points remain.

The first modern construction at Dari would take place after the Feyli Empire began to develop the old key'vin'ta homeworld in earnest. Expansive iron, silver, gold, and uranium deposits were found in the mountains around Dari, and a single track industrial railroad line was laid along the old pilgrim path. In order to create a reasonable grade, the granite outcrop was topped with a reinforced concrete bunker-type structure that also covered the head of a large ventilation shaft leading down into the ever-growing Brightstone multi-ore mine.

After Brightstone mine became too heavily contaminated by reaction byproducts generated by the three 'natural reactors' discovered during excavations, mining activity in the Yu-min Valley began to taper off. Owing to the location of one such reactor deep beneath the ventilation shaft at Dari, bores were drilled down in an effort to generate power using the reactor's intense heat. While the project was nominally successful, by the time it was completed, there was no need for the power thanks to the completion of the Mashiva hydroelectric mega-dam downriver. The shaft was capped and the project abandoned.

About a hundred years after the end of industrial activity in the Yu'min valley, the rail line was rebuilt to mid-speed passenger service standards in order to relieve some traffic on the Sky Line main line to the east. This Sky Line Bypass, as it was called, required someplace for a small selection of maintenance and snow clearing equipment, staff and families to be housed above the line's steepest grade. With little record being available of the potential dangers hidden in the mine below, it was decided to build Dari, along with a quartet of small rail sidings and a maintenance shed, on top of the concrete 'bunker'.  Here, half a dozen small families would make up the work force keeping snow off the line between Dari and the town of Konda down the valley, and up to the Piarna Way Station several miles upward along the course of the Yu'min.

Due to its seclusion and, if one was to believe the rumors, the influence of ancient key'vin'ta 'ghost priestesses', the population of Dari slowly descended into the sort of insular, paranoid existence commonly seen in cults. Only the railroad mattered, and that only because it brought food and other needed goods. Few would escape this crushingly depressing kind of existence. The most notable expatriate is Brigadier General Takka Riyalli, who would return to the village after an illustrious career in the Imperial Marines, and would nearly be murdered by other residents for her efforts to save them all from the danger looming below. Her adventurous granddaughter Chyka Riyalli also escaped Dari, attending El'yon University and eventually becoming a model for Gelitech.

The condition of Dari wouldn't change until the recent collapse of the old ventilation shaft, undermined from below over the previous century, by the natural reactor and it's seemingly unquenchable power. The exact circumstances surrounding the event aren't well known, but fortunately the shaft could be sealed before any significant release of radioactive materials could take place. The Sky Line Bypass has since reopened, but Dari itself has been deemed off-limits to civilians. The village is to be replaced by a new mine monitoring station, and plans to reroute the rail line into a tunnel, merging into the existing tunnel north of Myalu village have been approved.