Discussion Spektazuma, City of Lenses

[StealthKnightSteg]

So I have been browsing the web and all my Army Books to get a sense of fluff I want to pick up from my army. And I noticed Spektazuma, City of the Lenses.
It seems a new city in the lore of the Lizardmen as 8th ed AB is the first one to mention it.. well it doesn't mention it actually but it just has popped up on the map.. just below of the Ishtmus of Lustria, south of the Creeping Jungle. But it is listed as a Ruined City so it must have been around some time to get ransacked once atleast..

I have been reading and browsing, but can't find anything about this city.. Anyone else knows more?

Seeing this is a "new" mentioned city and I came around only recently to Lizardmen it seems fitting for me to have a young Slann lead an expeditionary force to rebuild this city.

 

[spawning of Bob]

The Slann's name is Myopia, and he is more introspective than most. Contax, skink priest of heavens, clarifies the Slann's visions.

The Old Blood, Catarax is the military ruler. He prefers to wage war in the half light of dawn or dusk.

Retinop'thy, head stalker of the chameleons toys with his prey by peppering their general vicinity with darts, yet somehow not causing any mortal wounds.

The Razordons of Spektazuma have the distinction of having the youngest, least experienced and most skittish handlers in Lustria.

The campaign to retake Spektazuma pitted our heroes against the horrifically contagious Skaven clan, Conjunctivitis. These infectious vermin transmit their malady through the spawning pools and child care centres of the southern continent, spreading horror and despair with the merest touch. (*)

Hope that helps.

(* - I made all of that up. Good luck doing the mods for your army)

 

[StealthKnightSteg]

Thanks SoB, I'm not sure how I can use this as of yet.
Mostly as history I think as my own fluff is created around retaking Spektazuma with my own thought up Slann.

 

[Scalenex]

If you don't want to make a bunch of contact lense puns, you could work off the angle than in fantasy a lense often refers to an item that augments something, usually magical ability.

You could figure out one or more mystical lenses that enhance something such as:

A Slann's telepathy

A Slann's scrying

A Spawning Pool's fertility

the longevity of Skinks

The growth of dinosaurs

etc etc.

 

[Kor-Lot-Ko]

How's this:

(note: i'm making this all up.)

Before the great catastrophe, Spektazuma was one of the most wondrous of all the the temple-cities of lustria. It was home to the great observatory, the best in the world, with an enormous telescope capable of seeing the surface of other planets in great detail. It's spawning pools amongst the most productive, churning out skinks and saurus in the hundreds. But most impressive of all were the great lenses. They sat on the top of the three largest pyramids in the city, turning every day to follow the sun. They captured the sun's rays and concentrated them into a beam the diameter of a carnosaur's egg, and hot enough to melt through iron after a few moments of being placed within the beam. The light was then shot into a perfectly carved diamond prism that shattered the large beam into multiple smaller beams the width of a skinks arm. A complex system of mirrors moved the beams of light around the city. Some beams went to forges, where the heat was used to melt gold and other metals faster than any fire. Some beams went to guard towers, where they powered weapons much like the solar engines mounted on the backs of bastilodons. Others went to great devices set into the bedrock deep below the city, which stored the solar energy for night or times of need. When the polar gates fell, Spektazuma was amongst the first to be attacked, the great stores of energy attracting the daemons like moths to a flame. For seven days, the slann of Spektazuma maintained their shield around the city, bolstered by the energy in the storage devices, while the solar weapons burned great swaths of the daemon army to ashes. But then, disaster. The leader of the daemonic host, a nurgle daemon prince, realized that he would never breach the city whilst the sun still shined every day. So, he had all of his mages band together to cast a spell which cloaked the city in a perpetual night. Without the sun, the weapons were soon powerless, and the slann were forced to maintain the shield without the aid of the devices. Still, the city stood firm for a further month before the shield was breached. The warriors and slann of Spektazuma held a fighting retreat into the bowels of the city, until they finally reached the energy storage chamber. Trapped and weakened, the warriors of the city of lenses resolved to make their final stand. But Itikmonda, Lord of the city, did not wish his city's legacy to end in that room. so, after giving instructions to his second, Lord (insert name of your slann here) to return to the city when the time was right. Then, using the last dregs of energy from the devices, transported the city's last defenders to Itza, just as the daemons burst through the doors and fell upon his exhausted form, ripping him limb from limb.

Not sure if this is what you're looking for, but this idea just sort of jumped into my head. I leave it up to you to come up with a story for your army.

 

[spawning of Bob]

That's a nice angle from @Kor-Lot-Ko .

Are you going to repost your own fluff here, @StealthKnightSteg ?

 

[StealthKnightSteg]

(To be honest this thread has dived under the radar with me, but watching it now again)

As I'm mostly an AoS player now and I will be converting my Seraphon to this system (round bases) I'm not sure how much I can expand on this. But any fluff that I will create that has some kind of reference to here I can post. I'll also update here with the little stuff I already have, maybe others can then carry on within 8th ed / 9th ed battles.
If I do any 8th or 9th edition with my Lizardmen (unlikely as I mainly keep my Empire for that) I will try and post it here also.

@Kor-Lot-Ko great stuff there! Though I might change or add to the use of the lenses a bit as Scalenex suggested (the scrying part) as I incorporated the added advantage of seeing the Great Plan clearer.
Also the 2nd Lord must have died later on as my Slann is younger and hasn't been to Spektazuma before

 

[spawning of Bob]

Kor-Lot-Ko's bit covers the Coming of Chaos (8000 years before the End Times)

Your bit (posted elsewhere) connects its resettlement before the End Times and links to the Time of Azyr.

I like the continuity. It makes me feel like the Seraphon whose battles you will hopefully narratise (if there is such a word) will be very solid in their identity and proud of their heritage. They should feel like their view of the Great Plan is clearer than other constellations (useful source of conflict that - their interpretation of the Great Plan being to shield the younger races from Chaos - like @Scalenex 's Slann civil war, overlaid on the AoS.)

I hope the next installment comes soon.

 

[StealthKnightSteg]

Don't expect it too soon for Seraphon, but got some stories / battle reports in the make for my Stormcast a bit in the style like Altsain does them

 

[spawning of Bob]

 

[StealthKnightSteg]

I did add this part to my blog's fluff.

adjusted a bit

Before the great catastrophe, Spektazuma was one of the most wondrous of all the the temple-cities of Lustria. It was home to the great observatory, the best in the world, with an enormous telescope capable of reading the stars in great detail. It’s spawning pools amongst the most productive, churning out skinks and saurus in the hundreds. But most impressive of all were the great lenses. They sat on the top of the three largest pyramids in the city, turning every day to follow the sun. They captured the sun’s rays and concentrated them into a beam the diameter of a carnosaur’s egg, and hot enough to melt through iron after a few moments of being placed within the beam. The light was then shot into a perfectly carved diamond prism that shattered the large beam into multiple smaller beams the width of a skinks arm. A complex system of mirrors moved the beams of light around the city. Some beams went to forges, where the heat was used to melt gold and other metals faster than any fire. Some beams went to guard towers, where they powered weapons much like the solar engines mounted on the backs of bastilodons. Others went to great devices set into the bedrock deep below the city, which stored the solar energy for night or times of need. When the polar gates fell, Spektazuma was amongst the first to be attacked, the great stores of energy attracting the daemons like moths to a flame. For seven days, the slann of Spektazuma maintained their shield around the city, bolstered by the energy in the storage devices, while the solar weapons burned great swaths of the daemon army to ashes. But then, disaster. The leader of the daemonic host, a nurgle daemon prince, realized that he would never breach the city whilst the sun still shined every day. So, he had all of his mages band together to cast a spell which cloaked the city in a perpetual night. Without the sun, the weapons were soon powerless, and the slann were forced to maintain the shield without the aid of the devices. Still, the city stood firm for a further month before the shield was breached. The warriors and slann of Spektazuma held a fighting retreat into the bowels of the city, until they finally reached the energy storage chamber. Trapped and weakened, the warriors of the city of lenses resolved to make their final stand. But Itikmonda, Lord of the city, did not wish his city’s legacy to end in that room. so, after giving instructions to his second, to return to the city when the time was right. Then, using the last dregs of energy from the devices, transported the city’s last defenders to Itza, just as the daemons burst through the doors and fell upon his exhausted form, ripping him limb from limb.

 

[StealthKnightSteg]

Lord Mazdamundi, in his infinite wisdom to cary out the Great Plan of the Old Ones, ordered one of his younger Slann Mage-Priest, of the 5th spawning, Kukulcan to take charge of the lost city of Spektazuma (The City of Lenses). While Lord Mazdamundi did not tell why he wanted the city be retaken, Kukulcan could sense the importance of the City of Lenses as an important tool to see more of the world to know where to act on the Great Plan.
Kukulcan, his name derived from the Old One of Warfare, was appointed Master Builder and is there for the ideal tool to undertake this task.

Kukulcan took a small host to make the journey to Spektazuma. This small host was only for his protection and for the possible small encounters he would meet in the thick of the jungle. He would not need to go past the more dangerous territories at the coastlines. Once at Spektazuma his first task was to rejuvenate the spawning pools to create the standing army and workers needed to protect and rebuild Spektazuma.

Pacha, a Starseer and the skink priest closest to Kukulcan was ordered to form the Lacertilia (as the war party became known) host and to take control of the tasks at hand when they would reach Spektazuma so Kukulcan can be left to his contemplations.

They seized the Temple city of Spektazuma of the wildlife and some left over roaming Skaven warbands and started rebuilding the city. Here Pacha and eventually Kukulcan settled in the first Temple with some more of their followers and started to re-invigorate the spawning pool hoping to achieve the production it once had.

 

[n810]

City of lenses ehhh...
seems like your army could use some of these conversions...

 

[StealthKnightSteg]

City of lenses ehhh...
seems like your army could use some of these conversions...

Well that idea actually could work, got the lenses spare from building the hurricanum anyway! The thing here is a bit too much, but will be able to do some subtle references around

 

[Sudsinabucket]

Hey all (i know Im 3 years late),

I am also working on a description for Spektasuma for two seperate but linked projects: My continuing Army Narrative (plan to link it to AOS and the future if Acattopas Temple City Texcoco) and its main character, a Oldblood named Acattopa (who happens to also be my Main RP chatacter) with his Skink Seer/Priest companion being important in some way. I will use a general description of the city also for a RP discord I help run, I am the Lustria DM, somehow. Lol.

The thoughts I have so far in the story is that it is ruined and has not been rebuilt for an unknown reason only known to Acattopa's Slann. It is also hiding a horrible weapon left behind by the Old Ones that an Empire Expedition threatens to unearth as they move to settle the ruins for its natural born riches of the mountain near by.

For the city itself and its History I imagine a grand Temple city built into the base of the mountain itself, high walls ruined from an ancient attack (like the story mentioned above in the comments which I love and with permission would love to tweak for my own?) Its towers use both the Sun, Moon and Stars energies to power their defenses, both firing bolts of pure Lunar energy amd forming powerful star and lunarfire defense shields reenforcing the walls (possibly engraved to surge with the power or like a blanket?). I also imagined a big observatory ontop of the Temple of Chotec which would be placed on top of the mountain itself, I had not figured out the purpose for it yet.

Its history would be one of wealth and trade, as its proximity to the Creeping Coast allowed it to have a major port settlement near by, the surrounding waters known for large pearls. The mountain which it was built into bringing in wealth from the earth. Massive rubies and other gems are said to be so large that Emperors would start a war for simply one. Precious metals and minerals also deep in the earth below the mountain, and above all else, Gold.

During the coming of chaos and the Great Catastrophe the Temple City held strong for a thousand years before being breached and eventually overran. Its defenses and armies eradication countless hordes of Daemons before the city was nothing but a red splatter in a green jungle.

At the moment im thinking of more finer details of the city, defenses and its past army and what it would consist of.

Very much a WIP but its fun to think up how the cities were and even better when others have thought of the same city!

Also, as a side question....can Star Priests become Star Seers or are they a seperate spawn or is it simply a higher rank of priest? Im only about 3 months into the hobby and lore, so still figuring it all out!

And now I think on it, did The Lizardmen Trade?? They must have right?

 

[pendrake]

And now I think on it, did The Lizardmen Trade?? They must have right?

Amongst themselves, yes, certainly. City-to-City involving big convoys of large cargo dinosaurs is how I imagine it. They had a ley lines network that could be traveled like roads.

 

[Scalenex]

The thoughts I have so far in the story is that it is ruined and has not been rebuilt for an unknown reason only known to Acattopa's Slann. It is also hiding a horrible weapon left behind by the Old Ones that an Empire Expedition threatens to unearth as they move to settle the ruins for its natural born riches of the mountain near by.

Very good idea.

At the moment im thinking of more finer details of the city, defenses and its past army and what it would consist of.

I started this thread on how Lizardmen Temple Cities defend themselves.

And this thread on Lizardmen Temple Cities feed themselves and meet their needs.

I wrote a bunch of fluff for my kahoun (small temple city), Klodorex, which happens to be located around the Monument of Izzatal, so that makes Spektazuma it's closest neighbor. I only mentioned Spektazuma in passing once when they loaned Klodorex some auxillery troops. You do not have to be constrained by my fluff I won't hold myself to being constrained by yours, but I'll probably co-opt whatever you come up with that I like.

Your nearest offiical temple city neighbor is Tlanxla the City of the Sky. Again no official details but we, (okay mostly me), added a little a bit of details to Tlanxla basically this.

-Tlanxla has a lot of Terradons
-The area has a lot of tasty fish (which is what sustains the Terradon population)
-The annual Festival of the Old One Tlanxla, which occurs in most temple cities, is a really big deal here and draws visitors from all over Lustria. Besides the religious parts, the Festival of Tlanxla also resembles a modern air show as the best Terradon riders pull off a lot of tricks and stunts to entertain the crowds.


There is no official or unofficial fluff saying what the Creeping Jungle looks like. I did develop some fluff for the Biting Bogs which sort of borders Spektazuma and the Monument of Izzatal. The Biting Bogs were named for a simple reason. There are a lot of swamps with small, medium, and large predators that bite. In my fluff universe, eventually two greater demons get imprisoned there, but other than that there is no reason any sane person goes here unless they want to get Razordon or Salamander eggs I suppose.

Also, as a side question....can Star Priests become Star Seers or are they a seperate spawn or is it simply a higher rank of priest? Im only about 3 months into the hobby and lore, so still figuring it all out!

That's left vague. In my opinion, when it comes to any rank and title for Sauri and Skinks about 60% of leaders are born into their positions by a special spawning and about 40% of leaders work their way to their position either from hard work and gumption or because they beat the odds and survive a lot of dangerous things and end up as the only person remotely qualified still alive.

 

[Sudsinabucket]

Wow! Looks like Im in the right place for ideas and talking stuff through! Ha.

I will have to look at the threads in a bit, excited to see what thyh contain.

I was going to make the Creeping Coast...not a paradise beach, but one clean and approachable enough that an Empire Expediton could land there and make a port settlement easy enough (for the sake of the story) but with many hidden (creeping) dangers right near the coast as carnivores have learned that unlucky ships try to dock there before being ripped apart.

Thanks for all the help and pointing me in the right directions! Ill post when I have more stuff

I think Ill make my Star Priest (Itzli-Citalli (Means Obsidian Star) into a seer at some point due to his raw power and intellect compared to other skink priests, and the fact he can control a Thunderlizard (her name is Tlanextic, which means Light of Dawn, he raised her from a fresh hatchling, using the loop hole GW gave me) given what you have said, which makes sense.

Did they trade at all with outsiders? I thought I saw a story somewhere that it said they gave the explorers many riches, except gold, as they dont hold other precious "treasures" in the same regard as Gold?

Thanks again, Ill keep yall posted!

 

[Scalenex]

Did they trade at all with outsiders? I thought I saw a story somewhere that it said they gave the explorers many riches, except gold, as they dont hold other precious "treasures" in the same regard as Gold?

That would probably be in the 5th edition Lizardmen book. 5th edition had it's flaws but it was a veritable golden age for official fluff pieces, as long as you didn't mind really silly names.

Marco Colombo opened a dialogue with a city of Lizardmen. He sold his services as a mercenary shooting down ships of raiders before they landed in Lustria or chasing down ships that stole from Lizardmen. The Lizardmen wouldn't trade in gold, but they believed pearls were literally useless, so Marco Colombo got paid primarily in pearls.

There was an Araby explorer that made peaceful contact with the Southlands Lizardmens. Eventually after they established communications the Lizardmen hired their force to join their army as scouts. The Araby men knew where all the oases were, so this allowed a Lizardmen army to march through the desert and attack a Tomb King that had stolen a Slann mummy. The Lizardmen let the Araby men take all the gold. They didn't have any problem with humans taking gold as long as it wasn't their gold.


I generally don't like the idea that Lizardmen are largely oblivoius to the nature of trade. At the very least, after Marco Colombo word spread that pearls can be used as bargaining chips. We have a fair number of unofficial fluff that includes Lizardmen peacefully trading with warmbloods. Amiable interactions between Seraphon and warmbloods are even more common in our fluff pieces though it is rarely commercial in nature.

 

[Sudsinabucket]

That would probably be in the 5th edition Lizardmen book. 5th edition had it's flaws but it was a veritable golden age for official fluff pieces, as long as you didn't mind really silly names.

Marco Colombo opened a dialogue with a city of Lizardmen. He sold his services as a mercenary shooting down ships of raiders before they landed in Lustria or chasing down ships that stole from Lizardmen. The Lizardmen wouldn't trade in gold, but they believed pearls were literally useless, so Marco Colombo got paid primarily in pearls.

There was an Araby explorer that made peaceful contact with the Southlands Lizardmens. Eventually after they established communications the Lizardmen hired their force to join their army as scouts. The Araby men knew where all the oases were, so this allowed a Lizardmen army to march through the desert and attack a Tomb King that had stolen a Slann mummy. The Lizardmen let the Araby men take all the gold. They didn't have any problem with humans taking gold as long as it wasn't their gold.


I generally don't like the idea that Lizardmen are largely oblivoius to the nature of trade. At the very least, after Marco Colombo word spread that pearls can be used as bargaining chips. We have a fair number of unofficial fluff that includes Lizardmen peacefully trading with warmbloods. Amiable interactions between Seraphon and warmbloods are even more common in our fluff pieces though it is rarely commercial in nature.

Thank you, I wouldnt even know where to begin, so this is a great start. The idea is the Empire struck or is trying to strike a deal to settle Spektazuma on the premise that the natural riches there would allow them to grow and would help fight the rumored chaos invasion looming or other foes, and therefore being the central Imperial hub for Lizardmen relations, trade, etc.

I like to also think that the Lizardmen are smart enough to understand diplomacy and trade, otherwise I feel theyd be little better than Greenskins, just more controlled and focused on a few enemies and not the whole world.