Planet
Pyrgane
The natural forges: rivers of molten metal running in the open, where the Arazian Empire comes to temper its most ancient blades.
On Pyrgane, it is not rivers of water that come down from the mountains but rivers of molten metal. They run in the open, white at the centre and red at the edges, and they never freeze.
The white rivers
The rivers of Pyrgane carry metals found nowhere else, pure and burning. Where they meet they form dazzling lakes impossible to look at unprotected. The air above them trembles constantly, and the sky of Pyrgane is a dirty orange that changes neither by day nor by night.
The blades of the Empire
The Arazians have come to Pyrgane since the oldest times. Their ceremonial swords — the ones drawn only at coronations — are tempered directly in the planet’s rivers. The work is done from suspended platforms, and a single blade takes three days. No permanent installation exists: Pyrgane burns whatever is left on it.