无踪之城的历史 学者们一致认可,无踪之城的幻像再现的是西瓦那斯提古镇盖-查-卡拉斯。
根据一部西瓦那斯提典籍的记录,在大灾变之后的几个月间,狮鹫骑手们飞向各地,察看每一处精灵定居点的情形。一位骑手在报告中不仅提及了盖-查-卡拉斯的毁灭,还记载了如下的文字:“这座城市群魔乱舞,那些恶魔有着我们兄弟姊妹的外形,用以引诱我们放松警惕。同时,这座城市本身也以一种对生命的不洁模仿的形式重生了,尽管那儿瓦砾遍地,却仍然可以看见每一座楼宇与谷仓的影像。”从那天起,盖-查-拉卡斯成了一处避忌之地。再也没有一位西瓦那斯提精灵愿意踏足此地,碰触死亡的伤痛。
因此,那块土地空置了数个世纪。诚然,牧民与旅人偶尔会前来造访(学者们认为,平原野蛮人间流传的某些关于“亡者之城”的民间故事或许正讲述了游历这座废墟的经过),但直到第二次大灾变之前,也没有任何文明人的组织涉足此处。
钢铁军团成立后不久,军团成员们走遍整块大陆,试图找到一些合适的地点,用以建立远离索兰尼亚骑士与塔克西丝骑士影响的根据地。无踪之城看上去是一处理想的地点,并且从象征意义上来说,也十分符合军团的宗旨——他们自诩为一种无形的秩序,生活在人们中间,既不为善良,也不为邪恶,而是为真理与公平而战。在一座现存的(无实体的)城市的掩盖下建立一座指挥部,简直无懈可击。
如今,领导这支军团组织的是法莱乌斯·塔尼克,一位体型壮硕的野蛮人,他那“粗鲁而公平”的名声,使他在镇上几乎所有人心目中颇得尊敬。法莱乌斯利用无踪之城来调度附近巨龙国度中军团密探的行动,同时也作为安塞隆东海岸任何一位犯了事而无法自由行动的军团兵的避难所。
无踪之城的居民们深深地意识到他们的家园与盖-查-卡拉斯之间的区别。一切实体都属于无踪之城,而一切虚幻无形之物都属于盖-查-卡拉斯。几乎每一位造访这座城市的人都提及,他们由于看到盖-查-卡拉斯幽魂般的居民来来往往过着极其平凡的生活而感到不安。
奇怪的是,幻象之城中的居民们日渐变化,就如同真实世界中的任何人一样。他们成长,怀胎,生育,最终死去。有些人偶尔还会离开这座城市。尽管在盖-查-卡拉斯刚被破坏的时候,这座城市的人口还几乎全由西瓦那斯提精灵组成,但如今,城中已经有了来自不同种族,不同地区的幽灵居民。
许多学者相信,这座城市所重现的,是另一种真实——时间长河的某种支流,在其中第一次与第二次大灾变都从未发生。他们说,无踪之城是一扇窗,从中可以窥见一个比当代克莱恩更加完美的世界。另一些学者认为这一幻象是一种魔法导致的错觉,目的不明,出自某位神明(马哲理(Majere)或西都凯(Hiddukel),取决于学者本人的倾向)在第一次大灾变离开克莱恩前的创造。
剧透 - :
A History of the Missing City
Scholars agree that the mirage of the Missing City represents the ancient Silvanesti town of Gal Tra'kalas.
A Silvanesti tome records that in the months following the Cataclysm, griffin riders traveled to check on all the
elves' settlements. One rider reported that not only was Gal Tra'kalas destroyed, but also noted the following:
"The city was haunted by fiends, who took the forms of our brothers and sisters in order to entice us to lower
our guard. The city too is reborn in an unholy mockery of life, for though rubble litters the place, the likeness of
every building and barn still is visible." From that day forward, Gal Tra'kalas became a shunned place. No
Silvanesti was to visit there on pain of death.
So, the site stood empty for centuries. Certainly, nomads and travelers visited occasionally (scholars
presume that several plains barbarian folktales regarding "the city of the dead" actually tell of real excursions
to the ruins), but no organized group of civilized people set foot on the site until after the Second Cataclysm.
Shortly after the Legion's founding, members of the Legion of Steel scoured the continent for places to build
enclaves away from the influence of either the Knights of Solamnia or those of Takhisis. The Missing City
seemed an ideal location and symbolically well suited to the Legion's task. They meant themselves to be an
invisible order, living among the people and fighting for neither Good nor Evil, but instead for truth and fairness.
To build a headquarters under the cover of an existing (if insubstantial) city was perfect.
Today, this Legion cell operates under the leadership of Falaius Taneek, a giant of a barbarian whose
reputation of being "tough but fair" has won him the respect of nearly everyone in town. Falaius uses the
Missing City as a place to coordinate the actions of their operatives in neighboring dragon realms, as well as a
safe haven for any Legionnaires on Ansalon's eastern coast whose activities make it impossible for them to move about at large.
Residents of the Missing City draw a strong distinction between their home and Gal Tra'kalas. Any solid
item belongs to the Missing City, while anything spectral or immaterial is from Gal Tra'kalas. Nearly everyone
who visits the city remarks about the unsettling feeling of watching the ghostly residents of Gal Tra'kalas move
about their very ordinary lives.
Oddly enough, the residents of the mirage city change in the same way anyone in the real world would.
They age, bear and raise offspring, and eventually die. Some occasionally move out of the city. Despite the
fact that the population of Gal Tra'kalas was, at the time of its destruction, almost wholly Silvanesti, the ghostly
residents of today come from a variety of races and regions.
Many scholars believe the city represents an alternate reality—some tributary of the River of Time in which
neither the First nor Second Cataclysm occurred. The Missing City is a window, they say, into a more perfect
world than modern-day Krynn. Other scholars believe the mirage is a magical illusion with an unknowable
purpose, created by one of the gods (either Majere or Hiddukel, depending on the scholar's bias) before
departing Krynn at the time of the first Cataclysm.