Eternal City

The Eternal City was said to have once been an immortal abode — a utopia that death could not reach, where enlightened beings lived in peace and prosperity for countless years, reborn anew every time their bodies and souls grew frail with age. It was also described as a place where weary deities came to rest. Over time, its current state became unknown.^[3]

The city was a vast and radiant metropolis resting on the smooth, black glass surface at the bottom of the Stormsea. Long before it came into view, it revealed its presence through a pale, aurora-like light that illuminated the abyss, emanating from a great lighthouse said to have been created by the Demon of Repose. This beacon had once guided travelers through the darkness of the Black Skies and now shone beneath the crushing depths of the sea. Despite having survived the wrath of the Storm God, fallen from space, and endured immense oceanic pressure for thousands of years, the Eternal City appeared completely intact and pristine. Its beautiful silver spires emitted radiant light, while stone buildings, streets, squares, and vast parks spread across numerous large islands divided by fast-flowing rivers. A colossal dome surrounded the city, shielding it from the surrounding seawater. At its center stood a magnificent palace or temple towering above the rest. The Eternal City was immense—comparable in scale to Bastion, Ravenheart, or NQSC—and though breathtakingly preserved, its streets were filled with countless moving shadows belonging to the immortal citizens of the fallen city.^[4]

The Eternal City contains three neighboring island districts located north of Wharf Island, each significantly larger, more densely developed, and inhabited by greater numbers of fallen immortals. One island functioned as a residential district, another serves as a leisure district distinguished by vibrant shops, theaters, and peaceful alleys, and the third is a large park island characterized by silver-leafed trees, ponds, winding canals, and cascading hills leading to the promenades along its edges. These islands are connected to multiple other districts by wide chasms, allowing continuous movement of nightmare creatures and increasing the threat of flanking attacks against invading forces.^[7]

The Eternal City is a creation of the Demon of Repose, described as both a paradise and a prison. It grants its inhabitants immortality at the cost of eternal confinement, as those made immortal by the city could never leave their beautiful cage for as long as the Eternal City existed. The city's immortality and persistence are maintained through the divine sorcery of its creator, and it continues to exist even in her absence through an unknown sustaining mechanism. The structure is described as a sunken city protected by a dome, the collapse of which would cause it to flood. It is associated with nearby locations such as the Night Garden and the Lighthouse, which contain remnants of ancient power and Memories connected to the Saints of Night. Despite its name and apparent permanence, it is implied that the Eternal City's divine mechanism could potentially be destroyed if its nature were understood.^[8]

In Chapter 2618, it was mentioned that the Eternal City had fallen into the sea and now lay at the bottom of the Stormsea.

The Clocktower was listed among several structures that stood out in the city (alongside the Wharf and the Lighthouse).^[9]

The lighthouse of the Eternal City was revealed to be more than a structure; it is also a temple — a temple dedicated to Storm God. Its light is not ordinary, for a star is trapped within it, and that star is the source of the lineage. Those who find their way to the Eternal City and enter the lighthouse will be bathed in its silver light. Then, they would be reborn as descendants of Storm God or die.^[3]

It is the location of the source of the Storm God's lineage and was described as being situated on the outskirts of the city and easier to reach by moving along the outer perimeter.^[9]

The Lighthouse itself is described as a great tower drowned in silver radiance and hollow inside, with no ceiling in sight. Its ground floor resembles a temple, serving as a radiant counterpart to the dark shrine within the Ebony Tower. The space is filled with statues — nearly identical to those in the somber shrine — but illuminated instead of shadowed. Reaching its highest point is where the source of the light within it.^[10]

At the top of the Lighthouse burns a fierce, blinding star, emanating waves of radiant light and immolating heat. Despite its appearance, the silver light feels cold, washing over like a physical force that permeates one's very being. The starlight illuminates the dark depths of one's soul, attempting to etch itself into them and change them.^[10]

The cradle of the Night Garden is the colossal wharf within the Eternal City, a titanic structure that once served as the shipyard of the Demon of Repose, who had built the living ship thousands of years ago. As the Night Garden entered the horseshoe-shaped berth, the immense gates of the wharf closed behind it with a deafening thunderclap, sealing it inside. The wharf then came alive with an impossible amount of soul essence, illuminating the massive structure like a radiant star. The raging currents of essence flowed through its stone walls and wooden scaffolds, awakening various areas from their long slumber and infusing them with vibrant vitality.^[13]

Once the turbulent waters inside the berth drained away through invisible channels, the wooden interior of the wharf blossomed with flowers and leaves. Enormous branches stretched outward, gently catching the Night Garden and fusing with its hull to keep it stable on the berth floor, like a tree that returned to the forest. These colossal branches were not only supports but also conduits through which the currents of soul essence flowed into the ship, nourishing and restoring it. Under the wharf's nurturing influence, the scars on the hull of the living ship began to close, and countless damaged parts within its vast interior were mended.^[13]

The wharf acted as a living entity—a self-sustaining, sentient structure capable of repairing and rejuvenating the Night Garden both physically and mystically. Without any manual operation or human intervention, it replenished the ship's reserves of essence and repaired the sorcery that made it function. This living cradle served as both harbor and healer, ensuring that the Night Garden was restored to strength through the wharf's ancient, self-animating power.^[13]

Wharf was said to be similar to the Lighthouse in that it was also situated on the outskirts.^[9]

During the Night Garden's time at the blooming wharf, the Night Garden underwent a process referred to as mending, which was actually a form of organic healing. The wharf did not physically repair the ship's structure but instead infused it with a torrent of vitality. This energy activated the ship's innate self-restoration, continuing independently even after it departed from the wharf. Remaining docked only accelerated the healing process.^[14]

The Night Garden's hull and the berth of the wharf temporarily became a single entity, allowing the ship's sorcery to merge with that of the wharf. This connection enabled the ship's controller to operate both structures simultaneously. The vessel was released through a process involving the retraction of supporting branches, the rise of water within the berth, and the opening of the wharf's gates. Functionally, the Night Garden is capable of sailing while still healing.^[14]

The Palace is a soaring, monolithic structure at the heart of the Eternal City with sharp, black, lifeless spires that made it seem like a jagged mass of darkness, and noted that it was the largest building, sprawled across an entire island and set under the highest point of the invisible dome protecting the city.^[9]

It stood at the heart of the Eternal City, rising from a vast expanse of open water that separated it from the surrounding districts. It was described as a dark mass of sharp, interconnected spires — both beautiful and ominous — with its highest spire tapering to a spearhead that pierced the black sky, its outline illuminated by silver light. The structure resembled the nexus of a celestial city that once drifted in the vastness of space.^[15]

Unlike normal buildings of brick, wood, stone, cement, or metal frames, the Palace is simply cast from metal, with no seams on its towering walls and no distinction between its many spires. It resembles a titanic organ built from countless hollow pipes, leaving Sunny uncertain what kind of music it would produce if it ever sang, or what its destruction would even look like.^[16]

It is a place populated by overwhelming immortals and abominations, where survival involved repeated deaths and the loss of sanity as time lost all meaning. It contained Seeds of Nightmare, which could grant great power when conquered, but only after many fatal attempts. Anyone who died there became bound to the city for as long as it exists, making escape impossible. Created by the Demon of Repose, it was intended not as a sanctuary but as a place to gather all the creatures that she hated the worst of the worst — so that they would never be able to escape, establishing the Eternal City as a prison.^[19]

• The House of Night and the Eternal City are described as inseparably intertwined since the clan was born there.^[3]
• Nightwalker rarely spoke of Eternal City, so the danger level was unknown. However, the greatest treasures of the House of Night all came from the Eternal City — these being the Night Garden, the lineage of Storm God, and the map charting the course back to its shores.^[3]
• Nightwalker only ventured through its outer edges — the piers, the wharf and the lighthouse.^[3]
• Nightwalker entered the lighthouse and survived. He received the lineage of Storm God, which eventually allowed him to escape the Eternal City. Before fleeing, he collected a bit of that starlight into a special Memory, and through it, the founding members of the House of Night were also able to receive the lineage — though a few of them perished in the process.^[3]
• The Eternal City was described as immensely dangerous, but Nightwalker rarely spoke of it due to his unsocial nature.^[3]
• The Eternal City was said to be hidden in the heart of the Stormsea.^[21]
• The Eternal City is located in the vast vacuum of space—within the Black Skies, the true realm of the Goddess of Night—appearing as a beautiful city of tall silver spires bathed in starlight.^[20]
• The Hippodrome is located on the leisure island.^[22]
  • In one of underground halls served as a vast storage warehouse where hundreds of intricate suits of armor were displayed on wooden mannequins, while the walls held numerous types of fearsome weapons. These armaments were high-quality, enchanted pieces, some worthy of Transcendents and a few even fit for a Supreme, all kept in pristine condition. Deeper within the underground complex, Sunny also discovered another enormous hall containing "pools of something that looked like mercury", each surrounded by runic circles. These pools could form and shape a perfectly fitted armor around a bestial shade when it entered the liquid metal, creating incredibly resilient protection suited for powerful Nightmare Creatures.^[23]
• The fragment of Weaver's lineage was hidden within the collapsing void chamber of the Palace. Weaver deliberately concealed the fragment in the heart of the star, using the star's blinding radiance and destructive flame as protection.^[24]
  • The fragment of Weaver's lineage took the form of an elegant scroll made of fine spider silk. Sunny confirmed its authenticity based on how his blood responded to it, recognizing it as the sixth piece of Weaver's lineage he had been searching for.^[25]
• In Chapter 2938, Sunny recounted that he had descended to the bottom of the Twilight Sea, where he found a city populated by immortal abominations, stormed it with his army of dead souls, summoned a miniature black hole inside the Void Chamber of its towering metal palace, compressed the entire structure into a metal sphere, and drew it into his Soul Sea before escaping with all the loot he had plundered.