The Fountain of the Qysars

The Fountain of the Qysars (Bakkal Sabban, Kariq Drudach, Faiths Ward, Calimport) This fountain is one of the few sites from the Shoon Imperium still intact. Built during the concurrent reigns of the Qysar Amahl V and Syl-Pasha Abon II of El Larau, the fountain was completed in the Year of Coiling Smoke (194 DR). The octagonal palisade itself, its columns, and the external frieze are all carved from green marble, while the floor and the fountain basin are shaped from more common white marble.

Facing outward between the columns that flank each of the palisade’s eight sides are 7-foot-tall white-marble statues resting on green-marble pedestals that raise the statues to the approximate height of the sabban walls (and the proper station of a noble). There is 10 feet of clearance on either side of the statues'’ 5-foot-wide bases. The seven statues are the first seven Shoon rulers of Calimshan and the Shoon Imperium (listed in order of rulership and placement): Akkabar Shoon (E), Amahl III (SE), Shoon I (S), Shoon II (SW), Shoon III (NW), Amahl IV (N), and Amahl V (NE). The western opening is considered the main entrance into the palisade, and the lack of a statue there signifies the displeasure of the Shoon toward the riqysar and Syl-Pasha Hazamir Aktorral, thus striking him from the rolls of Shoon rulers.

The fountain beneath the domed palisade is a circular basin centered directly under the green-and-clear glassteel dome. It has four jets of water constantly spouting upward and falling back into the pool. While difficult to read due to the rippling water, an Alzhedo phrase is spelled out in mosaics set into the fountain’'s basin (which are magically protected from destruction). It translates as “"Trust not in djinn. Trust not in the bakkal. Trust not the calephs. All hope and trust lies in Shoon."” The water is fresh, and it is allowable to drink from the fountain, but drawing more than a cupful of water from it is unlawful, as the attendant guards will enforce. Traditionally, many folk take vows and make alliances here, for they say a vow taken when one’s hands (and those of the other parties) are immersed in the fountain is bound by a curse set by the Shoon and that death results from any betrayal of that vow.