Terpen

Terpen, traditionally known as the Jewel-City of Terpen, is the capital city of the ex-Covenant world of Radiant Zenith, which now serves as the capital world of the Chikri-Merkaa Conflux.

Terpen lies in the Varros Lakeland upon Kars, a crater-pocked supercontinent that makes up most of Radiant Zenith's landmass. The city is specifically located in the Terpine river delta where the river joins the lake Chilge. The core of the city, initially a mere military outpost, was originally built on an island within the delta. As the city has grown, it has expanded on a number of islands surrounding the original colony-outpost, and even the low-lying wetlands further inland. The city's further-flung districts, of more recent construction than the core city, are partly built on great limestone pillars at the edges of the nearby Rahgri Highlands, where great disc-buildings, some as unto small cities in their own right, sprout from the mountains like fungi. Wealthy, influential or otherwise important individuals - mostly Sangheili nobles and a handful of Kig-Yar merchants - own estates and retreats further in the mountain range and even the expansive mountain glaciers over a hundred kilometers away. Meanwhile, the coastline of Lake Chilge, as well as nearby islands, are littered with manors and great keeps owned by Sangheili of great prestige. The river Terpine descends in great cataracts at the Rahkiri waterfalls and crisscrosses amongst the hundreds of rock pillars before running down along the gentle delta plain upon which much of the city is built and finally into Lake Chilge. Several dozen kilometers out on the lake Chilge lies the vast Chenru Archipelago, a rustic region where many Sangheili inhabitants of the city and its outlying communities often retreat to fish and hunt.

Despite being located near the planet's equator, the Varros Lakeland is merely a temperate environment for much of the local year, though like most of the inhabited regions of Radiant Zenith it sees quite severe winters and inclement weather overall, which is partly kept in check by storm-catchers and other means of climate control. Elaborate canal systems on the Terpine delta keep the river's floods from overrunning the city's lower levels during the spring season, though occasional incidences of flooding in poorer (largely Unggoy) districts remain an unfortunate reality.

Every morning, Unggoy workers travel to work in the city in gravity barges from the methane districts along the plains of the Terpine river delta, as well as further inland, and Sangheili commute into the city from manors and estates along the coastline. The core spires are primarily the domain of the Sangheili, with the larger ones primarily occupied by local nobility. Beneath the city, like most cities of Sangheili construction, lies a robust network of warrens and shelters built into the underlying bedrock and radiating from the landmark structure that is the central spire-keep Jahl Terpen, commonly known as the Gnomon, and mighty defenses lie concealed across its spires, promenades and concourses; the base of Jahl Terpen, in addition to being a vast city-structure, also houses many of these defenses as well as the armored reinforcement for the underground shelters. Above, many skyhooks and platforms as well as a sky-lift connect to the orbiting stations of the Ring of Radiance.

The Great Library in Terpen's Ruunril Spire is one of the most extensive collections of ancient texts within the Siakar Expanse, and since the onset of Great Schism, many tomes and databanks rescued from High Charity by dedicated Loremasters, Deacons, and even a pariah San'Shyuum scribe have been copied there. For higher learning, Sangheili from the other worlds of the Conflux—primarily Amaranthine Resplendence—often seek attendance in the academies of Radiant Zenith, for they are the most prestigious in the Chikri-Merkaa Strand.