Chapter: The Purple Factory

The Naralan is the corridor of land connecting the Guarded Land with the northern sea. Two of the Cities of the Sea lie on the shore of the Naralan. The greatest of these is Thuyakalrul

Access to the Guarded Land is up the cliff to Nothnaralan.

[In Quya, Naralan means: “towards the Sea”]

Thuyakalrul is an immense ring of rock lying just off the coast of the Naralan, within which lies a harbour and into which the city of Thuyakalrul is set like a jewel into a ring

From Thuyakalrul, the Great Sea Road crosses a causeway to the mainland on its long journey to the Guarded Land.

Thuyakalrul’s wall contains a hollow harbour, connected to the Grand Harbour, around which is built the Tower in the Sea.

This is a fortress formed in the rock wall of Thuyakalrul where there is a hollow containing open water and that connects to the Grand Harbour. Barans, can pass into this natural port from the Grand Harbour. Shiphouses cut around its edge, allow the barans to be drawn up out of the water. Storerooms, the barracks for the sailors, chambers suitable for Masters, as well as those used by the Legate of Thuyakalrul, have been hollowed out of the rock and are linked together by military stairs. The fortress is equivalent to those that are found in every city of the Guarded Land. The difference here is that its Legate controls a fleet of barans instead of huimur.

This is the gate of the Tower in the Sea that gives access to the strand lying to the west. Carnelian and his companions ride through this gate out towards the purple factory on their way to joiniung the Great Sea Road

In the top right is a plan of one of the military gates Carnelian passes on his way down to the West Gate

These dye works lie in a valley a little west along the coast from Thuyakalrul. A purple dye—prized by the Chosen (and especially the Wise)—is extracted here from the rotting bodies of ammonite shellfish. This industrial process uses a system of vats that scale the sides of the valley. A river running down the valley, directed by sluices, flushes products and residues through a sequence of vats. Labour is supplied by sartlar. The resulting effluent, running into the sea, appears to be a river of blood