The exact location of this once opulent, white-walled palace is now lost. Thought to stand on the flanks of the Uplands of Unath somewhere north of Sulm’s sand-drowned capital, Utaa, in ancient times it served as the summer residence of Sulm’s rulers.

Little of the extensive and luxurious palace remains above the sifting sands of the Bright. Shattered stumps of once graceful towers jut forlornly above the dunes, marking the site of Sulm’s greatest folly. Once clad in pure white marble chosen for its reflective properties, time and the relentless action of the sand have taken their toll. At the zenith of its glory, the palace was famed for its ostentatious ornamentation – tributes offered by Sulm’s vanquished foes. Walls were inlaid with gold, silver and even platinum and adorned with extensive and intricate bas relief carvings depicting dead rulers and glorious episodes from the nation’s history. On the orders of the sorcerer kings, special chambers within the palace complex were set aside for now unknown rites. The walls, floors and ceilings of these strange chambers were clad in vividly colored semi-precious stones quarried from mines long since lost. The significance of these colors is now unknown however, it is a matter of considerable conjecture amongst the few learned scribes aware of their existence.

The surviving upper level is set about a broad processional arcade, off which many large, vaulted chambers lie. Below ground, the palace’s ancient storage chambers, passages, cells and cisterns form a bewildering sunless labyrinth said to connect with Under-Oerth itself. Ironically, this is one of the few places in the Bright Desert where water still flows. A spring, said to date back to the time of the palace’s construction, still seeps through the bedrock, offering some small succor to those exploring the subterranean levels. The whole complex teems with scorpions of all sizes and manscorpions are also encountered here in great numbers. All manner of undead have also been reported to lurk in the lower levels – faded remnants of those unfortunates incarcerated here when Sulm met her doom.

Several bands of adventurers have sought the fabled wealth said to lie buried within the palace vaults. Few have returned and, with the recent rise of The Traitor, access to the site has been all but severed. Others have sought the ruins for more altruistic purposes. The paladin, Anderann Parquann, a devotee of Pelor, led a band of powerful individuals here in 573 CY, to cleanse the evil rumored to lurk within the ruins. Of his company only he survived, his mind shattered by what he saw. Before he died, his ravings were recorded by the nomads who found him wandering in a delirium close to Kolum Oasis. He spoke of a giant scorpion possessing human intelligence and bearing a fearsome mien, a great scorpion-shaped crown wrought from a single piece of black iron, an altar on which his screaming comrades were sacrificed and evil so pervasive that it seemed to emanate from the very stones themselves.

Bright Lands
Bright Desert