Av'Sal¶
Av'Sal, viewed from the northeast.
Av'Sal is the ruined capital city of the Avsohmic Empire, located in southwestern Dreh'Noha near the northern edge of Palisades Heath. Av'Sal is among the largest ruins in the map, if not the single largest.
Following the collapse of the empire over a thousand years ago, the city was left almost completely abandoned, and most of the city has been picked clean. The city is primarily inhabited today by Mihkmari scavengers.
Location
Av'Sal's central island is at approximately -242, 67, 1532.
Av'Sal's most prominent gameplay features include a Terminus Tower and the Av'Sal Repository, a central hub for knowledge that the player gathers along their journey and the location of part of a very powerful weapon.
Entering Av'Sal for the first time grants the "Remnant of Avsohm" advancement.
Layout¶
Av'Sal is built around a lake in southwestern Capital Valley, with the main administrative headquarters of the city on an island in the center and various other districts spread around the lake's shore. All story-relevant and "required" content in Av'Sal is located on the central island, but there are plenty of unique structures, lore books, and loot items scattered around the outer ring.
Buildings in Av'Sal typically follow the Low Avsohmic style of architecture, built predominantly out of grey stone-based blocks with some slate and quartz accents.
Central Island¶
The central island of Av'Sal is the most densely packed with content, as well as with Mihkmari, who have built new wooden structures over the stone ruins of the capitol district. The island is most often approached from the dock on its northern face, from which players can climb up several sets of stairs towards the domed capitol building. Inside, the terminal to unlock the area's holotexts can be found, alongside two named Mihkmari Warriors (Vindicators). These two enemies drop Artifact-level weapons when killed.
The Av'Sal Terminus Tower.
Av'Sal's Terminus Tower is located just outside of the main door to the capitol building.
There are small residential buildings and farms to be found around the rest of the central island, as well as a small network of underground tunnels.
Large footbridges once connected the central island to the outer ring to the east and west, but both bridges are now broken.
Repository¶
Directly between the tower and door to the capitol building, a hole in the floor reveals an expansive room, with a similar holo-door to the one found at the Stasis Facility. The door can be opened in the same manner as the one at the Stasis Facility, and opens to the Av'Sal Repository, an extremely prominent main story location.
Admin Wing¶
Even further below the entrance to the Repository, another room can be found by dropping down one of two shafts in a small building to the north. This room is where players will eventually access the Administrative Wing of the Repository, as part of the 75% tower sequence.
Northeast¶
Northeastern Av'Sal is filled with the ruins of what appears to have been a largely residential area. Books such as The Boyhood Days of Drehn Mal'Sohm and Elderly Citizen's Diary are found here.
This region is also home to the only remaining Drehmari in the city's ruins, in a boarded-up house near the western edge of the district. These Drehmari, as shown by the book in this house, were looting the ruins but fear discovery by the Mihkmari who have taken the area over.
The northeast is connected to the northwest by a large, ruined bridge.
West¶
Western Av'Sal appears to have been a mostly industrial zone, with multiple large warehouse and hangar-like buildings abandoned and in varying states of decay. Mihkmari have inhabited a former guild house in the northwest.
The residential buildings in this area are also smaller, with one book suggesting that this was a poorer region of the town.
Due west of the central island, a statue towers over the town, depicting a kneeling Emperor Anyr holding up the disc.
A small sewer network can be found beneath the statue, with strong early-game loot. This network drains out into the central lake.
Also in western Av'Sal are shipping docks, with ruined cranes and what appears to be the remnants of a teleportation pier.
At lake altitude in the southwest, a district has been almost completely leveled.
University¶
To the south-southwest, the ruins of Av'Sal University can be found. One of the more intact ruins in the city, Av'Sal University saw several important figures in Avsohmic history pass through its halls, including at least half of the Stasis Eight—Thresa Vera, Gohri Zed, Baen Vehmil, and Vohski Ottis. Three lore books are found in this building: Graduate's Diary, Introduction to Alchemy, and Practical Biomechanics.
Southeast¶
Southeastern Av'Sal contains larger estates, seemingly for the wealthiest citizens of Av'Sal.
A ruined, prismarine-roofed structure in this area reminiscent of the Kiln may have been a temple to Virtuo. Directly opposite this building, a quartz pyramid holds the Anyr Priest's Tunic artifact.
An estate on the lower level of southeastern Av'Sal is home to the Wealthy Citizen's Reflections book, which discusses the journey of a woman who rose to prominence as an artist in Avsohm's heyday despite coming from humble origins in Spearhead Forest.
The largest estate in the area is located on top of a hill, and contains the Memoir of a Tutor book, tying this location to Drehn Mal'Sohm.
Lore¶
Av'Sal was constructed as the new capital for the fledgling Avsohmic Empire early in the reign of Drehn Mal'Sohm, who sought to leave behind the corruption and overcrowded streets of Old Drabyel. Drehn oversaw the construction of the new capital for much of his life, and spent the majority of his reign governing from Av'Sal.
Drehn and Ifeihl would spend their entire reigns governing from the capital, but this tradition was broken by Anyr, who made the radical decision to govern from his family's city of Sal'Anyr in the western Anyr'Nogur desert. Anyr utilized the Terminus Network to travel between Sal'Anyr and Av'Sal as needed, but was the only emperor not to permanently reside in the empire's capital.
Following the Fall of Avsohm, Av'Sal was quickly abandoned, with many survivors leaving out of fear of a lingering curse. All of the empire's leaders and high-ranking officers who were in Av'Sal at the time of the collapse were likely killed or corrupted by the force that destroyed the empire, as evidenced by the presence of "Lost" officers in the Admin Wing of the Repository.
Extras¶
Trivia¶
Based on the pose of the Anyr statue in western Av'Sal (as well as the name of its creator established in A Brief Overview of Avsohmic Art History), it is a clear reference to the Greek myth of Atlas, the titan forced to hold the world on his back.
The central island of Av'Sal is entirely made up of the Lush Caves biome, meaning that no vanilla hostile mobs should spawn there besides the initial Mihkmari found on the island.
Soundtrack¶
The theme song for Av'Sal is "Av'Sal", by Penngo.
Update History¶
Av'Sal has undergone massive renovations over the course of Drehmal's development. In Drehmal v2, Av'Sal is mentioned in lore books but does not exist as a real build on the map, explained as having been buried in landslides.
Av'Sal in 2.1.
In version 2.1, Av'Sal did exist, but only as a single fort structure on the central island, inhabited by Mihkmari.
Av'Sal was completely overhauled in the 2.2 update, with additions including the Terminus tower on the central island, the rebuilding of the central island to be the old capitol building, the addition of the Repository, and all of the surrounding cityscape.