Choshein

"The city of Choshein, seat of the Satrap of the High Ice, loyal servant of the Emperor of Jhothûn. May the qorrash smile upon it and nurture its mighty works, and keep the Satrap firm in loyalty. From thence shall the power of the Emperor extend to the south."

- An inscription at the portal to Choshein within the palace of Jhothûn

Choshein was one of the seats of the Satraps of the ancient Jhothûn Empire of giants.

Geography & Layout
The city of Choshein was a subterranean one, with smooth, crystal walls and spired buildings.

The ruins of Choshein&mdash;if they could even be called that, as naught but a circle of seven columns remained&mdash;were located within a massive cavern of stone and frost under the High Ice of the Anauroch.

These seven blue pillars acted as a portal to Gharreil, a sister city of the Empire, and to the capital of Jhothûn. Activating the portal required simply touching one of the columns. The default destination was Gharreil, but one could travel to the city of Jhothûn by speaking its name. When activated, curtains of heatless blue flame appeared between each of the columns, and persons could pass through any of the sides of the formed heptagon. When the destination was changed to Jhothûn, these magical curtains were purple in color. As late as 1372 DR, the portal was still functioning, yet its power was weak, and it could only be activated once per hour and was prone to malfunctioning.

Government
Choshein was once ruled by a satrap, who served the emperor of Jhothûn with the assistance of the princes of Jhothûn, who were each qorrashi advisers.

History
Chosein, along with Gharreil, Karffbadh, and Jhothûn, was one of the four major cities of the Jhothûn empire. It was the capital of the southern province.

The city was destroyed by a Netherese army led by arcanists. So thoroughly did they raze the city that they even removed the ashes so that not a trace of it remained.

Even so, the magic of the seven portal columns caused them to regrow from total destruction multiple times. The portal was weakened, however, by the magics unleashed by the phaerimm during the creation of the Anauroch desert.

The cavern was later used as a Netherese colony for a time. Something caused the residents of that colony to go mad, and it was eventually abandoned.

After the return of the Empire of Shade, the Shadovar began sending investigative parties to search out if any Netherese magic remained in the ruins.

Inhabitants
The city was once populated by the ancestors of the frost giants, who, with the help of the qorrash, developed great magics, even shaping the weather to remain cold to their liking.

At some time after the fall of the Netherese colony, an eccentric red dragon named Icindallix laired here. She had her eggs fertilized by a remorhaz, spawning a half-dragon monster known as the Red Worm.

In 1372 DR, the Red Worm served as the guardian of the portal within the ruins of Choshein. It eventually never left the cavern, relying on other remorhazes to bring it food.