The Hewn City, also known as the Court of Nightmares, is one of the two main cities of the Night Court of Prythian. It's located under the mountains of the Night Court and is the domain of High Lord Rhysand.
Description[]
Unlike Under the Mountain, which was a series of halls and rooms and levels, the Hewn City is a true city within the mountain. There are avenues, separate buildings with spires, homes, and bridges. It is an entire metropolis carved from the dark stone of the mountain itself. Every surface is carved with lovely, hideous artwork: figures dance and fornicate, beg and revel, pillars are carved to look like curling vines of night-blooming flowers. Water runs throughout the city in little streams and rivers tapped from the heart of the mountain itself. The mountain-city is lit with silvery bobbing faelights.
The Hewn City is ruled from a castle inside the mountain, which is the official seat of the High Lord of the Night Court. The gates to the castle are carved into great, scaled black beasts coiled together in a nest of claws and fangs, sleeping and fighting or devouring each other. Between them flow vines of jasmine and moonflowers. The throne room within is of polished ebony on every surface, the floor highly polished enough Feyre could see her face in it when she kneeled and lowered her head. More of the beasts from the gates are carved around the countless columns supporting the onyx ceiling, which is so high the gloom hides its finer details. Atop a dais is a throne that has been fashioned out of a few of the beasts, a head snaking around either side of the back as if they watch over the High Lord's shoulders.
The castle's council chambers was nearly as large as its throne room. It was carved from the same dark rock, pillars fashioned after those entangled beasts, having a high domed ceiling. It had a mammoth table of black glass that split the room in two, shaped a bit like a lightning bolt. The table's corners were left long and jagged so they were as sharp as a razor, capable of injury if one was not careful.
Culture[]
Its inhabitants do not agree that Rhysand is their High Lord since he is not completely a High Fae being half-Illyrian, whom the inhabitants of the city consider Lesser Faeries. Rhysand gave the Hewn City to those who hated him, but not enough to be stupid and have since tolerated his rule, especially when it so rarely interferes with their lives. Only High Fae live within, the members dress in finery. Guards are dressed in white and grey, the color of the mountain, so they can blend into it.
Said to have been the inspiration behind the decor and design of Amarantha's famed Court, Under the Mountain, after visiting the Hewn City, since she never knew of the existence of the Court of Dreams. The residents of the Hewn City are known for their heartlessness and cruelty. Here, even Feyre had to resist the urge to thank servants who served her as here, no one thanked anyone. They took what was theirs and offered no gratitude or apologies for it.
Traditionally, the Hewn City was the home of the High Lord of the Night Court and the place from which he governs his territory. However, in the case of Rhysand, he vastly prefers Velaris and the Court of Dreams. Rhysand has assigned Morrigan to be in charge of Hewn City, but the inhabitants of the Hewn City are ruled primarily by Keir, who serves as a Steward for Rhysand, making the Court of Nightmares a haven for all those who oppose Rhysand's practices or philosophies and preferring instead the ancestral values of the treacherous Night Court. They're happy to stay in the Hewn City, rarely leaving, ruling themselves, and being as wicked as they please, for all eternity.
The place is known as the "Court of Nightmares" due to the occupants' violent principles, and is believed to be an honest representation of the Night Court by their fellow Prythians, since its counterpart is the Court of Dreams or Velaris, where the inhabitants live happily and apart from the world, for few are privy to the well-guarded knowledge of the secret existence of Velaris and the Court of Dreams.