What caused the destruction of the Temple of the Elders? An earthquake? Divine wrath? And above all, what possessed the survivors to build their house with the cursed stones of these ruins? Since then, the Punishment is a damned, chaotic neighborhood, populated by the destitute, outcasts, and criminals condemned to exile in this terrace. The streets here are alive, shifting. Some appear and disappear according to an occult calendar; and the walls conspire to create a deadly labyrinth each day, where statues perched in their niches mock the wanderer as soon as he turns his back.

The veil of reality sometimes is torn apart here, letting out real nightmares or, more rarely, an unexpected breath of poetry like nowhere else.

In his time, Nin I will be the first God-King to tackle this urban wart, which he will try to sanitize, in a large-scale real estate operation called the Reconquest. But neither the devilish stones of the Punishment, nor its inhabitants have said their last word…

• Statuette of Our Lady of the Nail
• Nurthor's Double Towers of Twilight