This structure is popularly named the Er’cana Silo or the City Silo. It's called a silo because of its overall shape, not because anyone knows what the building was used for. It might have been a storage building, or it might have been something else.

Guild Master Kadish purchased it at the same time he purchased Er’cana, sometime before the Fall of D'ni in DE 9400 (AD 1744). He probably chose it because the balconies that hang over the D’ni lake are surrounded by a wall that prevents other people in the district from seeing what’s being done behind it.

The silo is located in the Ashem’en district, which is located a long way from the city and Ae’gura island. It’s coordinates are 1,912 torantē (11 degrees) , 1,562 shafētē, and elevation -164 shafētē. That’s a distance of four miles, or 6.3 kilometers, north by northeast of the Great Zero on Ae’gura Island. It's also lower than the D'ni cavern. The Ferry Terminal is -93 shafētē below the Great Zero, so the balcony with the pellet testing machine is approximately 947 feet (289 meters) below the level of the D'ni lake. That means the silo and the Ashem'en district are not inside the D’ni cavern, which is about three miles long and one mile wide. Instead, they are in a smaller, lower cavern.

Kadish was interested in restoring the health of the luminescent algae in the D'ni lakes and rivers because he wanted to be the Grower that had been foretold in Words of the Watcher. Kadish spent a small fortune and a lot of time and effort on convincing the D'ni elite that he was fulfilling the signs listed in the book. One of the signs was that the Grower would return light to the cavern. Kadish was seeking a way to refresh the lake algae, which was failing to produce the amount of light that Ri'neref had specified in the Book of Earth.

The specific passage he was trying to convince the D'ni he'd fulfilled with his projects in Ahnonay and Er'cana was this:

The grower will take time.
The grower will bring light.
The grower will have Ages.
Take it, and more it to and fro.
Bring light, and give it to the dark places.
Have Ages, and link to them without bindings.

The pellet testing machine measures the qualities of the pellet before dropping it into the lake below, allowing the user to immediately see how the pellet effects the algae. The testing machine also transmits a numeric score to the user's KI based on the quality of the pellet. This was for statistical purposes as Kadish tried various recipes. The DRC used it as a way for explorers to see how much they were contributing to the lake lighting project.

This is a view of the ribs over the open top of the structure:

A view from the wall of the silo looking at the two balconies:

Ashem'en:

For 5,000 years, the main industrial district of D'ni was a place named Nehw'eril, which had been built in the D'ni cavern near the main city sometime around the D'ni 2800th century. The ruling king at the time was a man named Needrah. Most of the imported goods and resources from other Ages were linked into the cavern through Nehw'eril. We don't know what the name means, but it was one of two districts whose names were almost identical. The other district was named Nehweril, so the only difference between the names was a glottal stop. However, it is certain that they were two separate districts.

In DE 5312 (2345 BC), an epidemic broke out in Nehw'eril. The disease had most likely originated in an Age named Yasafe. Yasafe was heavily forested, and provided the D'ni with the majority of its wood supply, including an expensive and rare luxury wood called Yema.

The epidemic caused widespread panic, because many D'ni citizens were afraid that it would become another Pento Plague, a disease that struck D'ni in the 2100s, lasted for centuries, and nearly wiped out the D'ni people. Instead, the Guild of Healers acted quickly and soon found a cure for it. Even so, it was a warning bell for D'ni, and sparked a political initiative to separate the city's industrial districts from its residential districts. Me'emen, who had been coronated king of D'ni in DE 5240 (2417 BC), liked the idea and encouraged the Guild of Surveyors to begin looking for stable locations to construct new industrial districts.

In 5359, the move to build new industrial districts got a boost in the form of a machine called Stone Tooth. Stone Tooth was the second of the Great Excavators, and it was more powerful and more technically advanced than the first machine, which was named Stone Eater. Me'emen immediately ordered the Guild of Miners to use both Stone Eater and Stone Tooth to begin clearing an area for the new industrial district that would replace Nehw'eril. Even with two Great Excavators on the job, it wasn't until 5475 that actual construction began.

The new district was named Uran, and began operating in the DE 5500 (2156 BC). Its location in a side cavern placed it far enough from the city to insure that any accidents wouldn't affect the main residential caverns.

In 5540, Me'emen's only son, Ashem, became extremely ill from a disease he contracted while visiting a new Age. The name of the Age is not mentioned in the DRC notes. As a member of the Guild of Healers, Ashem was often a member of the first contact teams that investigated new Ages before they were released for use by the Guild of Maintainers. Ashem passed away six months later. As a result of his death, the Age was not approved until a cure for the disease was found. Me'emen considered his son a hero, and a year after his death, Me'emen changed the name of Uran to Ashem'en as a memorial.

It was said that Me'emen never quite got over the death of Ashem, and the sense of excitement that characterized the earlier years of his reign was gone. It is also said that it forced him to turn to his spiritual advisor, the Prophetess Trisari. Me'emen apparently spent a lot of time with Trisari in the final days of his life, and when he eventually died in DE 5549 at the age of 392, he was said to have been contented because of her help.

Because his only son had died, Me'emen had no heir. He chose his nephew, Adesh, as his successor. The choice was probably a recommendation from Trisari. Adesh would become the third king of D'ni to be assassinated while on the throne.

This picture is a view of the Ashem'en District of D'ni, taken from the wall of the silo. The cavern it is inside is much smaller than the main D'ni cavern.

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