The Opera House

The Opera House was part of a new district commissioned by King Solath in DE 1604, and construction began in DE 1610. He wanted new cultural projects to help divert his subjects from a religious upheaval that had been caused by the writing of the Book of Nemiya, which denounced King Ahlsendar's genocide of the Pento people and claimed that he had not been the Great King of prophesy. The new area was named the civic district of Karim, and contained both the opera house and a concert hall. The district was completed in DE 1650 (6007 BC). While the people of D'ni saw the effort for what it was, it nevertheless worked. All of D'ni was eager to visit the district and see performances of orchestral music and operas in the new venues.

The King Solath notebook has this to say:

Looking back, credit should be given to Solath for keeping his people as unified as he did. In 1604, he announced his plans to create Karim; a civic district including an opera house and concert hall. The distraction away from the religious arguments was obvious to the public but they seemed to welcome it. There was excitement from his proposal and construction began in 1610. The entire area was not finished until 1650, due to varying construction problems, but when it finally did open, there was a great excitement within the culture.

The next mention of public works such as the opera house came in DE 3100. King Rakeri was concerned about a growing rift between the rich and poor, and commissioned a number of public works projects, including a theater company and a concert hall in one of the poorest districts of D'ni, which was called Belari.

The King Rakeri notebook has this to say:

By 3100, six hundred years after government records showed 2500 registered sects, there were forty-seven sects in existence. Only ten of those sects' membership was greater than five hundred. The public seemed to return again to the beliefs their culture had been founded upon, those that Ri'neref had taught and the Great King had expanded upon.

The people were again unified and much work was done to join the classes of rich and poor that by that time, had already begun to separate. There was major renovation of deteriorating districts (mostly poor) and construction of a new Theater Company and Concert Hall in the Belari District, what had been one of the poorer districts in the entire city.

The final mention of public works comes from the reign of one of D'ni's most beloved kings, Kedri. Kedri managed to balance a concern for the poor and common D'ni while maintaining a great deal of support from the upper classes. During his reign, he had a new residential district for lower class D'ni built on Ae'gura, and had many public buildings and residential districts renovated.

This is an excerpt from the King Kedri story translated by Nick White.

So the King called his advisers and ordered them to add to the Great Temple so that Yahvo might be pleased and so all of D'ni could visit their god (really it's a form of Yahvo again — I thought god made more sense though) in his house just as those with money (an inherited kind of money) were allowed to do. The King ordered them to add to the Opera House so that all of D'ni could hear the skills of song of the people, just as those with money (an earned kind of money) were allowed to do. The King ordered them to add to the district of Belari, so that the area started by King Rakeri might not fall into disrepair but be treated as all other areas of the city and that all of D'ni might live in prosperity just as those with money (both earned and inherited) were allowed to do.

None of the notebooks mention the location of the civic district of Karim, so we do not know where the opera house was located. The only clue we have is a brief glimpse of it in a film, and that scene was in very poor quality. It shows the opera house with the Arch of Kerath in the background. The view in the scene seems to imply that the district might be on one of the islands in the D'ni cavern lake or on a peninsula, about 30° off the zero meridian. Another rumor claims that it was near the South Gate, but if so, that would put it behind Ae'gura, so the Arch would not be visible at all.

Opera House

Explorer Tweek was able to acquire this picture of the opera house, which shows considerably more detail. It was shot from the same location as the film.

Opera House

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