User:Rbryher/Ruin

Ruin is a fictitious city that is the focus for the novel "Sanctus" by Simon Toyne

Ruin
In the book Ruin is a City state in South Eastern Turkey known as “the city of secrets” because of the historic legends associated with the Citadel, the mountain fortress at its centre. As the story unfolds the reader is told that the available historical resources suggest that Ruin was at first a small tribal settlement that developed into a town by the beginning of the 5th millennium BC. The tribe of men, known as the Yahweh, who inhabited the high caves in the mountain were worshipped by other tribes and were believed to have been in possession of a divine relic referred to as The Sacrament which gave them great wisdom, long life and good health.

In the book it is proposed that this pseudo superstition gradually crystallized into an organized system of belief that pre-dates any other organized world religion and eventually morphed, through association and political alliance, into the Roman Catholic Church. The novel goes on to suggest to the reader that Rome assumed control from Ruin as the official centre of the religion in 326AD.

The Citadel
The Citadel is described in the novel as a glacial horn rising up from a broad, natural bowl in the foothills of the Eastern Taurus mountains. It is described in the book as having been shaped by the inhabitants of the mountain over millennia so that high battlements appear in several places and windows are visible from the outside. Smoke can also be seen to issue from several chimney vents at various places and lights can be seen moving behind windows at night. This somewhat ramshackle appearance is, the reader is told, what gave the city its name.

Secrecy
In the story the contents of the Citadel are supposedly the subject of speculation throughout history. Exactly what relics are held inside the mountain fortress have never been confirmed because, the reader is told, of the fanatically secretive brotherhood who inhabit the mountain. Once ordained as a monk of the mountain a novice enters the Citadel and is never again permitted to either leave or communicate with the outside world. This extreme secular society has ensured that whatever secrets are housed inside the mountain have remained that way. The author builds the created mystery by suggesting that many of history’s greatest conquerors, from Alexander the Great to Napoleon, have sought to discover and posses the Citadel’s secrets for themselves believing the relics may confer divine powers on them. However the Citadel remains the only human fortress in all of history that has never been breached and so the Sacrament’s identity has never been learned. Right up to and including the Middle Ages the Citadel enforced this law of secrecy so stringently that even if someone outside the mountain was suspected of possessing any forbidden knowledge relating to the Citadel or its contents then they were hunted down by knights of the Citadel known as Carmina – so called because of their red uniforms. Whole families were wiped out in these rides of purification – known as the rides of the Tabula Rasa – and heretic temples destroyed in order to preserve the one true faith. These rides are recorded in many of the campaigns of the Crusades and latterly developed into a more systematic religious ‘purification’ that reached its zenith with the Inquisition.

The Sancti
In the story The Sancti are the highest caste of monk within the mountain and are believed to be the direct custodians of the Sacrament and other holy relics held in the Citadel. They, the reader is told, dress in green cassocks and carry a Tau cross in their rope belts to denote their status and rank.

The Sacrament
Simon Toyne describes The Sacrament in his book as being the most powerful sacred relic in history. He writes that some believe it is a literal gift from God and was responsible for man’s elevation above the beasts.

The author also creates many other myths in the book; including theories that the Sacrament may be the Holy Grail or the True Cross of Christ, and the use of the Tau symbol to represent the Sacrament.

The Tau
In the novel the Tau is a T shaped cross which is meant to be the symbol of the Citadel and by extension the Sacrament. It is also meant to be used as a symbol of the Roman God Mithras and the Greek Attis, and their forerunner Tammuz, the Sumerian solar God, the consort of the Goddess Ishtar. Tammuz, like Christ, was associated with fishing and shepherding. The Tau cross takes the shape of the letter of his name, and is one of the oldest letters known. A solar god, the death and resurrection of Tammuz were celebrated every summer.

Modern City
Simon Toyne describes his fictitious city of Ruin as a city split into four quarters marked by the four main boulevards that radiate out from the Citadel and mark the points of the compass. These quarters are then broken up into different districts:

The Umbrasian Quarter or shadow quarter is to the North West of the Citadel and is so called because the shadow of the mountain permanently shrouds the area.

The Lost Quarter is South West of the Citadel and is made up of a labyrinth of narrow streets that for hundreds of years have served as the city’s red-light district.

The Garden District lies to the East and was formerly inhabited by the rich merchants who grew wealthy with the trade in pilgrims to the city. Their grand houses are now mostly office buildings or hotels for the hundreds of thousands of tourists who still flock to the city every year.

Tourism
In his creation Simon writes that since ceding power to Rome in 326AD Ruin has been seen as more of a figurehead than a real power in the church and has become one of the world’s most visited tourist destinations. As well as the Citadel the city has long been prized as a spa town, with the spring waters being bathed in and drunk for their supposed health giving properties.

The novel invents the assertion that, in a recent survey, The Citadel of Ruin was listed, along with the great pyramids of Giza, as one of only two Ancient Wonders of the Ancient World that are also considered Wonders of the Modern World.