Idon is a long, narrow, walled city above the Second Cataract on the west bank of the southern continent's great river. It was visited briefly by the Black Company in Shadow Games during their long quest toward fabled Khatovar. Idon is merely one street wide but ten miles long. The ruins of the Triplet Cities are found in the hills west of it, and the shunned, haunted ruins of Cho'n Delor are across the river. About 300 miles south of Idon, along the great river, is the First Cataract and its towns of Dadiz and Catorce.
Croaker the Company Annalist described Idon as "bizarre" and that its residents "had the weirdest bunch of quirks anyone ever saw" although he did not detail these quirks. He stated that travelers "stayed in Idon only as long as absolutely necessary" and also inferred that many people from Idon regularly left the city. The reason is that Idon seems to be populated with the descendants of the survivors of the Pastel Wars. These were brutal conflicts that took place roughly 200 years before the first chronicle. The combatants were Cho'n Delor (beyond the east bank) and the Triplet Cities. The people of Idon live in perpetual fear of the haunted ruins of Cho'n Delor across the river.
Shadow Games
Before Shadow Games, the wanderers Willow Swan, Cordy Mather, and their new friend Blade passed through Idon during their meandering trek down the great river. Afterward they settled in Taglios. Then, in Shadow Games, the trio once again passed through Idon, now traveling upriver with the Princess of Taglios, the Radisha Drah, and her advisor, the sorcerer Smoke. Their goal was to meet up with Croaker's Black Company, which was heading south. In Idon, Willow spotted 8 or 9 foreigners –Shadowlanders – who were spying on them. Upriver from Idon, the 5 travelers were attacked by at least 40 Shadowlanders on 2 boats, but Smoke used his sorcery to sink the attackers' boats by separating the nails from the planks.
Months later, the Black Company and their 5 new companions rapidly passed through Idon, heading downriver. Croaker was uneasy with the locals of Idon, and he spent more time roaming the ruins of Cho'n Delor across the river than within the city of Idon itself.
| Places in the Black Company's southbound odyssey toward Khatovar in Shadow Games |
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In the north and at sea:
In the south:
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