Iram

“	A city of immeasurable wealth, destroyed by God for its arrogance, swallowed forever in the sands of the Rub' al Khali desert.	„
	~ T.E. Lawrence descripting Iram

Iram, also known as Atlantis of the Sands, Ubar, Wabar, the City of Brass, or Iram of the Pillars, is a lost city, a country or an area mentioned in the Quran.

Description[]

It was described by T. E. Lawrence as "a city of immeasurable wealth." Iram, located in the middle of the Rub' al Khali desert of the Arabian Peninsula, was a legendary city made of brass architecture, claimed to have been destroyed by a natural disaster or as a punishment by God. It had a unique underground water system, supported by pillars which kept the city's water supply clean. It was fueled by an underground spring & rested on a vast underground cavern. The city was obscured by a massive sandstorm, helping its elusiveness as countless people looked for it.

History[]

Origins[]

Iram was said to have been established in 3,000 BC, and was built by "giant humanoids", erecting massive pillars that reached the very skies. According to legend, Iram prospered under the rulership of a being known as Shaddad. Shaddad was described as a mighty king, so mighty in fact that he was able tame and command the power of the Djinn; spirits born of smokeless fire.

Shaddad would use the power of the Djinn to conquer the Arabian Peninsula, but the Djinn rebelled against him. In desperation, Shaddad called upon King Solomon to imprison the Djinn within a brass vessel, which would then be used in order to complete his temple, as payment for his aid.

After his temple's completion, Solomon branded the lid with his Sacred Seal to ensure that the spirits within never escaped. However, upon its casting into the sea that surrounded Iram, it tainted the water supply of the entire city, causing anyone who drank from it to hallucinate their worst fears and become possessed by the imprisoned spirits. Consequently, the entire population of Iram would be driven mad and the city was subsequently abandoned.

Release of the Djinn[]

Years later, the vessel would find itself in the hands of the Babylonians, who would unwittingly release the demons believing the vessel to contain great treasure. This would begin a new age of Iram, one under Djinn rulership. With the Djinn now inhabiting the ancient city, they would go on to usurp control over the Arabian Peninsula from their Elioud masters, successfully exterminating the remaining Elioud population which had survived the Great Flood. With the decline of the Elioud, the djinn would enjoy a short-lived era of prosperity, but their civilization would inevitably collapse with the reemergence of the Reptilians.

Using their skills of deceit, the remnants of these Reptilians successfully infiltrated the city of Iram, disguising themselves so they could uncover the hidden weakness of their kind. Upon discovering the truth behind the brass vessel, the reptilians managed to track down its whereabouts and unleash its power upon the djinn, aiming to trap them once more within the vessel and use them for their own purposes, likely a means to rebuild their kingdom in the way Solomon had used them to build his temple. However, the Jinn, not particularly comfortable with being enslaved once more, would not allow themselves to be so easily sealed away this time.

It is said that as the reptilians started to open the vessel, the Jinn conjured titanic cyclones of sand that interrupted their assault and "rose the sandy seas upward and drowned them beneath stone and silicon" to wipe them out. A series of battles for control of the now ravaged city would rage on to the dismay of neighboring civilizations, until the situation even garnered the attention of God Himself, who upon turning His eye upon the Arabian Peninsula and seeing the devastation, decided to wipe city off the face of the Earth as though it had never existed, via a massive sandstorm. The few Jinn who survived this ordeal would then be subdued and contained once more by the archangel Michael.