Disclaimer:
I do not own
A Court of Thorns and Roses.
I took the idea of Velaris, the City of Starlight, from there.
Check out the book series tho, it's great!

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"This is Velaris, my home city." the man said with pride in his voice. He extended his arm as if inviting one into their house.

Before them lay a city. A huge city buzzeling with life. You could see people walking and children running on the sidewalks. Elders sitting on benches or watching everything from the safty of their home's window.
The city was laid in a valley between the silver mountains. Called so because of the snow residing on their sides, looking like silver in the evening hours.
Winding it's way through the city was the Sidra, a river coming straight from the mountains. It's water still cool and clear, it went down over the coming plains to eventually be met by the ocean.

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"And here we are. One of the outer posts of Velaris." an elderly man said, heaving as he sat down around the samll campfire they have made.
"But gran... this is a ruin?" the childish boy asked in confusing, stepping into the frosting room of an abondoned house.
"Yes my dear."
"How can you say this is from Velaris?"
"Look at the walls." The men attempted to stand up but gave up after a few trys. Instead he just pointed his walking stick to one of the walls. The boy followed with his eyes the direction in which the stick was pointed, and his eyes widened. Rushing over to said wall there were drawings. Paintings and maps as he saw, once he stepped close. Confused but still in awe the boy turned around holding one of the maps in his frozen hands. "What exactly... is that?"

The old man huffed. "It's a map. They are maps of the surroundings here. And the papers there..." The granpa pointed further down the wall, " Are outlayings of the city itself."

Returning to the fire, the boy was hovering over the map he had taken of the wall, thoughtfully not taking it to close to the sparkeling fire.
The old man watched the boy. Keeping silent, there was a smile forming on his features when he saw the boy understanding the map, and finally finding what he had looked for.

The boys head shot up. "Gran! The city is just the cliffside up from here!" He beamed with excitment, full of energy to set out right now to find the "Lost city of Starlight".

Though a bit of a hassel, the old men eventually calmed the boy enough down to let him sit on the fire a bit longer. He sighed. A sad sigh. "Granpa? You okay?" "Yes my dear I am okay. But I am worried about you.." "Why? I'm fine the cold can't do me anything as long as I'm sitting here and not pushing myself past the limits. Besidse you-"
He got cut of by the old man shaking his head chuckleing. "No dear. That is not what I am talking about." He pulled his coat a bit tighter around himself.

"The city has fallen."
"...what?"
"The city - Velaris. Has fallen. That what you hold there, are old maps." "But gran.. I don't understand. You said you would show me Velaris! You took me up here, showed me this just to say that the city has fallen?" The boy had looked up from the map and was now staring at his Granpa in disbelive. Disbelive turning into dissappointment when the boy saw his Grandpa not being able to look him in the eyes and just nodding silently.
Defeated the boy looked into the fire for a while until asking a silent question. "But... why? How? How had Velrais fallen? You always told me their forces were undefeatable." After a while of silence he looked up to his gran. Who on the other hand looked now up aswell, sighing again.

"Listen dear child, the storys-"
"Wait, ... maybe they are still holding out! What if we can help them? Our land has also a pretty strong force. And helping out Velrais would aid us their help if we were to have problems!" The boy beamed. Grasping the little hope he had, the boy drew out his fantasys of Velaris still existing. And that it had just fallen into the hands of an evil land. "Gran we could be the saviors. We could help the Valerianer! We could-"
"The city has fallen 5 a half centuries ago."

Silence.

The young male who had been wildly gesturing around, sat in bewilderment there not able to say something. "That is what I was gonna say my boy: The storys I've told you are the same storys that I have heard when I was young. They are the same storys that have been passed down for generations. Velaris is no more. And there is no way we are of help to them. Surviviors of the fall have fled down here. They are the roots on which the city we now live in, has been build on. This house is- was, their outpost of the city, supposed to warn them from danger coming from south. It did little in the help of Velaris' survivial in the end."

The boy hadn't chimed in. He was just looking at his grandpa to continue his story. Wanting to hearing what had happened. Seeing that, the old man continued:

"The fall had been unpredicted. Velaris was not facing any outside threat. And it didn't look like they were going to. But then something happened. The snow that had been fallen during winter didn't seem to want to melt. It stayed over spring. It stayed into the early summertime even. It was colder throughtout the year than it had been before. And the winter that was to follow would nearly be their demise as there was little to know harvest during the fall. But Velaris survived. A hardship no one had seen coming and they stood. Weakened but not undefeated. Until The next summer.
The winter was longer that year again. But Velaris had found a way to get a little more harvest this time around. Or so they hoped for. But then an enemy kingdom declared war on them. They came from the west. Velaris was prepared, but not as strong as they used to be. Consequences of the thin harvest had been a thinning in the lines of their forces. And they felt it. Bit by bit the land fell to the other kingdoms hands. Until ultimately it was Velaris itself. No one was able to stop them. Weakened with no way of sending out for help and no Alley that would be coming, Velaris fell."

Once the old man had finished his story he looked up to see the boy oppesite to him still be in silence and shock. He waited. He knew what he just told wouldn't go overswept so easily. So the old man waited until the things he just said sunk into the brain of this young boys mind. He started preparing some easy meals to keep them fuled in the icey weather.

... He was shocked. The boy was in disbelive about what he had just heared. The heoric city, the storys he had been told... He wanted to go there. He wanted to become a Valerianer, to live in such a glorious city and continue on their lagacy of century's.

And now he just heard the story of their ultimate fall. Through an outward threat that just happen to come at an unlucky timing. The other kingdom it- the kingdom.
Was it the kingdom he lived in as of current?

Clearing his throat the boy asked: "Gran?"
"Yes?"
"The attacking Kingdom... what happened to them? ... Are we that Kingdom?" he asked fearfully. He didn't want to belong to the kingdom that was Velarises fall. He didnt want to be the evil that doomed the city of his dreams...

The old man looked up from the soup he was stirring and smirked. "No we are not. Do you want to know what happened to that Kingdom?" The boy nodded, relieve and eagerness filling him. He wanted to know what had happened to the enemy. He hoped that they got their payback.

"The attacking kingdom settled in the coming years into the ruins of Velaris. They took over, enslaving the inhibitants and sending them away from here. I told you those, who survived and freed themselfs came back here and founded a new city." The young male nodded. He remembered. "What the attacking Kingdom didn't know surprisingly, was the winter. Because the winter just kept getting colder and colder. The snow stayed longer, stacked higher. In a matter of just a few years there was almost no way getting enough food into the city, to let them survive off of it."
A samll silence followed when the old man stopped to stir and tried the soup. Making a grimace at the taste of it he decided that no, it was defintely not ready yet.

"It killed them." the old man continued on, "Slowly but surely it killed the enemys kingdom. The snow kept coming and at some point it didn't melt anymore. All year around there was now snow laying in Velaris. No harvest and in the end no warmth was left. So the enemy left. They went back to where the originated from, deeming Velaris a "lost ground and cause". But even after they've left the snow didn't melt. It kept on falling and slowly the snow and the under forming ice kept crawling towards the lower valley. It is why this outpost is now abandonded. It is the reason why no one tried to rebuild Velaris, even after the enemys leave. It was to cold. To icey and the chance of surviving up here is slim, even if you know how."

The boy who had been listening all this time nodded understandingly. It made sense. No one could fight the natures power. No matter how strong their forces were.

Eventually that evening, the boy made piece with the fact, that the city he had been told about, that he wanted to be a part of, was no longer and that all he could do was to value their memory. But non the less, wanting to keep dreaming about it, he took the maps and paintings with him that he had found on the wall there. He would restore them over time. Through fantasy and tales of the elder, he would puzzle together the faded inklines and restores the maps of old. He kept the memory. He valued them and when the time comes. He would tell the storys his children and grandchildren even..