The Citadel (Imp.: Riashram, local: Ghyezram) refers to a minor civilization, composed almost entirely of Chosen, located in the upper highlands of the Spine of Sirdanth. The name originally applied to the oldest, and for a long time only, settlement (now called Oldstone) at the eastern end of what was then called the Valley of Sanctuary, but came to be extended to the whole valley, and then the society based in it, as the population grew and new settlements were founded.

The Citadel is situated in a complex of valleys in the upper highlands of the Spine of Sirdanth. The valleys are nestled amid a maze of ridges immediately to the east of Tiiren, the highest mountain in the range, and north of the volcano Vana Idrizal; while near to the headwaters of tributaries of the mighty Sahvarr River whose watershed dominates the Cerulean Tangle, the Citadel lies in a different watershed, and encloses the headwaters of the Dhirim, which flows north toward the Brightness.

The Citadel is protected from casual exploration by the region's remoteness and inhospitability. Most of the area is extremely marginal for takmar, being far too cold even in the valleys either to be directly hospitable or to provide much food, and the valleys are bounded on nearly all sides by subranges of the Spine of Sirdanth that are high enough, and surrounded by enough cloud, that easy overflight is infeasible; moreover, the few safe paths from the lowlands to the Citadel's main access points are extremely difficult to navigate without prior experience. In short, the region is considered by the world at large to be far too much trouble to explore for far too little gain, and is generally ignored.

The valleys making up the Citadel itself, by contrast, are generally lower in elevation than the ones surrounding it, and are less rocky and more habitable, dominated by alpine forests. Many inhabited regions have since been further transformed through the use of magic, and while the climate is still not equivalent to the tropical lowlands preferred by takmar, it is no worse than the areas inhabited by highland populations elsewhere. The largest and most populated valley is the Valley of Sanctuary, at whose northern end is the original Citadel, now more commonly referred to as Oldstone.

See: Ghyezramsi culture

In terms of purely physical technology, the Citadel is no more advanced than other takma civilizations, and in fact is somewhat behind the times; by its very nature it is isolated from the outside world and its innovations. While incoming Chosen refugees sometimes bring news of developments, they are rarely the sort to receive education in the workings of such things before they arrive, and much of the technology that there is had to be developed natively, after the population grew enough to support specialists.

That said, in terms of actual capability, the Citadel is quite possibly the most advanced civilization for its size on avishraa due to the widespread use of magic, which allows collective feats that are beyond the capabilities of other takmar. Elementalists shape substances to create art and architecture beyond the reach of engineering and tools; alchemists create potions and drugs and rare substances of useful effect; mentalists soothe troubled souls and watch for danger; energists shift heat into the cold valleys to make them more comfortable, and chill rooms for the long-term preservation of food; lifegivers heal otherwise insurmountable illnesses and injuries, and keep lands that be otherwise barren fertile. For most types of magic, there is plenty of employment: when magic is innate, running a civilization on it is labor-intensive.

(The major exceptions are shifters and illusionists, whose talents are less directly applicable to the physical maintenance of society, but who nonetheless make up a relatively high proportion of incoming refugees because they are more able to disguise themselves from the Unchosen. Both groups, upon joining the Citadel, tend to become involved in the arts, in occupations involving purely manual labor, or in activities of varying levels of unsavorability and social disapproval… or some combination of the three.)

The oldest and largest settlement, Oldstone - the Citadel proper - contains a population of about three thousand, about a fifth of the Citadel's total population. The remaining twelve thousand are scattered in villages and small towns of varying size, most of them in the Valley of Sanctuary, but the past ten cycles have seen expansion into neighboring valleys as the population grows. Although Oldstone is relatively evenly mixed between Srians and Kaeans, and so are the other more sizeable settlements, most villages are usually dominated by one or the other - though few are exclusively inhabited by only one.

Takma societies in general have a somewhat feudal structure, but although the Citadel fits into this framework in a broad sense it is a highly atypical example.

For many cycles - most of its existence - the Citadel remained confined to a single settlement founded by a small group of refugees. While other Chosen occasionally found the Citadel and joined it, life remained hard, population growth remained slow, and most inhabitants were descendants of the original settlers; the female heirs of various families became the effective rulers of the settlement, but with so few individuals little direction was required, and they were able to govern as a council by general consensus. This council system has prevailed up to the modern era, with some modifications to its details to suit the strong growth of the Citadel's population and the peculiarities of the Chosen themselves.

The Council is made up of thirty-six seats. How the occupant of each seat is chosen tends to depend strongly on the nature of its constituency, the different categories of which are described below.

The Council is co-chaired by two seats representing the Inner Court, the oldest and richest neighborhood of Oldstone. Each of the two seats is held by the head of one of the fourteen Founding Families of the Citadel, in recognition of their collective seniority. The family holding each seat is changed twice every cycle, once at the start of the cycle and once at the midpoint (both at the same time) and after every block of three-and-a-half cycles, each family is expected to have had a place on the Council once, no more and no less.

By longstanding custom one co-chair seat should be held by a Srian and the other by a Kaean at any given time; but if by the end of the block the only combinations available involve two of the same alignment, the head of one family will generally appoint a substitute of the other alignment to hold her seat on her behalf, often a daughter, sister, or close cousin. In the event that neither side is willing to do this, the domination by one alignment is simply tolerated until the next block begins. While the co-chairs mostly have only moderating powers over the Council in any case, this can result in periods where the business of the Council is either regimented and tightly organized or almost negligently handled.

It is generally expected that the Council should be able to achieve broad support for its actions, and therefore its decisions are either adopted by general consensus or, in the absence thereof, by a two-thirds majority vote. While there is no formal definition of its scope of authority, it is generally called upon in matters that are either not purely local or that require the heavier sorts of intervention to avoid or to punish societal damage.