Hewn City
A spoiler-free guide to A Court of Thorns and Roses (ACOTAR).
Only showing what’s been revealed up to your current progress. Future events, identities, and relationships are hidden.
Overview
The Hewn City is an enclave of Night Court nobles whom Rhys allows to govern themselves under his authority.
The city is the physical seat of the Court of Nightmares.
By the time it is shown in greater detail, the city includes a throne room built for intimidation, an enormous domed council chamber, and a substantial store of magical objects.
Its catacombs also hold a dangerous magical hoard that is distinct from the older, rarer, and more consequential Dread Trove.
The city’s menace is not only political: below its palace waits an interrogation chamber from which captured enemies do not return.
Location and Access
The Hewn City lies within an enormous mountain in the Night Court.
Layout and Features
The throne room centers on a single black throne atop a large dais, surrounded by towering pillars carved with scaled beasts. Deeper within the city, an enormous domed council chamber is divided by a mammoth black-glass table with jagged edges. The city also keeps a substantial collection of magical objects.
The city exists in perpetual, smothering darkness associated with rot and decay.
The city's magical hoard is stored in catacombs and contains dangerous objects, but it is separate from the older, rarer, and more consequential Dread Trove.
Beneath the palace is a circular torture chamber with a grated pit of hibernating, writhing beasts that consume the bodies dropped to them. Enemies taken there for interrogation do not leave alive.
Function and Rules
Its nobles may rule themselves according to their own customs so long as they do not challenge Rhys.
Mor administers the Hewn City as part of her duties as Rhys's Third.
Rhys uses cells beneath the city's revels to imprison and interrogate enemies, and he periodically returns to enforce his control over its inhabitants.
Entering the city without protections for the mind and body leaves a visitor vulnerable.
The Hewn City serves as a headquarters for the Night Court's internal politics, where formal bargaining is conducted through intimidation and old rivalries.
Residents and Affiliations
The city's ruling families compete to strengthen their bloodlines through arranged marriages, treating powerful offspring as assets in those alliances.
Mor spent the first seventeen years of her life in the sunless city, where reading minute expressions became necessary for her survival.