The State of Midreach Lira was a neutral city-state established during the Era of Early Stagnation, named for Ashan'Lira Siraieth, sister of Emperor Ashan'Vaer Kel'varenath. It served as a center of art, ethics, and pre-doctrinal harmony, a haven untouched by wars where physicians, architects, and composers created without monetization or provocation.
Even during the Warlord Eras, factions left it alone. Not by truce but by recognition that conflict ceased at its borders. Shadows blended into families under long-term cover, warlords passed through without battle, and a quiet criminal underworld thrived beneath the surface without disturbing the rhythm. Musicians made music as reverence for structure before genres like Abyssal Harmony were industrialized. Statues of old lines stood as witnesses, the most prominent being Ashan'Raeth Vareth, the prince who walked provinces without titles and authored the Book of the Witness. In Lira's Vaulted Chamber of Ancestral Recall, scholars gathered under his image to learn witnessing, where ideas formed without consumption.
The Church of the Infinite Maw destroyed it in a symbolic attack during early Modern Geba. A pressure drop and pattern silence mapped by Scout-Class individuals for nine days preceded the strike. The ruins were not avenged. Later the Church reclaimed the site and rebuilt it as a major Maw relay hub, integrating its pre-doctrinal legacy into doctrines of collapse and unmaking.