The Old Stratus Temple

Past

The Old Stratus Temple is an ancient tower located on the west side of Afersis reaching all the way up to The Cloud Kingdom, piercing through it. It was constructed by The Donstropians in 1000 B.C. as a way to try and reach closer to their lost gods: Suneru and Moneru. However it, like all their other ancient monuments, failed. The temple was left dorment for hundreds of years until Proposal of Remembrances was written. It was the start of a movement to try and use the newfound and reaserched power of Remembrances to try and reach their gods. After heavy debate, leading to the further fracturing of the already falling appart civilization, it was decided that The Old Stratus Temple would be refashioned into a factory for Remembrances (Ca 70 B.C.). Using The Mountain Remembrance to reinforce the walls of the temple, it worked as a big funnle for blood. Dragons would fly up and drop sacrificial creatures through an opening at the top of the temple. Victims would either die to due to the fall or be crushed by the next sacrifices. What was left would be a gory pile which was then filtrated through a long line of both physical and magical filters. Out came pure blood, simmering down and pooling up at the bottom in a giant container. When enough blood had been asembled a group of Expert Elementalist‏‎ could together activate a mechanism forcing all the blood to be compacted into one point. With a success rate of around 10% a new Remembrance would be created. The natrue and Element of the remembrance as well as the chances of succes determined greatly on what creatures were sacrificed. After a Remembrance had been created it's shape and power was usually quite lackluster, therefore was sent to be refined by schoolars specializing in the most prominent Element found in the Remembrance.

The majority of Remembrances were created with The Old Stratus Temple including; The Cloud Remembrance, Earth Remembrance, Snow Remembrance, Water Remembrance, Wood Remembrace, (1st) Swamp Remembrance, Fire Remembrance, Time Remembrance and Blank Slate Remembrance. Production ran smoothly for the most part aside from the fact that the majority of the Afersis populus was getting slaughtered. None were safe, humans, dwarfs, elves and even dragons themselves. Eventually the temple would be put out of commission due to the growing concerns and weary times. As war broke out between the different Districts in Afersis the temple was left to be forgotten. The 4th King, current leader of The Earth District (where the temple was located) had decided to flee and lock himself and his people away, leaving the temple and letting production screech to a halt.

The Old Stratus Temple would stay abandoned until Fonos arrived. His 4th child Arisophes together with a group of Expert Elementalist mages would use Cloud Magic to raise what would become The Cloud Kingdom out of the ground next to the temple. They used the temple and it's heavily dense magic, remenants of the many who had been layed to die there, as a stepping stone to support the massive chunk of land they raised. It's unclear if Arisophes was oblivious to the carnage which had taken place in this ancient structure, non the less was he wasn't against using it to his own benifit. He managed to raise an entire new kingdom for himself out of the ground thanks to those reminents. Perhaps he saw it as a way to honour the dead? The whole process took a week to furfill and a small town was constructed next to the base of the temple to accomodate the mages needs. The spell drained the temple of it's magic and left a land full of craters in it's wake. Stripping it of it's unique magical filters, protection and design. All which was left was a barren tower serving as a support beam to the new kingdom. The structure became a bragging right of sorts as it's unique architecture drew in people from all around Afersis. In the year 50 A.C. Arisophes invited the other kings and queens of Afersis to hold the next Decadal Meeting in The Old Stratus Temple instead of Warina where all the pervious ones had been held. This was mostly a publicity stunt and worked, people and some of the leaders had grown tired of having it in the same place and most weren't against the idea, except for Leila who was openly critizing her half-brother for going aginst the wishes of their father. Altough many didn't belive her wishes were as pure as they seemed, the flocking to The Water Kingdom each decade was certainly benificial for her. Why would she want to give up that? Nontheless it was decided that the Decadal Meeting in 50 A.C. was to be held in The Cloud Kingdom in The Old Stratus Temple. This stunt was never repeated due to what would transpire on that faithful day... For more info on said decidal meeting: WW1

The Old Stratus Temple would eventually be abandoned due to the bad tast it would leave in peoples mouths. Additionally over the years the structure and it's purpouse would be mostly forgotten, or rather so covered up. It would be multiple generations before the Cloud Kingdom realized what the structure had been originally used for. By then there was no sureway it would even work *if* they wanted or knew how to use it. Scholars in Penrith pondered that fiering up the old machine would result in a shockwave and earthquake strong enough to jolt the entirety of Cloudia out of the sky. Dragging down everyone and everything on it. Due to this risk it was decided that the Old Stratus Temple was to be left alone. A "no entry" rule was decided on and the punishment for stepping fot within the temple was set to be a year in prison. A lot of actions were taken to ensure as few people as possible would step fot there. The official reasons for the "no entry" rule were that it was a "holy place" as well as it being damanged and dangerous. "It could collapse any day now, we don't want anyone to get hurt!" -Charles Shroud Mc Aflee IV (The then current leader of Cloudia). The real actual reasons for the "no entry" rules were naturally kept secret and hidden, only avalible within the royal family for the safety of the people. No real attempts were made to try and re-activate the temple. Even during war times The Cloud Kingdom chose not to. Instead they vowed to stay netural during conflicts, knowing what cataclysm they would unfold on the world if they were to go to war and try to use the temple again.

That was until WW3 when the Wardians Humblegray and Andreus Stream created Lowest Point, a settlement located at the base of the temple. Andreus used his awakened changelling abillities to cover the entire area in a blue mist and Humblegray amplified the magic to make it last longer. This mist created what would be known as The Depths. Creatures walking into the mist get dissoriented and confussed, often dying due to starvation after aimlessly wandering in the depressing lands. The water vaper in the mist keeps them from dying of dehydration, prolonging their suffering and making the area to quite the treacherous place. The point of the mist was to steer people away from the base of the temple and it worked since people in Earthsandia avoide the place at all costs. Humblegray additionally desided to set up his camp in the area when he became internationally wanted, using the remnents of the small town left from when Arisophes first created Cloudia. It was at this point he began researching the temple in and of itself. Perhaps he could use it...?

Afersis Act 3

Confiere "spawned at"/"teleported to" the top of The Old Stratus Temple at the start of the Afersis Campaign after all dreaming the same strange dream of The 9th Kingdom. They were all up to different activities and in different parts of Afersis when the teleportation happened. All of them fell into a unavoidable sleep, even the elf Ayen Pafir wo never slept, lost conscious. One of the biggest mysteries of the campaign was how and why the group was transported there.