The Tower of Neyan’catual
Looming over the ruined husk of Menor'cress., the eternal tower remains sentinel as it has done since before any can remember. It watched silently as the Sea of Spores swallowed up Menor'cress. and when the Sea of Spores has long since subsided and faded away into memory the tower will still remain.
At its peak, Neyan'catual was considered one of the most holy sites among the Dral'azie people. Now it is nothing more than a feted ruin drifting in a sea of decay.
There is not much truly known about the tower of Neyan'catual, its cyclopean masonry and antediluvian architecture shroud the structure in ambiguity, predating anything found in Menor'cress. or the regions of the underworld it resides in. What study has been made of it has placed the tower to predate Menor'cress. by thousands of years, the identity of who constructed the tower and its true purpose are unknown. It is rumoured that it was the tower that originally drew the Nemiisae and her rag-tag band of survivors to this location where the settlement of Menor'cress sprung up around it.
Over the millennia there has been no end to the speculation surrounding the tower, its true purpose is considered to be one of the underworlds greatest mysteries. Academics are unconvinced of the rhetoric that the tower is a holy site. Scholars have theorised the tower to be some primaeval stronghold or a type of conduit for syphoning the magic from the Effluvium . There are other whispers amongst some of the underworld's older denizens of a more sinister purpose behind the tower's construction.Whatever it's true purpose, groups of researchers and academics were long denied access to the tower all the way up until the fall of the city.
The tower plays a pivotal role in Tahli'cuaiisae religious traditions and customs, being the religion's most important holy site where the living goddess Nemiisae ascended the tower. Transcending the underworld she returned to the promised lands of their ancestors. It is here where the faith that reveres her is now based, and where true believers come to enact the final religious rite to prove their faith, the pilgrimage of the endless path.
What exactly this salvation has to do with a tower that predates our own civilisation is highly suspicious. Did Nemiisae truly ascend the tower and find a way back onto the overworld, or is there a far more malevolent force at work here...
A pillar of faith.
In the eyes of the Church the tower is considered a hallowed and sacred place, where Nemiisae heeded her calling, entering the tower and transcended to the promised land. Since that day The Church of Nemiisae. has guarded the tower dogmatically, much of its doctrine being built up around it. In the eyes of the Church the tower is considered to be a sacred place, where Nemiisae heeded her calling, entering the tower and transcending to the promised land. Its link to the divine mother and the final test of one's fate as they ascend the eternal path is what made the tower such a prominent feature in Menor'cressian society. Even when the church began to lose popularity among the common folk near the city's final days, the tower was still regarded in some reverence. Pilgrims would come here from all across The Sunless Realms to surrender up all their worldly possessions in order to embark on their final journey in the footsteps of their divine mother in the hopes they too will transcend to the promised lands. Over the countless centuries, many have come before the guardians of the gates, pleading their case to be allowed to ascend the eternal path in the belief of their salvation. Typically pilgrims would hang a pendant or offering on the walls before the great doors into the eternal path, as a memento to signify that they were accepted to embark on the journey. Throughout the first eight floors of the tower are shrines, each burning with a light to guide the pilgrims forward, at the eight step one must be content with the faith to guide them on their journey.
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