Three-Thrice Citadel
Purpose / Function
Originally the first temple of the Chruch of the Nine, the temple was designed to be a place of ritual, study, and development. It was built as three triangles conjoined at one of the points, with a circular wall surrounding the entire complex and seven towers to block out the light from the city to better keep track of the stars and their meanings.
It serves as the hub of the Church of the Nine, functioning as the administrative and logistical headquarters for all of the records kept by the church. Much of the space underground was set up as vaults and catacombs that are used to store the thousands of written records that chronicle the star's movement, its meanings, and the hundreds of secretive prophecies taken down and preserved for use within their own ranks.
Anything that a multinational political-religious organization needs, including communication, logistics, training, blacksmithing, and saddlery have rooms and facilities.
Alterations
Initially, the temple was three triangles joined at a tip and encircled in a stone wall. Over the centuries, as the Church of the Nine grew in influence and wealth, the complex was expanded past the original wall into the adjoining buildings and city-blocks, connecting to the original complex through bridges connecting to the roofs and tunnels underneath the streets.
Beneath the main complex, the basement cellars and archives were expanded beneath the rest of the complex and surrounding blocks, strengthened with stone pillars and other reinforcements.
Architecture
Originally, the temple was built of granite with marble coating in smooth, elegant lines designed to reflect the perfect balance of the Nine. It was intended to be balanced, elegant, and simple. Over time, however, as additions were made, the initial elegance of the design was lost as bridges and arches were added to make it simpler for transit between the different sections of the citadel without the members of the church needing to get involved with the people on the streets outside.
These have developed over the centuries into creating an almost maze-like and elaborate structure that can almost resemble a spider in the wrong light. For the novices and visitors to the citadel, as well as their prisoners, the complexity of the building can be incredibly daunting and difficult to navigate.
History
It was the first Hierophant who founded the Church of the Nine and established the locale for where the temple would eventually be built. He received a vision there that revealed the status of the Nine and their relationship with the world. In that, he sacrificed his identity to become the Hierophant.
He erected a pillar at the center of a hill and marked it as the place at which the Nine had descended from their immaterial reality to bring the light of their knowledge and understanding to bless humanity and elevate them past their superstitious nature to a more advanced state of being.
It took decades for his teachings to spread and gain enough influence to have the resources to build an initial chapel at the site, and nearly two centuries before a monarch invested the gold and labor to build the original temple complex over three generations. In the time that it was constructed, a city built up around the construction site as both the faithful and predatory charlatans settled there.
As the city grew, so too did the money flowing into the temple, and it grew over time until it became the primary sociopolitical capital of the continent of Losgard, surviving and outgrowing the capitals of the nearby kingdoms, which allowed it to become the center of Ninelaw's religious theocracy.
Alternative Names
Ninelaw's Holding-Pit
Type
Abbey
Owner
Owning Organization
Characters in Location
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