Nexus of the Nine Guardians

May Aindri protect me from the East
May Agni protect me from the Southeast
May Varahi protect me from the South
May Khadgadharini protect me from the Southwest
May Varuni protect me from the West
May Mrigavahini protect me from the Northwest
May Kaumari protect me from the North
May Shooldharini protect me from the Northeast
And may Chamunda protect me from all directions.

_{—Invocation of the Nine Goddesses and Guardians of the Directions.}

A relic and mainstay of an unidentifiable ancient empire, The Coruscating Nexus observes and safeguards the eight cardinal directions. Seated at the apex of the Vindhyachal Range, it is beheld by every Empire and every constituent. Councils of erudite scholars have consistently failed in unanimously attributing the Nexus to a particular bygone kingdom, empire, or era. Its inaccessibility contributes to its inscrutable nature—dense vegetation, dizzying elevations; heavy snowfall and inclement weather; narrow mountain passes; and obscured steep cliffs make the Vindhyachal Range tremendously dangerous.
In turn, the Nexus of the Nine Guardians is epitomized as the ultimate pilgrimage. Throngs of devotees annually embark on the journey to the Nexus; the returning parties rarely exceed one or two dozen.

Purpose / Function

In his treatise on sacrosanct monuments, Panchalar collates and enumerates hypotheses on the motivation for the Nexus' construction. He demonstrates a favourable perception of five suppositions:

• The Nexus was constructed to stunt the growth of the Vindhyachal Range, which threatened to obstruct the Sun and thereby overshadow the cardinal directions.

• The Nexus was intended to appease the Guardians of the Nine Directions, who threatened to abandon Aryavaejha after localized deities incrementally earned worship.

• The Nexus guards pilgrims against the unsatiable demons and malefic cannibals inhabiting the Vindhyachal Range.

• The Nexus is situated at the precise coordinates where Chandika manifested and consecrated the Navaratna.

• The Nexus simultaneously and naturally occupies land, sea, and sky; thus, it embodies the pervasiveness of the divine.

Laity and nobility alike emphatically advocate the first hypothesis; unanimous support preserves and magnifies the Nexus' mystique. Cabals of imperial scholars further crystallized its validity by offering corroborations, including the popularization of obscure manuscripts or surreptitiously editing extant texts. Today, dissenting voices are swiftly and permanently silenced; contrarians are publicly lambasted as irredeemable blasphemers.
Innumerable emperors and empresses have claimed ownership of the Nexus of the Nine Guardians; many of these assertions are uncorroborated or outright specious. The impetus, however, is identical: ascending as the unchallenged sovereign of Aryavaejha.

Alterations

Only the outer and lower enclosure has been demonstrably altered, ostensibly a product of the Nexus' treacherous environment. The marked differences are high reliefs depicting patron deities of previous kingdoms and empires; six or seven-story gopurams constructed from limestone and signifying the cardinal directions; and smaller walls and galleries presenting the majesty of emperors and empresses. Unlike the central and elevated enclosure, the alterations are attributable to geopolitical entities. Notably, the high reliefs within bordering walls imply the destruction of existing architecture. This is reaffirmed by the documented macroscopic religious tension between empires; moreover, city-states may have also contributed to the Nexus' alterations.
The gopurams garner considerable attention, primarily because the attached deities demonstrate religious and theological evolution. Each gopuram presents mythological figures otherwise considered local or "lesser". Additionally, gopurams identify a sequential expansion of the Nexus, with newer gopurams built ahead of existing gopurams. Today, there are 24 gopurams marking each direction: ten were built pre-Kushan Empires; nine were by the Kushan Empire; and five by the Kushan-suta Empires (900-Present, or 1 Post-Kushan - 4 Post-Kushan)

Architecture

9 million sandstone blocks purportedly compose the Nexus of the Nine Guardians, each weighing between 1-1.5 tons. This number was extrapolated from an experiment designed and executed by the Three Glorified by Heaven. Each Empire collaborated on a replica of the Nexus; after four years, the project was abandoned to preserve resources. Only 1/3 of the replica was constructed, thus providing its architects with an educated estimate. The majesty of the temple complex is further magnified by the transport of the sandstone: all accessible routes to the Vindhyachal's Range are narrow, while others are prohibitively tight. Sandstone is abundant at the base of the range, but the journey to carry it was tremendously arduous. Suppositions of arcane assistance were refuted by undisturbed settlements populating and flanking wider, accommodating mountain passes. Each is contiguous with identifiable transport routes; thus, manual labour constructed the Nexus.
The outer wall is 17 feet high and measures 3530 feet; it encloses a space spanning 208 acres, which is populated by expansive gardens and a mix of secular and liturgical infrastructure. A moat, carved into the path of three rivers, surrounds the outer wall. 19 feet-high gopurams mark the cardinal directions of the exterior of the wall, with pavilions marking the cardinal directions inside the wall. Thus, the gopurams effectively conceal the pavilions, and the pavilions conceal the gopurams. Each pavilion is contiguous with a gallery ten feet wide, creating an ambulatory around the enclosure. The pavilions were plausibly occupied by multifaceted caretakers, who were responsible for the garden, appeasement of the Nine Guardians, and upkeep of the enclosure. This is reaffirmed by the height of the pavilions corresponding to their storeys; one pavilion housed 19 rooms, each including a small temple of a deity unrelated to the Nine Guardians. A gallery descends beneath the North Pavilion and ascends to the central temple complex. The journey to the central complex is customarily treated as a liminal, transformational experience—pilgrims transition from profane representations of civilization to sacred embodiments of nature.
The central temple complex is observable from beyond the outer wall. It sits on a wide terrace composed of nine galleries, each higher than its antecedent. Gopurams signify the four cardinal directions of each gallery; as each gallery represents a Guardian, its gopurams present four of the Guardian's manifestations. The temple proper rises through the space enclosed by the galleries, with additional galleries offering entrance into the temple by intersecting the ambulatories. Thus, the entire complex forms a quincunx: the gallery points form a square, and the temple proper provides the fifth point. Moreover, the four gopurams form a quincunx with the temple proper. This arrangement emphasizes and epitomizes the complex's name—the central complex functions as a Nexus figuratively and literally. Devotees rarely follow the intersecting galleries, instead tracing the arduous ascent to the apex of the temple. They acknowledge the foreboding and exhausting path to liberation by undertaking the journey to the apex.
The central complex is enclosed by its own outer wall, measuring 20 feet high and spanning 628 feet. Like the outer complex's wall, this wall is marked by gopurams. However, pavilions are situated outside the wall; thus, caretakers would need to exit their respective pavilions and enter the temple complex. Again, this served as a transformational experience: the caretakers purged themselves of the profane. The gallery conjoining the Southeast and Southwest Gopurams extends outside the complex, extending out to the gallery of the outer complex. Midway, the gallery forms a cruciform terrace made of three raised galleries. The two inner and lower galleries run out to the east and west, offering access to colossal libraries.
The temple proper is a shikhara, a domed building which rises to 35 feet. Nine principle shrines are situated within the temple proper, which is layered with pristine marble. The central shrine is devoted to Chamunda, Guardian of the Eight Cardinal Directions, and eight pathways extend to the shrines of the other Guardians. Each pathway branches off into ancillary shrines; those in close proximity to the shrines of the Guardians are devoted to the myriad manifestations of Chandika, primogenitor of the Guardians.
Every inch of the Nexus is intricately and elegantly carved, with low-relief friezes decorating the walls' exterior and interior. Notably, the exterior of the outer wall of the central complex depicts the massacre of demons by Chandika and Her Nine Guardians, while the interior depicts a variation of the Slaughtering of Raktabeeja which incorporates the Nine Guardians. Low-reliefs also ornament the galleries—each of the nine galleries of the temple proper depicts the myths of its respective Guardian. Gopurams and pavilions demonstrate mid or high-reliefs, and the pattern of deities is inverted for paired gopurams and pavilions at the walls.

History

Even the scrutiny of divination magic has consistently failed to identify the era or originators of the Coruscating Nexus. Ostensibly, their identity will remain a mystery, lost eternally to the void of time. Ironically, a monument without a crystallized identity has tremendously influenced the identities of architecture today. The Kushan-suta Empires aggregately modelled their temples on the Nexus: the raised terraces; the gallery layout; the low and mid and high-reliefs; and the elaborate gopurams and shikharas. In fact, the Empires have forgone the incorporation of imported materials, exclusively using sandstone when building monumental temples.
Moreover, the extensive history of the Nexus indicates an extravagant religion and mythology predating documented religion. The Nine Guardians were assimilated by pre-Kushan empires and later inherited by the Kushan (and Kushan-suta) Empires. The nomenclature remained identical: the Aindri and Varahi worshipped in the Nexus are the same Aindri and Varahi worshipped today. Thus, the Nexus may offer a deeper insight into the theology of Aryavaejha, revealing the origins of its myriad religions.
Perhaps this is what motivates the Emperors and Empresses to claim ownership of the Nexus—whoever owns the gods, owns the world.

Alternative Names

The Coruscating Nexus

Type

Temple / Religious complex

Glossary

Gopuram: A monumental and elaborate gatehouse offering admission into a temple or temple complex. It follows an oblong shape with a tapered apex. Gopurams are ornately carved, customarily depicting mid or high-reliefs of deities. The carvings also demonstrate a rhythmic pattern—there are more deities at the base of the gopuram and the numbers dwindle as it ascends. The primary relief at the base and apex always represent the principle deity, or the deity of the temple.
Kushan-suta Empires: The ten Empires which arose from the ruins of the magnificent Kushan Empire. Each inherited the Kushan Empire's culture; collectively, they preserve its culture. The first Kushan-suta Empire arose in the Ninth Age and the most recent in the current (Fourteenth) Age.
Navaratna: A mythical necklace embedded with nine gems; each is imbued with the power of the Matrikas, the nine goddesses of war, calamity, emancipation, and disease, and the daughters of Chandika. Some religious schools celebrate the Navaratna as the embodiment of the Nine Guardians of the Directions.
Panchalar: An esteemed Kushan-era architect celebrated for his analysis of prehistoric and modern architecture. He compiled his surveys in a treatise named Vastushastra, or the "Science of Architecture". Today, his treatise has inspired a system of architecture practiced throughout Aryavaejha. Quincunx: A geometric pattern consisting of five points; four of the points form a square, while the fifth point is centralized. Thus, it is cruciform with a central point. Quincunxes are predominantly found in and on temple architecture, due to their sacrosanct nature.
Shikhara: The temple proper in a temple complex. It translates literally as "mountain peak", signifying the rising and monumental architecture. It is a domed tower and is customarily carved with mid or high-reliefs; unlike gopurams, the shikhara is only ornamented with reliefs of the principle deity.
Vindhyachal Range: An expansive, discontinuous chain of mountain ridges, hill ranges, highlands, and escarpments. It cuts through west-central Aryavaejha, establishing a natural boundary between the north and south. The Vindhyachal Range includes the highest peaks in the continent; the Nexus of the Nine Guardians sits at the apex.