The Great Gates of the Domain

Two formidable defensive outposts serve as the great bulwarks to the Imperial Highway of the Domain. The Demon Gate is the northern checkpoint into the Wolf's Head Peninsula along with its sister structure found further to the southeast, the Flower gate. These ancient doors require the use of beasts of burden to open them, or several teams of guards to act in their stead if they are slain by demons. Their primary objective is to stop any attack launched from The Corpse Grove  as demons and other evil spirits attempt to gain entry to the kingdom's lands to bring ruin to those that live there. Additionally, they function as the continental border checkpoints for the southern border of the Domain of the Meteor King.

Purpose / Function

The threat of demonic incursion is the highest danger to those in the Domain, and the aptly-named Demon Gate was the first of two fortifications created to repel the onslaught. Located at a key choke-point its great gates tower at a hundred feet (30.48 meters) high. However, it and its sister structure, the Flower Gate are not a mere fortifications, nor is that their only function. As staging points, the two structure can house an alarming number of troops for forays into the forest or surrounding plains should a more direct purge be necessary or to stem a greater demon from amassing too much power. Finally, they are a much welcome sight to hunters, patrolling soldiers, travelers and the like as the open field to the south offers little cover and the demons need only wait till dark to venture forth and hunt down the caravan they spotted earlier in the day.

Architecture

The Demon Gate

Contrary to its name, the Demon Gate is not one, but four separate gates that create three chambers within the cliffside pass. Many more citizens would be uneasy if they knew that many incursions are not stopped in the first compartment, but in the second, or on rarer occasion, the third. Each gate has multiple levels of walkways along the backside with rails to which archers and other fighters latched themselves to when the door was struck with great blows. Arrow slits also featured at every walkway and the top of the gate included machicolations through which a variety of projectiles were thrown. Many soldiers could also be held by pulley systems on the tops of the wall to fight off demons attempting to climb the front of the gate. Each gate was made from great felled wisteria trees banded together with iron and now-tarnished silver, as these materials were anathema to the fiends. Great spikes dot the fronts of each of these gates as they impale the giant sized demons usually responsible for attacking the gates head-on.

Each gate bears a specific name and depiction:

• Kimon - Demon, a Crow Tengu stares intensely down at the base of the gate
• Akuma - Ogre, a smiling blue Oni baring its fangs
• Yurei - Ghost, Wanyūdō, the flaming wheel ghost, also known as the Soulstealer
• Teikoku - Imperial, bears the seal of the Meteor King on a stylized helmet

The Flower Gate

While it would be impossible to survey the entirety of the cliffside at any given moment, the architects, engineers, and military minds of the day identified a second location further south that could be wide enough to accommodate a large force through its pass, fiendish or otherwise. As the Demon Gate neared completion, the construction on the Flower Gate began. Marked by the poppy flowers that are found nearby, the gate stands in surreal objection to its surroundings.
It is of similar construction to the Demon gate, but boasts one additional benefit: as luck would have it, deposits found on the nearby cliffside were revealed to be ancient meteorites exposed on the cliff face. The metal seemed to reverberate with a strange power and many supernatural creatures shun it, though the fey of the area seem to be strangely attracted to it.
The Flower Gate follows the precedent of the Demon Gate with its 3 compartment, 4 gate system along the pass up the cliffside. They are named as follows:

• Haru - Spring, Wisteria 
• Natsu - Summer, Hydrangea
• Aki - Autumn, Chrysanthemum
• Fuyu - Winter, Plum

Alternative Names

The Great Northern Door

Type

Fortress

Parent Location

Wolf's Head Peninsula

Ruling/Owning Rank

Gate Lord

Owning Organization

Domain of the Meteor King