The High Halls of Eris
[Inspired by the catenaries of the Sagrada Familia and other art nouveau organic geometries]
Some kind of white ceramic, smooth as glass yet stronger than steel. No contemporary building material can adhere to it: They always collapse against its shining surface. Vaults upon vaults of catenary arches, with lightwells and flying buttresses. Like the shell of some strange leviathan lying abandoned on the sea floor.
When explorers from the Republic first found this structure centuries past, it had already been abandoned for aeons. Only small parts were exposed above the sediments- yet these were untouched by weathering. It was the concerted work of many generations before it was fully excavated. Workers only knew that their task was complete when they reached the glasslike bedrock to which the walls were fused.
Given their obsession with recovering and leveraging the past into future glory, it is unsurprising that the powers of the Republic immediately decreed a relocation of the capital to this site. The reclaimed halls became the new seat of government, named “The High Halls of Eris” for their solar Creator myth. Yet for all their centuries of residency, researchers of the Republic still have little idea of the original purpose of this structure. Multiple halls radiate out from a vast vaulted spherical central chamber like spokes of a wheel; the Republic has claimed this central chamber to house their Senate. Smaller chambers terminate each hall and having their own series of radiating halls. Everywhere the same lustrous white ceramic material is used, with no join lines or chisel marks. No other building of this material let alone design has ever been found, although that may be either because they are buried too deeply, or for lack of digging on the part of the Magistaerium.
As leaders of the Protectorate jokingly ridicule, “they are like mice haunting the ruins of a palace, while overhead the owl hunts”.
Some kind of white ceramic, smooth as glass yet stronger than steel. No contemporary building material can adhere to it: They always collapse against its shining surface. Vaults upon vaults of catenary arches, with lightwells and flying buttresses. Like the shell of some strange leviathan lying abandoned on the sea floor.
When explorers from the Republic first found this structure centuries past, it had already been abandoned for aeons. Only small parts were exposed above the sediments- yet these were untouched by weathering. It was the concerted work of many generations before it was fully excavated. Workers only knew that their task was complete when they reached the glasslike bedrock to which the walls were fused.
Given their obsession with recovering and leveraging the past into future glory, it is unsurprising that the powers of the Republic immediately decreed a relocation of the capital to this site. The reclaimed halls became the new seat of government, named “The High Halls of Eris” for their solar Creator myth. Yet for all their centuries of residency, researchers of the Republic still have little idea of the original purpose of this structure. Multiple halls radiate out from a vast vaulted spherical central chamber like spokes of a wheel; the Republic has claimed this central chamber to house their Senate. Smaller chambers terminate each hall and having their own series of radiating halls. Everywhere the same lustrous white ceramic material is used, with no join lines or chisel marks. No other building of this material let alone design has ever been found, although that may be either because they are buried too deeply, or for lack of digging on the part of the Magistaerium.
As leaders of the Protectorate jokingly ridicule, “they are like mice haunting the ruins of a palace, while overhead the owl hunts”.
Type
Acropolis / Citadel
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