Last Shrine of Athtica
Within the Last Shrine of Athtica, Life Forged were found maintaining the structure and its defenses.
History
With living inhabitants, the origins of the structure is less mysterious than other shrines or the last places where the worship of the Adrakian Pantheon was still followed.
The shrine was built to be a library and a place of research for the priests to reside without disruption from the outside world, which it benefits from the high altitude of where it was built.
The view is beautiful. There were days I lost myself to watching the blanket of clouds break below my eyes, and the storms are incredible from above as lightning dances down. My fellows would sometimes leave the Library Hall observatory and come here to watch the sky for a reminder that despite our age, we are small in the eyes of the gods.
Architecture
Most of the structure is built with stone bricks with pillars and arches opening the spaces leading to the Library Hall and Testing Grounds. Its location among the mountain tops led to the structure being built with enchanted pools to create warm waters, while the stone walls have enchanted stones to generate warmth. The central parts of most chambers has a decorative planter where warm-weather plants add color to the rooms and provide a place for a warming enchantment to be placed.
Library Hall
The library is a large observatory where the bookshelves are in concentric circles until the center ring where a star-glass stands, looking above and through the enchanted glass ceiling. The centermost circle has a ring shaped planter to add warmth to the room and the chase away book-damaging moisture.
Several of the bookshelves are partially empty as the inhabitants try to preserve the knowledge within crumbling texts.
The Testing Grounds
From the library is a hall leading to signs of distruction, reconstruction, and madness. Burns scar the floors while mildly cracked stones surround a seemingly untouched stone. Tally marks and writing litter the walls, tables, and floors. At the back of the grounds is a shrine where a copper dragon skull is surrounded by dried flowers and books. The back table is the shrine to Athtica.
The few defenses the building has are built and maintained in the testing grounds, though they're modified to target specific sources of danger such as fire or water.
The Inhabitants
Unlike the other last shrines, Athtica's was never abandoned nor lost in a final battle, but the mortal inhabitants fell victim to time while the immortal inhabitants continued their work and the work of their dead fellows.
Reportedly, Athtica herself appeared in the final days of the Empire, the the scholars have admitted to losing track of time overall and using the stars to determine the date as according to the Adrakian Calendar they had used.
Life Forged Priests
Upon learning the explorers were not seeking their destruction, the living statues and armor said they had willingly chosen to become Life Forged, even after the practice was banned. They had petitioned for the opportunity because they were lower-ranked priests who wanted to dedicate themselves to the continued research of their goddess's interests.
The Life Forged are the sole surviving worshippers of Athtica, though any claiming she was not a goddess are generally met with hours of lectures in regards to her divinity and the deeds that make her a goddess.
Artifacts and Aspects of Note
Athtica's Ring
In the back of the shrine's library is a chamber with a broken circular structure on the ground the priests had reassembled. The ring lays on the floor and has raised sections for teh ring to move through called "chevrons" by the priests after several hours of debate over what to call the raised sections ensued.
The symbols on the ring, however, have escaped translation though have aspects of ancient symbols found in the few pre-Imperial ruins that remain as more than rubble. While the priests have remained silent as to the uses or purpose of the ring, the scholars have thrown around ideas including teleportation, body-swapping, or communication. Unfortunately, those ideas generally involve a pair of rings and no other ring has been found.
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