Temple to Power {Academy}

The Temple to Power, the Academy, and as the Nameless know it, the Origin of Evil. It is a large repository of uncountable books and artifacts, millions of scribes dedicated to cataloging and studying them all. For all the knowledge held in the Academy, its most important role is as an academy, the place where Lati are anointed to godhood.

Purpose / Function

The purpose of the Academy is to train initiates into Lati, however, the actual training is usually done before or after. Most of the initiates who pass through the academy are simply staying for the year required so they can be anointed as Lati. It is usually an end to their training, or the beginning of their journey if they were plucked from the slave pens. A rare few do go through most of their training here, usually the scions of extremely influential families, or those born in the Temple to Power {City}.

Alterations

The Academy began as a small step pyramid but has been expanded upon into the monstrous ziggurat the size of a large city it is known as today. It has had libraries upon libraries, vaults upon vaults, an entire enclosed environment added to it, its own network of ruins, caves and tunnels spiraling into the abyss below.

Architecture

The Temple to Power is thick sandstone, engraved in runes and sigils, some decorative, some essential to its stability.

History

The Temple to Power is an old temple from a once insignificant town in one of the many Makassi tribes and kingdoms which existed before space flight. All that is known about its construction is that it was built after the planet became a cursed desert, as its original structure, still preserved as the final quest for initiates, seemed to have been built to channel power on days of celestial instability.

It's a hotly debated topic among Lati scholars, but most seem sure that Otanli had a second moon at some point, and that that moon would react with the cursed ground the temple was built upon to create reactions. The temple would channel the rising power in a spiral path so it could be harnessed. However, records show the moon disappearing in a cataclysm, and most seem to think that one of these many rituals went wrong and shattered the moon, creating the basis for some of the mountain ranges and ravines that dot the planet today. It is a relatively recent theory, based on artifacts uncovered by an initiate in 442 PKR, and no one studying the topic has been able to get access to the lands of any of the suspect locations.

The Temple to Power served as a religious center of the first iteration of Laran, while the City of the Sun was the political capital. After the Battle of Kaseibeiut however, the political center switched, and the Temple to Power became the most important location on the planet, a city being built for Lerin around it. The city has to keep expanding as the temple keeps growing, claiming, and incorporating sections of the city. Currently, the Ziggurat and the surrounding district sit at the size of a small city, with a park included in its outer territories, as well as a direct path to the largest uncolonized cave on the planet, just under the Temple to Power {City}.

Training

A Lati's training starts with them being brought to the entrance of the Testing Grounds, one of many entrances to the largest uncolonized cave on the planet, one which has been preserved as a Lati holy site and used as the first test for any prospecting initiates. An initiate must reach the Academy from this cave within two weeks, fighting off predators, starvation, and the other initiates who seek to whittle down the pool of rivals. Any initiate who arrives before the limit is allowed entry to the academy, any who arrives after is killed on the spot.

The next stage is the learning stage. Most initiates, the ones who were trained beforehand and are at the academy to be anointed rather than taught, skip this phase, going immediately to the trials. The ones who had no prior experience, generally those sent to the academy early in their lives, who were discovered to be Inkallu late in life, or those plucked from the slave pens, go through a period of book learning and practice. They have to learn at least the basics of Lati abilities before they can be allowed to continue their trials. Many overseers will attempt to use this phase to sabotage the chances of those they disapprove of, i.e. the traditional ones who disapprove of slaves becoming lati will refuse to teach them anything. Most either die or learn by themselves.

Once they have satisfied the overseers with at least the basics, they are sent back into the Testing Grounds, specifically to an area stocked with predators and dotted with secret entrances to the tombs of Lati buried under the Temple to Power {City}. Once they have retrieved an artifact of sufficient power they are to bring them back to the overseers. That, or they die trying.

IN the next stage, they are to prove their abilities by creating a demonstration, be it a ritual, a display of their combat abilities, or something else that shows how they've improved since the learning phase. Extra marks if they use the artifact they recovered, or any others they choose to go down and retrieve. Those who fail are sent to retrieve another, tougher to get, artifact, and get one more chance to satisfy the overseers. If they fail they die.

 Those that satisfy the overseers must face the final trial, where they are to delve into the catacombs of the original temple structure to record the shifting wall, an enchanted wall that shows a partially accurate prediction of the observer's future. If they bring it back to the overseers, then they officially become Acolytes. During the project phase, Lati looking for apprentices are invited to observe the candidates. Those they choose go from Acolyte to their Apprentice. Those who were sent by Dynasties to be anointed as Lati also go immediately to the rank of Apprentice.

Founding Date

Unknown

Alternative Names

Temple of the Lati; Acadamy; Origin of Evil (Pejorative) ;

Type

Cathedral / Great temple

Parent Location

Temple to Power {City}

Owner

Cairn

Ruling/Owning Rank

Laka

Owning Organization

Lati Doctrine & Inkallu Affairs