Taproot of the World
Deep below Thriving, but disconnected from the city, a miles-wide column of earth from surface to upper mantle refuses to follow the geological trend of heat picking up nearer the core. It just gets cold like any sun-deprived surface, like any other scape of ruin. This is the Taproot of the World. It is from here that all ruins spread. It is in here that the ancients met the Brier, in the flesh. It is because of here that the neiji are nearly extinct.
Purpose / Function
Originally, the Taproot was nothing more than an investigative tunnel into the geological peculiarity under what is now Thriving. Then, at its bottom, the neiji discovered the Brier, and their end began. The Taproot was the first of the renovations, transforming from a plain and sheer vertical shaft to a great temple, through which an elevator the size of an aircraft carrier runs. The Temple was designed to house spacious storehouses, stacked barracks, lavish personal rooms, gardens, zoos, museums, and more; a monument to both the Brier and the neiji of Inom.
It is from this temple that all other ruins sprang. Sure, some ruins are not physically connected, but they were inspired by the sprawl that crept from the Taproot like vines. The neiji tore apart all other structures on their planet to build this now-dilapidated world-palace to the Brier.
Alterations
After the sacrifices to the Siren burned through all faithful neiji, the Taproot fell into the same state of disuse as the rest of the world had fallen into. Cloth began to decay, food stores rotted, traps malfunctioned, nature tore apart the masonry.
Then the Siren started reeling in aliens, who would invariably interact with the ruins in some capacity. Some would merely shelter before building their own houses, while others would refurbish and permanently dwell. The first of these aliens to discover the Taproot were the Midnighter tribe of blockheads. Their leader, the Navy Mother, spoke with the Brier and pledged her tribe to the Brier's cause, and thus was given not only blessing but assistance in restoring the Taproot according to blockhead needs. Now the Taproot of the Earth is practically a city in its own right, populated from where stone meets eldritch skin to Anicoja's jungles, although the paths to Thriving were provisionally blocked-off to avoid discovery.
Such renovations include:
Where the sun cannot conceivably reach and where food can rot before arrival from the surface, the Midnighters have taken to slaving. The Thorns capture slaves from the surface, whether from individuals, travelling groups, or even entire villages; and they hold them somewhat near the surface after Navy interrogates any captives that seem like they might know anything. This is also where Navy extends the offer to captives to join the Thorns. She has not had much success, but some blockheads of other tribes have joined her ranks.
Those deemed no longer useful as a person, however, are moved to the breeding pits a little bit deeper. First-generation slaves become breeders; only their progeny are grown, fattened, butchered, and eaten by the Thorns. At least, that's the policy. The Midnighters cultivate box-of-lips in their near-surface halls, both creating a discouraging hazard to any who might stumble across them and allowing them to feed and sedate their slaves, supplemented by fungi grown deeper underground.
The butcher shops are right down with the kitchens and living spaces most occupied.
Architecture
Stoneworking was in vogue when the neiji discovered the Brier, and the Taproot was where the finest neiji stonemasons got to start on the ruins. As a result, it looks plainer in some of the deeper places than the ruins elsewhere in the world, even the other ruins of Anicoja. This was where many first started designing in the post-Brier style.
Decorating walls, floors, and ceilings alike are vast murals, depicting masses of tentacles, chains of thorns and barbs, and extravagant neiji orgies. There are also many planters, simulated daylights, and unpaved plots of soil deeper in, but the plants which grew inside died when the daylights ceased to function. Now the Midnighters grow mushrooms in these planters.
Type
Cathedral / Great temple
Parent Location
Owner
Owning Organization
Characters in Location
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