Saints of Torkos

In Torkos' cloister the party learns the (mythological) history of the city:

Kaia was once the breeding ground for human slaves.

Slavers came occasionally to pick up the best specimens for service.

Slaves were left to fend for themselves most of the time, living like wild creatures and surviving off the land.

Samael was one of the rare sorcerers (one of the first of the kind) that studied astronomy and its influence on elements and the world.

During his studies, he predicted the upcoming seismic event (polarity reversal) that would put the portals of Kaia out of commission for a while.

With the help of Chainbraker, his colleague and a necromancer that roamed the death-piles, they've extended their lifespan, building a rebellion that held off the slavers until then.

It took 101 years for the polarity to settle again and the portals reactivated.

During this time, development happened.

Chainbreaker built up a larger army of the dead.

Samael travelled the world, even to Perneus, and brought other humans to their cause. Mages flourished.

When the portals activated again, any incoming conquerors were easy to push back (also due to other events outside Kaia).

The word spread that Kaia (and Torkos especially) were now a sanctuary for humans.

Chainbreaker died when people turned against him and the living dead.

Samael disappeared from the fight, but his body was never found.

The Shrine of Saints

Two tombs connected by the hallway.

Samael's tomb

Ceiling: relief of stars with a hole in the middle for a ray of sunlight.

Walls: relief of stars.

Surrounding: busts and tombs of scholars, tools: astrolabe, sky disk, orrery, merkhet ...

Statue: bald, tall and robed, with a metal symbol of opposing crescents on his forehead (hit by a sunray from the shaft in the ceiling).

the ray is bounced onto the wall where a small hole is drilled into it (noticed by Bartholomew)

Chainbreaker's tomb

Ceiling: relief of chains.

Walls: skulls and bones worked into the wall.

Surrounding: tombs and skeletons in the alcoves of the walls. Damp and dark.

Statue: covered with a cowl, mask of a skull and ribcage armour. Struggling against the chains around its body. A chain-link broken where the sunray strikes it as it exits the wall.

We were living like animals back then. The slavers took our food. And water. Destroyed our homes. Many were sick.
Samael and his disciples buried the dead they found. To stop the disease. They buried them, and Chainbreaker protected their graves.
- High Priest Diomedes

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