The Black Fortress
Far to the North of Seori, near the very tip of the Serpent’s Spine Mountains, stands an imposing tower known simply as The Black Fortress.
Local cultures have long speculated about the origins of the tower; many of the Barbarian Clans of the region believe that it was built by the gods to contain unspeakable horrors. This sentiment has been reinforced countless times over thousands of years as misfortune and disaster rained down upon the region time and time again. The tower is generally seen through an ominous lens, with young children often raised to believe that it is a place of immense evil, to be avoided at all costs.
Since the end of the Listless Ages, scholars have come to believe that the tower was, in fact, put in place by the Ten, prior to the creation of the Titans. Although still quite difficult to access, due to countless factions constantly attempting to lay claim to its walls, it is believed by most to be the single greatest point of planar convergence on Seori; specifically, it is the point at which all ten of the original Planes were connected to the Mortal Plane, allowing easy travel between them.
Scholars and historians now believe that this was likely the origin point for all Titanic entities on Seori, the birthplace of life itself.
During the early rise of the Ascendants, it was confirmed that certain individuals were able to secure the early creation of new Planes of Existence, and, in very rare cases, were able to connect them to the Black Fortress prior to the fall of Ambition and Inevitability. The first documented example of this came from Siri, who used the budding powers of her Ascendant spirit to move The Crossroads to the Plane of Vigilance, and later was able to connect the new Plane to the Fortress in order to prevent Hive from securing a connection.
It is now believed that Decay and Myth were similarly able to tap into the power of the Black Fortress before the onset of the Calamity; Honor, Wisdom, and Hope followed in the days immediately following the Ascension, with several others following suit.
The tower itself stretches high into the sky; no definitive number of floors can be counted from the inside or out. The tower is nearly impenetrable from the Mortal Plane; it has no discernable doors, windows, grates, or other access points that mortal eyes can glean.
The interior of the tower appears to be largely hollow, with a simple, winding staircase rising from the ground floor into darkness above. If one were to ascend the stairs, they would find enchanted doors at regular intervals, seemingly floating in open air above the hollow core of the tower. Each door corresponds to a Plane that is connected to the Black Fortress.
Unlike nearly all other structures in the region, the Black Fortress survived the Calamity untouched, and stood for hundreds of years as the sole, inorganic feature in the Remnants of the Spine. Although no obvious defenses are visible, inside or outside of the tower, it is believed that each Plane associated with the Black Fortress offers its own protections to preserve the safety of the planar structure.
Since the moment of Ascension, the Black Fortress has been the site of a spectacular, prismatic event once every fifty years, during which time each of the connected Planes is distinctly visible in the sky above the tower.
Parent Location
Comments