Discovery of Vanoxis
In the summer of AE 649 a small group of explorers set out to explore the mountainous area called the Peaks of Heaven. They were the first humanoids to find the mysterious temple of Vanoxis - a structure nobody really knows the true purpose of.
When these explorers returned to the city of Mandural nobody believed what they'd seen, and the diary was forgotten in an old dusty bookshelf. After some years the diary found its way into one of the libraries of Mandural, still forgotten by the masses. It wasn't until AE 823 - more than 150 years later - that a librarian called Alloch stumbled upon the diary and decided to try to rediscover the ancient temple.
Discovery of Vanoxis
The Base of the Peaks of Heaven
This is where the expedition really begins! Up until now everything has been preparations and gearing up. Now we're finally standing here, looking upon these mighty unexplored mountains, wondering what we will see during the next weeks.
Tomorrow we'll begin our trek into the unknown.
24th day of Emerald Leaves, AE 649
Second Camp
Not much has happened on our journey until now. We have to climb steep mountainsides to get anywhere in this area. It's slow, it's exhausting, and not just a little dangerous - but we're not losing heart! Our hands might be sore from hanging on to the tiny cracks in the mountainside. Our bodies might be tired from hauling all our gear up several yards. But our spirits are still strong!
27th day of Emerald Leaves, AE 649
Deeper into the Mountains
We almost lost our climbing expert today.
He lost his grip at a crucial moment and fell several yards. Praise the Gods that he didn't roll off the ledge he landed on and fell further. He got away with a few scratches and bruises that will slow him down slightly for the next few days, but he refused to let us turn back now. We've gotten so far into the mountains - all that effort would be in vain if we turn back now.
The landscape seems to flatten now, making it easier and less dangerous to go on. Despite us all being moved by the shock from the fall, the new landscape gives us hope.
28th day of Emerald Leaves, AE 649
Even Deeper into the Mountains
Praise the Gods!
Today we found an ancient pathway through the mountain. Our tracker says it hasn't been much in use for at least a century, only animal tracks from the local wildlife taking advantage of the old infrastructure. There's definitely traces of a well-maintained pathway, possibly wide enough for wagons.
Do you know what this means? Someone had something up here important enough to build a road! We have no records of any civilization or settlement in the Peaks of Heaven other than the Maedarki city of Lonroch. If this was a Maedarki construction, wouldn't they keep it maintained?
We have so many questions about this. Tomorrow we'll follow the pathway going higher up the mountain. We're all anxious about what we'll find at the end of this road!
2nd day of Sun's Flame, AE 649
Unknown Temple
I will try to scribble down something here for future reference - though I'll have to fight the urge to go back exploring this place.
We followed the pathway for two days before we found it - a grandiose structure with a strange form. It took the breath away from us when we saw it. How this building is even standing is unknown - the structure seems like it shouldn't. Hopefully, we'll find some clues about what this structure was and why it's up here during the next days.
3rd day of Sun's Flame, AE 649
Unknown Temple
We've spent all day just exploring this new place, and it's amazing!
Who built it still elude us, but there are some fascinating wall carvings inside the building itself. One room in the middle of the structure has some extra detailed ones, depicting the story of how the world was created. Who made these? The carvings are exquisite - only a master stone carver could've created something this splendid.
8th day of Sun's Flame, AE 649
Vanoxis
I'm deeply sorry for not having any records from the last days - I've been busy with drawing the stone carvings and exploring the structure. We've spent six days in this temple, and although we've thoroughly mapped it out, and brainstormed the clues, we still have no plausible theories about who built this place.
chiseled into the temple wall of Vanoxis by Milladamen
It is clear that this is a temple, possibly to the Divine Sisters. No other higher Divine entities are depicted, though there are depictions of Dragons. This is strange since all other temples to the Divine Sisters depict the creation of the other Gods. Is it from before the other Gods were created? It's a preposterous theory - only the Dragons were around back then. Was this structure made by the Dragons?
What we do know is that this place is highly magical. We had a discussion about what this place used to be called inside the central chamber a couple of days ago. A name popped into my head. To my surprise, the tracker uttered the name that was tickling my mind.
Vanoxis.
By looking at the reaction from everyone else in the room I wasn't the only one who had this name on my mind. Strange magics were definitely flowing through this place. In amazement, we tried to ask the temple more questions, yet with no result. The magical effect only seemed to want to give us the name.
We're running out of food, and this area has scarce resources. Even firewood has become a problem - despite it being summer the biting chill of the night is only bearable if we can get a fire burning. We will have to leave this place for now. We don't want to, but we don't want to starve or freeze to death either. We've realized that we'll have to leave rather soon. We've copied most of the stone carvings by now and painstakingly mapped out where each carving was discovered. There's not much else we can do without historical scholars and their knowledge.
We can always come back later.
10th day of Sun's Flame, AE 649
Outside Vanoxis
We left Vanoxis this morning. Our hearts ached as we had to leave this wonderful place. It was a small comfort that we'd soon see our loved ones again, not to mention share our grand discovery to the world! They'll be amazed by what we've found up in these mountains!
We briefly discussed trying to follow the path on our way down instead of taking the route we came up. The plan was dismissed, though - we have limited resources and no idea where that pathway will lead us.
14th day of Sun's Flame, AE 649
Halfway Down the Mountainside
I am almost too upset to write anything, yet I know I should for documentation purposes.
Disaster struck our team today. While crossing a deep ravine on our way towards the end of our journey our climbing expert tumbled to his death. Most of our gear fell with him - including all our expedition notes and most of our food. Without a master climber, there is no way to get down there to salvage the gear. The area is too dangerous - the chance of dying during the attempt dwarfs the chance of survival. There's nothing we can do but to go on.
Now the scarce notes I have in this journal is the only record of what we've seen up here. I decided to sketch down a quick map in case we forget how to get back here, or in case we all die on our way down and all that's left is this journal. We don't speak loudly about the danger of us all perishing on our way down, but we all think it.
17th day of Sun's Flame, AE 649
The Base of the Peaks of Heaven
The rest of us got down unharmed. We wanted to get a bit further away from these mountains before we had to make camp - sleeping so close to where our friend died a few days ago wasn't tempting. Yet, we have no choice. We're exhausted. Food ran out quickly, and we've been climbing without eating for two days. We managed to catch a couple of rabbits when we sat up camp here, and although it isn't enough to satiate us completely it will help somewhat.
The trek back will be tough and slow. At least we're back on flat ground again.
27th day of Sun's Flame, AE 649
The City of Mandural
They don't believe us.
We arrived in the city of Mandural a bit before noon. The first thing we did after our arrival was to seek out the scholars. As we told them about our discoveries they dismissed us. It all seemed too fantastic to be true, and we had barely any documentation. They seemed amused about us conveniently losing our documentation on our way back, and while we understood where it was coming from most of us were enraged or deeply saddened by the whole conversation.
We have decided to just leave it be for today. We're all too tired from the journey to fight with scholars today.
I'm a big fan of the *slightly* small scale, but still first-contact style this article has going. I'd love to read more about what happened in the temple! A crudely drawn map the travellers jotted down, or something like that, would go a long way in really tying everything together I think. Great work!
Thank you for the comment! I'm glad you liked the article! <3
I added a map to the journal bit now, thanks for that tip as well!