Zhalov Thul

The Devourer undone, the Triune Ascendant sought to overtake its dominions for their own. They raised a mighty castle at its heart, abreast the watershed dividing the river named for the Tears of the Devourer, and those named for their own. They laid down powerful magic upon the bones of their castle, reaching down into the roots of the mountain, and replaced the lifted the frigid cold with a temperate, bounteous warmth.
[...]
And at last, the Eightfold did what the Devourer, the Enthroned Shadow, and everlong time could not, and struck the Monarch, last of the Triune Ascendant, dead upon the dais of his throne. But as the last of those who Devoured the Devourer died, his final breath raked a curse across the sky:
For we feasted upon the Devourer, a god beneath only the Aching Bones themselves, none shall rule as we ruled. You shall not sit our thrones. You shall not hold our glory. You shall not seize our harmony. In the breadth of ambition, you shall be undone. In the height of wisdom, you shall be undone. In the weight of everlong time, you shall be undone. Your flesh shall freeze. Your blood shall freeze. Your breath shall freeze.
And with a final shuddering gasp, the Eightfold were thrown from the dais by the weight of the rising cold. The air turned to ice in their lungs, the walls became frozen air, and fall across the land, from Abavi to Volun Don, the warmth of the day was chased into the sea by horror and want.

— from Wisdoms Triune

Purpose / Function

Zhalov Thul was raised to serve as the palace of the Godeaters after their defeat of the Greater Power, Aztarnak the Devourer. It served as their place of residence, a strong position to unleash their military force, a hub of administration, and a nexus of enchantment which they laid over the territories they controlled.

Alterations

Upon the death of the last of the Godeaters, the enchantments laid upon the castle were thrown into chaos. Many unraveled harmlessly, several unleashed instances of one-off damage to various portions of the castle. But one, most famously, transformed the castle into a focus of the cold in the region. The temperature drops dramatically as distance to the castle closes, which accelerates upon entry, with the throne room as the ultimate focal point. Within the structure itself, the walls appear to have been transformed into ice.

Architecture

The style of the building is grandiose. Its rooms and halls are held up by soaring arches, constructed in its day from seamless stone and covered in brilliant glaze. In the modern day, its walls and pillars and floors have been converted into an ediface of blue-white ice.

History

Following the death of Aztarnak the Devourer at the hands of the Godeaters, Zhalov Thul was raised to serve as the heart of their dominion. Though conceived of as, in part, a military fortification, the conquest of its immediate surroundings proved remarkably peaceful. By the time they encountered armed resistance to their expansion, it was too distant for the strength of Zhalov Thul to be of particular relevance.
Over the course of their reign, the halls of Zhalov Thul played host to bureaucrats and diplomats, clerks and peasants, and all manner of person came to entreat, serve, bargain with, or otherwise interact with the castle's masters.
The war of the Shadow resulted in the death of one of two of those masters, the Warrior and the Smith, leaving behind only the Monarch. The thrones of the fallen remained in place, as the Monarch ruled for the following centuries, until the rise of the Twelve Usurpers, all powerful masters of the arcane.
They Oligarchs snuck their way past the castle's outer defenses, rapidly killed the Monarch's servants, and together fought the Monarch. They emerged victorious, though four of them died in the process. With the death of the Monarch, the enchantments the Godeaters had laid upon the land, and the castle was frozen over. It has experienced little else in the centuries since.

Alternative Names

The Palace of the Feast, the Citadel of Ice, the House Triune

Type

Castle