The Temple of Chromatic Enlightenment
Purpose / Function
The Temple of Chromatic Enlightenment was built, primarily, it would seem, to house a series of complex technological devices known as the chromatic altars. These altars have the capacity to project peculiarly pure manifestations of specific frequencies in the electromagnetic spectrum in a way that induces sympathetic and communal associations within the minds of those gathered to observe it. The effect is species and personally specific in each case but also transmitted through a mental feedback field which allows for a collective experience within any group of pilgrims.
Whilst it is not clear exactly what role the temple, played within amnyine culture, it is thought likely that it served a smiliar function to the one it serves today, although there are some plausable suggestions that the chromatic offerings might originally have been considered as entertainments, rather than being burdened with the spiritually serious role they have come to play in later ages.
Architecture
The temple is constructed in and around a roughly conical hill on the east coast of the jungle preserve region of South Seldamar, not far to the south of the city of Rillyon.
It is capped by a vaulting white apex, known as the Melding Minster which can be seen at the top of the hill in the image at the head of the article. The Melding Minster is a spectacular structure in its own right, but it is only the visible tip of the much bigger complex which makes up the whole of the Temple. Most of its structure is hollowed out inside the hill itself, where there are many great chambers, hallways, chapels and other places for contemplation and assembly.
Part of the Red and the Blue Chapels are shown below in the light of their respective altars. These are but two of the many smaller spaces used for chromatic enlightenment.
The Red Chapel by DMFW
The Blue Chapel by DMFW
History
The Temple of Chromatic Enlightenment was originally built by the amnyine aproximately five and a half million years BCE on the planet of Silusia Alpha. The structure of the temple has been preserved far longer than could be expected due to the ancient and lost technology of transdimensional blueprints. As far as is known, Silusia Alpha possessed no local intelligent life when the temple was built, although the ancestors of the bilachai were advancing towards sentience. The temple was apparently abandoned when the amnyine vanished and remained unoccupied until the rise of the first bilachai civilization which has been dated to aproximately two and a quarter million years BCE. The discovery of the temple began a thematic series of interactions with succeeding bilachai civilisations and it has always played a role as a spiritual centre and a focus for cultural and intellectual advances.
After the downfall of Civilisation Three, thinderin settlers founded the Light Guards who took custody of the temple during the dark ages that preceeded the rise of Civilisation Four and they continue to occupy and manage it to this day.
A collection of stories called the Legends of the Chromatic Temple was first assembled by thinderin priests at the beginning of Civilisation Four and it is this work which has made the Temple famous.
Tourism
The Temple of Chromatic Enlightenment is renowned throughout the Bubble and beyond. The Light Guards consider themselves responsible for its security and governance and visits to the temple can only be arranged as part of organised pilgrimages, which typically take from five to twenty days. Pilgrimages are offered to all interested species that are able to physically reach and navigate the temple interior and these are carefully supervised by thinderin seedlings who undertake the combined roles of tourist guide and spiritual mentor to the pilgrims.
Pilgrims are usually housed in one of the small support villages at the foot of the Temple hill. It is also considered an important function of their mentors to provide counselling at the point when any pilgrim "meets their chromatic need", after which they can no longer continue to climb the temple and will be housed in a rehabilitation centre.
A pilgrimage to the temple is a once in a lifetime experience and most of those who have undertaken it, consider it profoundly transformative.
Founding Date
circa 5.5 million years BCE
Type
Temple / Religious complex
Parent Location
Owning Organization
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