Luxaltar Catacombs

Archive of the Dead

Written by Endrise

A lot of people came and went to this city, and every soul needs a final resting place. So the entire inner circle of the city exists on a gigantic burial site.
It's less disturbing than you may think.

— Ori Santoro

Beneath the streets of Luxaltar lies a maze of tombs known that is its catacombs. Hallways housing the remains of thousands, from their skulls to their ashes. Buried tightly amongst one another, filling walls upon walls. A whole other city of the dead beneath the buzzling capital.

Home of the Dead

Walls of Ash

The catacombs are home to the remains of three million people, if not more, that went on undocumented. A network of tunnels that spans the inner circle of Luxaltar going down a few dozen feet, with three layers accounted for. A feat of burial architecture.

Unlike other catacombs, the burial grounds only have a few skeletal remains. Over two-thirds of all bodies residing here are cremated and stored in cylindrical urns. Walls upon walls of stone shelves keep them organised, piled upon one another. An archive of the dead.

Wandering Spirits

The collection of bones and remains makes the catacombs home to wandering spirits and the occasional Undead. Cremation became a common method to avoid the reanimating of such remains, but some still slip through and wander these halls.

Most are harmless, lost souls that need the aid of a priest to bring them to peace. Only once every hundred souls do they become a problem, endangering the people maintaining these hallways. But even those get quickly dealt with by the Wandering Flame's Church.

Guardian Urns

Statues holding more decorative urns decorate the halls, containing a guardian spirit that defends these catacombs. Gathered from those loyal to the church, they swore an oath to protect the dead until the end of time. A duty that they will uphold as long as possible.

Any intruder with the intention to disturb the rest of these halls may awaken a spirit. They will attempt to first scare away the intruders, but challenge one and they are willing to be lethal.

Type

Catacomb

Parent Location

Luxaltar

History of the Catacombs

Earliest construction of the catacombs occurred a few decades after the Wandering Church’s Flame. With Luxaltar growing in population, burial sites became mandatory as the old generation passed away and space became crucial. Difficulties with space and the looming threat of Undead made cremation favourable, leading to the creation of urn walls across its cemeteries.

As the city grew, old urns moved underground to make space for new ones. Tunnels were exaggerated, with the cylindrical urn getting introduced to save space. Decades passed by, new sections made going deeper and further, building a network of tunnels beneath the city.

The age of silence began a change in the catacombs’s usage. No longer would any citizen receive an urn here over time, instead only those able to pay or noteworthy would remain buried there. Everyone else’s ashes got dumped within the Urn Pit.

During the Siege on the First Flame Church, Ori Santoro used the catacombs to reach the First Flame Church. She navigated with the Grievers through the tunnels to enter the church from within, allowing them to confront the High Council. After she reclaimed her position as a Fire Maiden, the catacombs became open to the public again, allowing anyone’s urns to reside within there.