Amotorr
Introduction
The Sanctuary of Amotorr is to be found at the frontier of Clan Hoershal's clanlands with Clan Eaglesham in the Amorvale. See the article for more information about the area and its people.
The old tower complex overlooking the Amorvale and the town of Benamor, was bequeathed to the Sanctuary by one of the Hoershal's Clan Chieftains some 200 years ago.
To start with, it was not much of a gift as the tower, and the buildings surrounding it were in a piteous state.
However, it was not long before the Sanctuary rebuilt the tower and expanded on the buildings already there.
The isolated situation of the complex and its uneasy access have proved useful over time.
Many believe that arcanists have been experimenting in the tower away from prying eyes .
Purpose
The Sanctuary at Amotorr has the same function as any Sanctuary throughout the clanlands of Alven: maintain the power base of the organisation.
1 create resources and revenues through the good management and advancement of the bequeathed lands and through the collection of the clans and clansmen's offrands
2 provide a place of training and research for the Seers (sometimes being away from the main cities is a bonus)
3 provide a safe place for the Sanctuary treasures
4 establish a strong connection with the clansmen and their clan-bearers, maintain influence at all levels of society
Due to its geographical isolation, Amotorr is precisely well-placed to hide research and treasures. See later.
Geography
Amotorr is situated at the top of an escarpment in the Low Vales of Benamore. It overlooks the village and offers protection to the locals in times of strife and war within its walls. The escarpment is called the Amotorr Brigg or the Brigg for short.
The walls surrounding the Torr's buildings follow the contours of the Brigg and slopes gently down to the orchards and fields of the Sanctuary to the north. To enter the fortress, you have to climb to the top of the escarpment and continue up round to its northern slopes, where an imposing set of gates awaits the weary travellers.
At one point, the people of the Torr dug a massive ditch between the walls and the surrounding fields. In these times of peace, it has now been filled up to make more space for pastures and crops.
Buildings
The complex is divided into three main parts:
- the Amotorr Tower or the Old Torr and the buildings attached to it, the oldest part of the estate.
- Another set of buildings surrounds a huge temple to Brid (or Brigand), which is more recent (built in the last century). It is colloquially referred to as Temple Homes.
- To the right of the gates and Amotorr's entrance is a jumble of utilitarian buildings called the Works. This is where you can find warehouses, workshops, kitchens and stables, for example.
The Old Torr
The Torr is the oldest part of the complex. When the Sanctuary acquired the lands from Clan Hoershall a few centuries ago, the Torr was derelict: a relic from older clan wars (maybe between Clan Hoershall and Caldbeare). The Sanctuary brought masons from the south and had the Torr built up again within two years of taking over the Amorvale.
The Seers also built three long houses at the same time to house the newly-formed congregation (called a Tua). The long houses had the Torr at their centre. Traditionally it is in the Torr that the head of the Tua or the Sanctuary's High Seer resides.
The High Seer has his or her apartment on the highest floors of the five-storey high old Torr.
The Temple Homes
The ceremonies to the goddess Brid or Brigand used to take place in the inner gardens of the Old Torr complex out in the open - as used to be the case with most religious ceremonies in Alven. However, when the Sanctuary became wealthy and influential in Alven political circles, it attracted scions of the clan chieftains and their families in its ranks.
Sanctuaries, even the more remote, saw their sparse accommodation become refurbished to suit the tastes of a wealthier category of seers. Soon, the temple took over from a frozen or overheated outside place of worship and made the daily offerings much more comfortable.
For such an isolated Sanctuary, the Amotorr Brid Temple looks positively lavish and cuts a dash amongst the more mundane buildings surrounding it. Built in the fashionable Leaf Style, popular a century ago, the carefully cut granite stones are covered with white marble/Frencal Marbil stone leaves supported by a colonnade of stone trunks going around the rectangular, tall structures. Even the roof is covered with the filigree.
The building looks very beautiful but is somewhat at odds with the nature surrounding it.
The more common two-storey or three-storey buildings coming off the temple are dedicated to training and learning. There is also a rather extensive library and a printing press where a contingent of scribes produces the well-known literary and scientific output of the Sanctuary.
The Works
Set against the walls of the Sanctuary, as soon as one enters the gates, are the buildings dedicated to day-to-day living. The ramshackle but well-tended warehouses, workshops, barns and stables spread out in and out of the Sanctuary walls - expanding every year with the Seers' thriving businesses.
The oldest buildings are the stables, which are a cut above the rest. The Amotorr Seers are proud of the horses they stable and breed within the keep. They stable many beautiful horses given as offerings from their neighbours, the Hoershall clan chieftains.
The Hoershall clan is well known for breeding the best horses in Alven, especially the Del Horses and Rix Horses. The Del horses are part of the traditional horse races that happen yearly for the festival of Ria (the warriors and horse goddess).
Notes:
Month 9 - Suntyme Suntyme is dedicated to Ria, the goddess of horses and warriors. The first of the month starts with the Feast of Ria.
Many rituals on that day involve horses, and traditional races occur in some areas of Alven.
Amotorr Sanctuary - like any other sanctuaries in Alven - is a village in itself: it boasts of its own mill, baker, blacksmith, masons etc. Many of the workshops and other infrastructures are manned by locals from Amorvale or the village of Benamore.
Some workers come further afield as the Seers are keen to attract the best worksmiths and artisans under their roofs, even temporarily.
Gardens, Parks and Lands
Amotorr Sanctuary has been keen to develop the fertile lands surrounding the fortress - Nuttree groves and apple orchards form the bulk of the cultivated lands around the keep. Pastures have been set aside for the sanctuary's horses, but others contain flocks of sheep and cattle.
Inside the sanctuary, between some of the long houses and other communal buildings, there exists a herb garden full of medicinal plants and quite a few squares dedicated to vegetables and more fragile plants that benefit from the shelter provided by the fortress' walls.
A new addition to Amotorr was a brand-new glass house, built just 10 years ago in the fashion now prevalent in the chieftains' palaces of Highfort. The then High Seer, an exiled son of a famous southern clan, insisted on its erection when he arrived in Amotorr. The High Seer left Amotorr for more southern climes just two years after that, but the glasshouse stayed and now houses more delicate fruit and herbs - ones that would not have grown outside in the harsh mountain climate (which ones?)
Architecture and Art
The oldest part of the Sanctuary was built in the traditional mountain style of the Farside mountains. Slate roofs of darker grey top imposing grey granite towers. The fortress was initially built to impress the neighbouring clans and provide protection for the local population.
As peace settled in this part of Alven, the buildings took on a less foreboding aspect, often in the style prevalent in Alven at the time: see the Leaf style of the Brid's temple.
From the outside, the keep looks as it always did: dark and grey. However, once inside, you notice the motley crew buildings that make it up, from utilitarian to fanciful.
History
Already talked about in the introduction (more later if need be)
Secrets
1 The Ouma Caves - entrance situated underneath or beside the Old Torr (would make sense). See article
Parts of the fortress are out of bounds - the Old Torr for two reasons: experiments with power objects and because of the caves, but also haunted?
Possible Hautings:
-weeping stones (soul of lost priests?)
- starless chamber (eats up light - shows future tragedies)
- rootbound oracle (a bound up tree ensnares and whispers prophecies)
- true names of forgotten gods (on altar, pillar etc.)
- blood-lit mirror (to reveal true nature of things, people etc.)
- sleeping army of petrified soldiers
- cursed procession (at dusk, spectral priest emerges, reenacting their last ritual - disrupting them ... etc.)
- the last offering (secret compartment only opens with an offering (never seen by human eyes or something else)
- the undying sentinel (skeletal guardian guard the fortress)
- the moon pool of rebirth (undergrood pool shimmers like liquid silver, bathing under full mean, grants visions of past lives, transforms etc.)
- the choir of hollow voices (wind passes through the fortress broken spires produces an eerie harmonic chant - voices of the first worshippers?)
- the beast-bound throne - throne carved from the bones of mythical beast - commanding one of the animals erodes humanity
- the shadow market - a hidden passage leads to a spectral bazaar where long-dead priests trade in secrets, knowledge and forbidden relics in exchange for memory or dreams
- the vanishing door - a door in the fortress only appears when a storm rages (idea of mine: when it snows?)
- the boneless one - sarcophagus whispers forgotten spells
- the living glyphs - moving without anyone noticing - if put together the right way forms an incantation
- the sunken library - flooded with waterlogged scrolls - reading them causes strange dreams
- the Ever-dying flame - flame flickers eternally but dims when something happens - when it is gone, end of the world
- the Bone garden - flowers sprout from only buried bones - hold memories
- the Nameless Idol - silent idol demands worship - grants wishes sometimes but against a price (word they do not know the meaning burned in their minds?)
- the Forgotten Passage - doors that cannot be opened or opening to nowhere
- the Lantern of the Forgotten - rusted lantern (power object) reveals hidden passages plus wraiths
- the Heart of the Fortress - massive stone heart that beats once a century - something ancient stirs beneath their feet
- the masked pilgrims - anyone staying too long in the fortress cast two shadows eventually the shadows begin moving by itself
- the cradle of beasts - gruesome - cribs!
Type
Tower, Mage
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