Other Locations of Interest

Ember Cairn, Home of the Dragonborn

After uncountable years of wandering, the Dragonborn finally returned to their ancestral home of Ember Cairn. Thanks to the generosity of Sagrado Valieda, they were able to reconstruct their city destroyed eons ago during the Era of Expansion.
Some legends still tell how tall the city was, perched on a high mountain, made entirely of granite. The fact that they don’t agree on what exceptional cataclysm destroyed the mountain, and the city along with it, mattered not for Dragonborns, who had already turned their backs on the past. They settled in the centre of the irregular and tortured mountain area known as the Shattered Peaks, and built their new city to the glory of the Arch Seraphs.
The highest honour was reserved for Empyreus, whose impressive three-hundred-foot-tall statue occupies the main square. Once again, the city is mainly built of granite quarried from the three nearest peaks, which were slowly consumed and incorporated into the structure of the city.

The Cathedral of Embers

One of the three huge rock formations inside the perimeter of Ember Cairn has been excavated to house the headquarters of the Arcanist Inquisition, known as the Cathedral of Embers. This vast underground complex contains many prison cells and interrogation rooms for people accused of having magical abilities or other violations of the sacred laws. Currently, the complex is ruled by the Lord Inquisitor Crevax, a seven-foot tall Dragonborn whose devotion to the sacred teachings of Empyreus is only outmatched by Sagrado Valieda himself.
The Arcanist Inquisition Headquarters are a maze through which only well-trained Inquisitors can find their way. According to rumours, the cells have no locks, and the Inquisitors let prisoners loose to determine whether or not they have magical abilities: if they find an exit, they are immediately recaptured and found guilty of magical impurity. Whether true or not, the fact remains that very few people are released from this place. Those who do get out seldom escape with a healthy body and mind. Though there are other rumours that one particularly skilled individual regularly enters, and exits, the Cathedral of Embers on their own, and unharmed, for a purpose unknown.

The Town of Thorpes

To all appearances, Thorpes is like any other devout town in the Castinella Provinces. Numerous temples and roadside shrines collect offerings to the Divine Seraphs, and the town maintains a modest chapter of the Arcanist Inquisition. But, as with any religion, not all of the town’s congregants are willing followers. Under the cover of night in secluded buildings and slipways, the cult of the Broken Brothers amasses. A religious organization dedicated to the ways before Empyreus—some say even before the gods—they can be identified by their tattoos, created with vanishing ink to avoid the scrutiny of the Inquisition. Members of the Broken Brothers range from peasants to low-ranking clergy and nobles. Always looking for new converts, the Brothers show initiates the “true way” by forcing them to consume a mind-altering elixir that induces vivid hallucinations that they believe “free their minds”. The true intentions of the cult are unknown, save to the highest-ranking leader known only as the Shattered Sibling. The Broken Brothers seek to show all of Etharis that the old ways are the true way, and will use any means necessary to achieve this goal, even allying with primordial powers, spellcasters, or daemons from the Netherworlds. The town of Thorpes welcomes all children of the Divine, but only accepts those who prove themselves to be truly worthy.