Sacellum
Lidia Valentine
"There are so many thousands of shrines here, and none of us archaeologists really know why they were built! I have my theory of course, but without some shred of evidence saying that's the reason why, it'll only ever be that."Located on the very western fringed of North Cassel, Sacellum is a cold secluded barony located in the mountains. It is bordered by the baronies of Reina, and Roy to the east, Gladio to the south, and Agennum to the north. Most of this land sits on the Northern Alma Plateau, which has an average elevation above 4500 meters. A number of canyons cut through this land. The largest is Roy's Canyon, cut in half by Sacellum and Gladio. This is also where the vast majority of the population lives in these two baronies.
On the frozen, mostly glacier covered plateau high above the rest of Cassel, there are tens of thousands large rounded granite shrines sticking out of the ground. Digs have been conducted at several of them and found that there are no bodies buried under the shrines. The many rocks don't align with the stars in the sky, they don't spell out any letters. there doesn't seem to be a discernable purpose behind them.
The best anyone can do is date the shrines, and they appear to have been built at some point during the early Bronze Age. The tell tale sign of that is that many of the shrines are covered in a thin layer of metal, while many others are not. While Bronze Age kings and queens have grand tombs built in Reina and Roy, there is no record from that age of the shrines on the Alma plateau. Exploring the plateau is also quite dangerous as rogue spirits wander the land in great numbers. The spirits of many different beings can be found here, wandering the empty land, attacking living things out of spite.
Another curiosity here is a great stone bridge, built sometime during the Bronze age as well. There are a number of pathways to reach the northern Alma Plateau, but the Southern Alma Plateau in Gladio can only be accessed by this seemingly indestructible stone bridge. This bridge is just over 8 kilometers long and almost a hundred yards wide.
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2534, Iron Age
Shrinton
Baron Leon de Santuario
5,665 km2
Subarctic
Tundra
Ice Cap
Continental (low elevation)
33,000
48% Human
40% Elf
10% Orc
2% Centaur
Shrinton
Baron Leon de Santuario
5,665 km2
Subarctic
Tundra
Ice Cap
Continental (low elevation)
33,000
48% Human
40% Elf
10% Orc
2% Centaur
Lidia's Theory : The Shrines Are A Spirit Prison
"Saint Nora has quite the job, weighing the deeds of past souls and deciding if they can enter Meliheal and the Wellspring of Souls, or be cursed to wander the land forever. I etimate that poor Nora has to judge ten thousand souls a day, and at least 10% of those souls are not worthy to enter the wellspring.""Well, where do these spirits go when they are cursed to wander the land forever? Maybe they are drawn to these shrines like magnets, wandering here from thousands of miles away and then getting stuck here at the top of the world where they won't bother anyone?"
"There are much lower numbers of these shrines scattered all over Cassel and the rest of Vreathe, and if you use some sort of aethercite crystal to sense spirits (or you happen to be a vernador and you can just do it), these shrines seem to attract spirits."
"So, theory time! When the Silver Age Cataclysm happened, it killed millions of people, and these vengeful spirits wreaked chaos across Vreathe for quite some time. So, either Bronze Age humans or elves built these shrines up here, as a sort of prison for the lost and unworthy! I'm sure there's a flaw or two to be worked out, but the College of Cassel liked it just enough to continue funding my expeditions across the Valley of Kings, so I say it's good enough for now!"
- Lidia
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