The Skyward Vaults
"The earth overflows with poison, child. That corruption spills forth from within us all, and I will have no part in it."
The Skyward Vaults are not, as most believe, a series of catacombs - rather, they are the remains of Ara's capital, which fell from the sky as the nation collapsed. They are one of the few locations that have never been pinpointed on any map, thanks to a powerful enchantment set upon them by the Great Wolves themselves. Only two others have ever found the vaults: one an Exalted searching for answers, the other a man whose face is long lost. Both discovered something beyond their darkest nightmares.
History
The Floating Cities
The great cities of Ara were suspended mid-air by what were thought to be incredible feats of magic. From examinations of the castings imbued into the lesser settlements, this is untrue - the architects essentially just forced power into repeated, basic runes. In one way, it was genius: basic runes by nature require less energy to activate than complex castings. However, despite the fact that modern civilisations like the Ocean's Keep and Liyru have the knowledge to copy that tactic and thus save on energy, this method comes with one glaring weakness. Modern settlements use complicated castings because it allows them to add safeguards. Ara's settlements were devoid of such protections.
This oversight was understandable, but costly. The architects could not have foreseen the Lirustime, but their failure to consider what would happen once something destabilised the desert's wyr-currents was disastrous. When the Midnight first surged into reality, even a continent away, a vacuum of wyr opened up which drew in magic from all over Wyral. This was likely when Ara's rulers realised their error, but they could not alter the castings without potentially breaking them altogether. Through their own stores, they managed to contain the disaster, but worse was yet to come.
The Collapse
It is still unclear what exactly happened to unleash the Ending in Ais; the only two who have visited the Vaults and so might have found written records have no interest in sharing that information. But from the ripple effects on other cities - which were connected via airborne copper conduits - it can be concluded that the Ending somehow infected Ais' supply of wyr. This would then have sparked an explosion in the casting which kept the city aloft... and thus sent Ais crashing to the earth. Worse still, the clash between Ending and wyr sent shockwaves through the conduit system, fatally destabilising all of Ara's cities. Almost all of Ara's populations, except perhaps sky mages who could escape the pull of gravity, would have perished in one day.
Thanks to the falling city's momentum, Ais worked like a wedge, driving deep into the sand and stone beneath. This served to contain the Ending - which would have turned any humans and killed any ikayal who managed to survive the crash - for long enough for the Wolves to take notice. In the Records of the Lirustime, Rhun Dawnwatcher reported:
"Eras glimpsed his patron Wolf's thoughts in a vision.
This indicates that the Wolves were likely involved in the suppression of the Ending within the Vaults. Additionally, when the Amber Serpent explored the Vaults, the Steadfast Earthrise Wolf returned to them in order to rescue her. He also likely resealed them; the seals held for several more centuries before the man who would become the Fall Herald managed to find his way in.
2562 B.E
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