Worldthrone Castle
The castle of the demon queen Dahmunara, sealed away for the good of all mankind
WARNING! Worldthrone Castle has been labeled by The Rasmanthus Guild as an S+ Rank area of extreme danger. All non-guild-approved travel to and from the Castle or the Worldthrone Stele that allows for teleportation to it is barred on order of Osmantha the Indomitable, and an official travel advisory has been issued to all travelers - the area around the castle spawns monsters and beasts that easy reach A and S rank levels of danger, and the castle itself emits an aura that can easily change the minds and bodies of those who come near on a mental and biological level. Please take extreme caution when traveling near the Jou-Hassan Mountains, and consult your local Rasmanthus Guild office to acquire permission to make an expedition to it.
Purpose / Function
The castle was constructed by Dahmunara Worldthrone and untold legions of Ezdhûl engineers sometime during the War of Boiling Skies using the cover of the continent spanning war of gigantic proportions to mask construction of the magnificent, titanic palace that was to serve as her new center of operations for her plans to come that would, in time, rock all of Zheng-Kitar down to its very foundations.
Designed to serve as one part invincible, impregnable bastion, one part self-sustaining base of operations, and one part completely isolated and hidden research center where she could carry out all her magical experiments in pursuit of her ultimate magical rituals and plans that would come to fruition centuries later, Worldthrone Castle was and remains as one of the most enormous castles ever constructed and, while not one of The Seven Wonders of Zheng-Kitar, it comes awfully close - built on top of the largest Leyline of Atlen(AKA Mana, see The Origins of Magic for more info) known to Magical Scholars north of central Zheng-Kitar, it is a natural repository for magical power and is thus a fantastic place for magical research and experiments of all kinds.
Secluded to the extreme, its' main purpose was threefold: To use the natural power of the leyline it was built on to mask its magical energies, to use the natural environment it was built on atop the tallest mountain in the Jou-Hassan Mountains on Hyeojiin Island to mask its location, and to use the power of its Mistress Dahmunara Worldthrone to eventually enact the ritual that would change the world forever.
Alterations
Altogether, Worldthrone castle underwent very few alterations during its centuries of seclusion - it was built from the beginning to be able to withstand a siege against an armed force that outnumbered the defenders ten thousand to one indefinitely, and the magical enchantments laid on its walls by its Archmage Ruler Dahmunara Worldthrone ensured it not only self-repaired, but could exist outside the wear of time among a cavalcade of other effects both good and ill.
The only alterations to the castle came when it fell under siege by The Rasmanthus Guild towards the end of the year 3995, when its battlements and exterior defenses were altered by its team of master-class Ezdhûlian siege engineers to better counter the advancing forces of the Guild which sought to stop Dahmunara Worldthrone's plans of world-changing magical power.
Architecture
As the castle itself was commissioned by Dahmunara Worldthrone but built by massive hordes of Ezdhûl engineers and Dwarven artisans, Worldthrone Castle is a marvel of engineering with architecture resembling the cultures of the people who built it - it is grandiose and titanic, built far in excess of what is needed to showcase a resplendent majesty so far beyond the conventional that it was even rumored to outshine several Ezdhûl mountain citadels in both size and splendor.
It is not just a sight to behold, however - it is a veritable impregnable bastion built atop one of the tallest mountains in all the world, with no paths built leading up to it from the base of the mountain range - to hinder future invasions, travel to and from the castle was accomplished using magical transportation and one of the infamous Sapphire Steles, which was rumored to have been possibly the only Stele created and bound by mortal hands since the fall of the Sapphire Elves - showing off just how enormously talented Dahmunara Worldthrone was despite her villainy. It was surrounded by massive outer walls enchanted with a cavalcade of defensive magics, and was built to endure the most blistering sieges and attacks.
The deepest reaches of the castle, however, have never been truly explored - leaving the architecture of the entire interior somewhat of a mystery. This is mostly due to the extreme, EXTREME danger present in venturing into the lower floors, as these floors once held the deepest and most treasured laboratories of Dahmunara Worldthrone, the magical energies and possibly ancient security spells within have caused the lower levels to become constantly changing nightmare mazes, always adapting and shifting while slowly driving those within mad beyond belief...
History
The history of Worldthrone Castle is one that still aches in the minds of many - built nearly 1000 years ago during the War of Boiling Skies by Dahmunara Worldthrone and hordes of conscripted Ezdhûl engineers, the castle served as the basis for the legendary Archmagi and Demon Queen Dahmunara Worldthrone for centuries untold as she, rankled by the rampant patriarchal societies of the age that were notorious for their gross mistreatment of women, grew tired of reasoning with such men and plotted her ultimate revenge - using her immense magic talent to devise a magical ritual that would, when activated, affect every living creature on the continent on a fundamental level...turning females into biologically superior beings that men could no longer rule over.
Having killed or imprisoned her engineering force once the castle was built as to preserve its secret(The specifics on this are unclear and details are assumed and vague), Dahmunara Worldthrone worked for centuries before she was discovered; It was only when she activated the first iteration of her legendary magic ritual designed to change all life on Zheng-Kitar on a fundamental level to enable a complete societal takeover by womenkind, The Nüyang Ritual, that she was truly realized to be at large and working against the world - and even then, as the magic circle began to pump invisible pheremones and magical chemicals into the air, it was not until two years later as signs of this rituals activation began appearing all over the world that her ritual was discovered and her castle located - as females began to experience a meteoric rise in physical, spiritual, and magical power, becomes beings beyond mortal imagination, men were rapidly being weakened and outclassed at the same time.
It was then, as peasant women began overpowering valiant male knights and overthrowing kingdoms, did The Rasmanthus Guild and the armies of the world spring into action - and over a lethally hard fought war lasting nearly ten years against the legendary Demon Queen and her hordes of armies(Surprisingly both male, female, and monstrous), only narrowly avoided a complete continental and societal shift of power into female hands as Dahmunara Worldthrone ended her own life rather than let it be taken at the hands of the Adventuring Party formed to stop her. While whether she sacrificed herself out of some kind of heroic or goodly redemption in her final moments or out of vicious spite, the party that came to claim her life nonetheless suffered catastrophic losses at the hands of her Four Divine Generals and countless minions - and with her death, her daughters either fled or were hunted down and killed in the ensuing chaos, as the ritual was found and sealed away for good alongside the castle which housed it.
Tourism
Now, many centuries after its ruin, travel to and from Worldthrone Castle is strictly forbidden on order of Osmantha the Indomitable and The Rasmanthus Guild - the Sapphire Steles that once enabled direct teleportation to and from the castle have been sealed and put under strict watch, and the approach up to the castle on Hyeojiin island is watched to a lesser degree, though not as intensely, as the environment and monsters around the castle are enough to deter all but the hardiest adventurers.
However, The Rasmanthus Guild does send squads of A and S ranked adventurers out to the castle on a varying basis - the powerful evil that surrounds the castle is known to give birth to powerful monsters, change existing ones, and even mutate and affect humanoids or other people who get too close, leaving the squads sent by the guild to come in and clean them up every six months to a year at a time to ensure that an outbreak does not occur.
RUINED STRUCTURE
4000 ASK
4000 ASK
Founding Date
Somewhere between 3700 and 3710 ASK
Alternative Names
The Castle of the Demon Queen, The Traitor's Throne, The Castle on top of the world
Type
Castle
Parent Location
Owner
Ruling/Owning Rank
Characters in Location
Related Materials
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