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Chapel of the Earthbound Stars

by FlowsLikeBits

"Never heard of it."
- average Firewander resident

"...<unknown> ... when the stars are right."
- damaged inscription on the floor of the Chapel of the Earthbound Stars, just inside the entrance

Beneath the earth the dead gods lie,

in their presence, no other may die.
- poor translation of part of the full version of the Anthem of Hollow

Gods will not die if you wait, but die they still can. The Chapel of the Earthbound Stars is one such place where some fallen spirits have been lad to rest. Not that many wished to rest among Creation -- but there were a few who did so, and some of those who did so, died well. Thus, the chapel was created in the city of Hollow. Once it was a solemn and beautful place, a respectful shrine to fallen gods. Now it rests beneath the Wyld storm, in the district of Firewander.

The Chapel of Earthbound Stars is like the Sanctum of a little god, but it was once freely open to all. Even mortals could enter it view the shrines of the former gods. It is said that no living thing has ever been killed by another inside the Chapel of the Earthbound Stars; this would be an affront to the fallen spirits and their brethren would not stand for it. When it was accessible, those who were pursued would run into the Chapel, to gain a moment's peace and bargain with their pursuers.

Once, an long tunnel connected it to the surface; this hall served as the entrance. While the Chapel is warded against magical instrusion and spying, there are no actual guards or traps and the entrance was always open. The entrance hall has now collapsed, which makes entry into the Chapel problematic. In fact, there is surprisingly little in the Chapel. While the shrines are richly decorated, the Manse itself is actually not all that powerful. The main room is dark; a hemisphere like the night sky, it shows the correct positions of the stars, no matter the time of day or night. The astute observer will notice some stars that do not exist in this display; when these are directly overhead, the way to the individual shrines of the fallen gods is opened. Pressing a set of orichalcum and moonsilver panels in the floor can manipulate the starscape, effectively moving the starscape through time or the observer through space. Thus, any star can be moved overhead. This can be used to aid astrology. This was well documented in a set of inscriptions in the now destroyed entryway.

Eroica now has control of this Manse, but she seldom entered it. It is beautiful, but mostly far too solemn for a goddess such as herself. Now that its physical entrance has been destroyed, she cannot get in. She's getting so desperate not to lose one of her last remaining sources of essence that she may be willing to talk about it. It is also mentioned in the full version of her song, if people listen.

The most notable of the deities resting in the Chapel is Pansetr, The Pair of Peers and Collector of Songs; this god was the opposite of She Who Lives in Her Name. A god who always appeared as two entities, a male and female, this god advocated the opposite of hierarchy, an organisation where all were equal and independant but cooperated to accomplish all tasks. In life, Pansetr had collected all songs; in fact, it did not need to do anything to do so -- as soon as a song was created, it was aware of it. It would freely and perfectly perform any song when asked. This gentle god was slain near the end of Primordial War; her wish to rest in Creation was why the Chapel was first built. Inside her tomb music always plays; any song that ever existed in Creation can be heard there. This is why the Chapel was given to Eroica, and for this she loved it.

Another (ex)resident is Posea, god of an out-of-print series of children's tales. The sole remaining copy sits on a pedestal in his shrine. An unfortunate reaction to some chemicals in the air blackened and twisted the leather of the cover, but other than that, the book is in perfect shape and could be recovered easily.

There is also a shrine to Pen Yaun, the god of impractical foreknowlege; however, the inscriptions make it unclear whether this means the god is deceased, or just prepared.

Rumors

• During the Upsurpation, an Eclipse Caste Solar was attacked in the chapel while visiting the tomb of a comrade. As she vanished in a flash of light, her dying words made sure that those who defiled the tombs of the fallen gods would suffer the same fate as those who break their word to the Chosen of the Sun.
• A door to the Carnival of Meeting always appears in the Chapel of the Earthbound Stars. No one has come through it in so long that it's not even guarded anymore.
• Were an entity of sufficient Essence to be sacrificed in the Chapel, it would open a permanant doorway to Malfeas (not the club).

Secrets

• Actually, there already is a doorway to Malfeas (the club); a series of shifted tunnels and cracks make it possible to go out the ruined entrance hall, a fair way under the Firewander district, through various subterranean connections, and come up under the club. However, not even Drowning in Viscera or Bolt Thrower are aware of the connection. Thus, it serves more as a method of egress rather than entrance.

Comments

First try. Hope people like it. --FlowsLikeBits

I love it! I didn't honestly expect anyone to fill that unwritten link any time soon. Definitely cooler than anything I would have come up with for it! I couldn't think of how anyone would do anything cool with an inaccessable subterranean Manse, but you pulled it off. I love the added touch about Pen Yuan. ^_^
Oh, and I tidied up a few of the links, though I'll admit that I still need to do multiple previews to get that stuff right. Again, cool stuff! -Everyl

Thanks! I was going planing on comming back to check stuff over later(comp was going to reboot, wanted to save) I was little iffy about linking Pen Yuan, (as then I couldn't write anything, and he sounded incredibly amusing), but I wanted to 'close' the links a bit. Anyway, I tried to pick someplace for a first try that seemed like it couldn't do to much damage. --FlowsLikeBits

This is nice and creative. I'm glad to see such an original entry. Just to note, I edited this a lot (as always), and I thought I'd mention that to my knowledge "Celestines" explicitly means Luna, Sol and the Maidens, rather than all gods, and "Celestials" means Celestial Exalted, at least in game terms. Using them to refer to other things may lead to confusion.
~ Shataina