Locations/LastRedoubtOfHope

The Last Redoubt of Hope (Earth Manse 4)

The Last Redoubt of Hope is a fortress-palace, built with comfort as a secondry thought to simple survival. During the Contagion, when bodies fell like wheat before the harvester's scythe and the Folk ran Wyld along the landscape, a trio of Sidereals gave themselves to despair. The believed that the end was come, and they alone could prepare Creation, to preserve some tiny seed of it's existance, from which to rebuild.

The located a powerful Earth Demense, and summoned forth mighty demons and elementals. From all four corners of the world, they scoured for materials- sand as soft and fine as silk, cubes of adamant as large as the stag giants that impossbly walked the earth. They directed them, towards a single purpose; building a fortress that could withstand all of the Wyld's best efforts at changing it, and remaining forever the same. From there, they would rebuild all of Creation.

The Last Redoubt of Hope is this place. The interior is spartan and clean; walls and ceiling of Adamant glimmer slickly, while a carpet of fine sand underlies the feet. The sand is neither gritty nor sticky.

The Manse consists of three major parts. The outer wall is a large, thick wall of Adamant, laced with iron. Fae blades shatter on it, and the Folk scream in agony at the touch of the wall. Further, it funnels the ambient essence of the Redoubt to hide itself from all senses; especially the natural abilities of Essence channelers to find such places.

The doors of the Manse all open by the mental command of anyone with a Destiny. The interior is dark and shadowed; over head, every five feet precisely, a gloworb will light. The orb directly before, upon and after anyone in the Manse will be lit, making it difficult to see those who are more than a select number of feet ahead of the front. The main hallway twists into a spirl shaft, descending into the earth. At regular intervals, kitchens, baths, bedrooms, offices and barracks can all be found, as well as recretational arenas. These rooms should bleed into the spiral, but do not; either they are Elsewhere, or the geomancy of the place simply allows for 2+2 to be 5. As a fortress, it could shelter a full Lookshy Dragon and the relevant support staff for over a year of siege.

At the bottom of the spiral is another door, one that will only open the mental command of the Exalted. Behind it is a Celestial Lion, permanently reassigned to the guardianship of the Last Redoubt, Baphomet. He guards five doors, one for each of the lost Solar Castes.

Behind the Door of the Forsaken, there is nothing. Only the image of an echo, a warning to whomever breeches the inner sanctum; be cautious. The geomancy is carefully aligned, and to unbalance it invites disaster. Be wary also, that Baphomet is not the last guardian, nor the most fierce; to pass into the Heart, the soul must endure four additional trials.

Behind the Door of the Blasphemous lies Jalina, the Wisdom Soul of Orablis, the End of All Wisdom. She has been bound upon her own name to wait here forever. Only one who can bring her to worship the might of the Celestial Incarna and the Exalted may learn her hidden secret, the first key to opening the way to the Heart.

Behind the Door of the Unclean lies a false boy. The boy has no eyes, no tongue, no ears, no name. Within his mind lies the second key to opening the way to the Heart. He must be taught speech to impart it, and he has no begining or ending to learn it from.

Behind the Door of the Wretched is blackness. In the blackness are crushing weights flying in the air, blades swing madly like insane clockwork, treadmills and pressure plates and pits all make each step a new danger. The third secret is written on the wall, in the blood of those who have failed. Those who touch the wall life the darkness; in light, the room is bereft of danger.

Behind the Door of the Deciever, a feast is laid out. There, the dead, the Fae, the Gods and the Demons mingle among a thousand mortal kings from all times in history. The fourth key is named at the end of the feast, to those who have shown good manners. To please the polite society, those who lack grace are punished with a pain equal only to that which their own borishness has inflicted on the good folk of the feast.

With the four keys gathered, the way to the Heart is opened. A final spiral staircase, twisting the opposite direction as the remainder of the Manse, descends farther yet into the ground. Here, it is warm. As you spiral down, five Warstriders of common jade watch impassively. They may be released to the surface in the final defense of the Manse; it's stabalizing field may also instead be directed to turn the wild into winds of ice and fire, iron thistle and reality lightning, all things which the Fae love not. At the bottom, below the Striders, the Heart is a small room, seemingly carved from a single piece of impossibly large white jade. An altar rests in the middle; on it rests the Hearthstone of the Last Redoubt of Hope- the Gem of Constance. Filling the room are a half dozen statues, some pointing at the altar, some away; a half-dozen mirrors, some reflecting light and some shining it; a half-dozen pillars which rise or fall, but do not connect the earth and sky.

Comments

Were Sidereals involved in the construction, to bind Jalina? That seems reasonable, given their role as self-appointed secret masters of Creation, but why would a Sidereal see the need for such a redoubt in Creation, given the existence of Yu-Shan? (I think the redoubt is cool, which is why I can't help nitpicking. ;) -- Raindoll

Creation is neccesary to power the Games of Divinity, IIRC- the original reason given for Creation's existance and the creation of the Gods to maintain it was to power the Games, after all. Meaning that the Sidereals couldn't safely totally abandon Creation- they would need some way to reclaim it from the Wyld, should everything have gone badly. Or, alternatively, the Redoubt may have originally built and named from the Primordial War, with later enhnacements built during the Usurpation. Also, thanks :) Manses are a neat and underexplored chunk of Exalted, in my mind- everyone should want their own magical palace :) DS