Locations/ManseSix
The Temple of Adamant Dreams. Manse ••• (Earth)
The Temple of Adamant Dreams is a hill of perfectly smooth pearl, as slick as ice and as pure as snow. The light shining on the Temple can be seen from over a half-mile away as a bright yet soft shine. It is virtually impossible to climb the pearl and reach the heart of the Manse, at the top; the surface is too sheer to gain a grip, and the pearl punishes those who would injure it's perfect sanctity. Injuring the Manse curses those who harmed it to never touch food again; any meal they sit at spoils, any water they attempt to drink turns to salt. Only the guardian spirit of the Manse, who rests in the temple atop the pearl, can remove this curse.
Atop the pearl is a small temple. A man would be pressed to lie flat in it, but it's only occupent, a God of Creation-now-gone, has no problem. He typically manifests as a fat, ugly and dimunitive figure, and calls himself the Sweeper, although his original name was Alosoto. The temple itself is built of black marble and white jade, inlaid with gold and silver. The temple is built as a pentagon, with a window on each wall except the door; there is a fifth window in the roof, directly at the center. A small alter, forming a cage of starmetal and soulsteel, focuses the Essence of the Manse, allowing for the Hearthstone to devolp. All along the roof, a mural cast of adamant contains a thousand weird dream images, and if you were to copy those images to a length of paper, they would wrap around the temple over three times.
Additionally, suspended throughout the air are countless points of light. During the night, the interior of the temple is lit nearly as bright as day, while during the day they flicker like fireflies. They are the dreams of Creation, but not the dreams of the Temple. Instead, when someone dies but their dream lives on, the Sweeper gently collects it and carefully listens to the dream, and then he whispers it to the floor of the temple. Along the roof, the mural of adamant changes, reshaping itself to bring the newest dream in. There it will live forever, for Adamant can never change against it's will, evne should the seas burn and the sky fall.
A village lives around the Temple. Their wealth comes from an orchid, the result of residual energy from the Manse; it consists of two apple trees, two plum trees, and one peach tree. The apples are ruby, the plums amathyst and the peache topaz; each fruit is a perfect and flawless jewel. However, they are also perfect and succulent examples of their personal fruit, of rare and delicious flavor. They keep forever until the jeweled skin is broken. The trees themselves appear to be totally normal, save that they do not blow in the wind.
The rest of the land around the Temple is always very fertile, and the villagers have built a wall and moat to guard themselves. They need not worry; no one from outside the village can find the Manse, save those who dream of it and speak not of what they dreamt, or those who walk towards the glimmer of the pearl with their eyes closed. To all others, roads seem to twist, leading away from the Temple and it's guardian- wither this is an intentional effect or a sign of ancient magics decay, none living can now say.
