EVENT | LANDFALL | ZESHORA

[ironwood]

Characters: ALL!
Date: June 17th to July 8th
Location: Zeshora
Situation: Tu Vishan has washed up near the cities of Atoce and Uessaire.
Warnings/Rating: Add warnings as needed.



The cities of Zeshora were renowned across all of Konryu as works of art, and even with the upheaval which sank and destroyed many of them centuries prior, that distinction remains evident. The Erol'a will recount, if asked, a terrible series of earthquakes and resultant tsunamis that rolled over Zeshora, and how great chunks of the continent simply dropped away. Zeshora was one of the oldest continents, and its landmasses upon the backs of long-dead Great Turtles had been so constant, that no one had even thought it possible such a thing could have happened.

Testament to the Erol'a's resilience however, they adapted and reclaimed the cities that had fallen to, or just below, sea level. Arches, pillars and soaring ceilings dominate the architecture in both cities, and every surface is painstakingly decorated with tiny inlaid shells and coral, turning every hall and room into a mosaic of colour. It's not uncommon for Erol'a dwellings to have multiple stories, and likewise it's not unlikely to have at least a few of those levels under sea level. So it's entirely possible to have one's upstairs be above water, and one's downstairs be below the water! Imagine having to take a swim to get a midnight snack. Of course, the Erol'a don't find that strange at all. Likewise, it's perfectly normal to them to walk down the hallways of their homes in ankle, knee or waist-deep water, something that the Foreigners and even some kedan might take some getting used to. The water temperature during the day is a delightful 80℉/26℃, and about ten degrees cooler throughout the night, so it's pleasant for nearly everyone.

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LINKS
Atoce - City of Pearls | Uessaire - City of Lilies | Ollesse - The Coral Ruins | Secessi - The Floating Reefs | Hatchling Messages
Astegune | Landfall Surprise | Landfall Update - Jun 23 | OOC Post

OOC
Please direct questions to the OOC post! You can either use the areas described under header, or create your own -- don't feel you have to be limited to threading only in the locations mentioned in the starters! Just don't forget to label your top-levels with specific locations (eg the Height or the Deep).

ACTIVITY CHECK NOTE: Due to the late-month timing of this landfall, threads from this log can be counted toward either June or July AC. Just don't use the same comment thread for both and you'll be fine!

Comments

Astegune (reward request location)

[ironwood]

[OOC: This location is an AC reward for Akito, and only those whom Akito has told about the undersea ruin may tag here updated with general notice. This will be a non-NPCed thread, so vital questions should be directed to the OOC post; otherwise, feel free to invent any details regarding the exact nature of the ruins beyond what is outlined below.]

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While exploring one of the smaller secessi to the west of Atoce, a small underwater ruin can be found in about fifty feet of water, on underwater geography that indicates it was probably on a seaside cliff at one point. It's obviously not a town, too small, even though the remaining architecture seems consistent with what's seen in Atoce and Uessaire. Perhaps a small village? Yet the layout of the buildings -- dozens of very small ones, clustered around a central dome -- seems oddly too geometrically perfect for everyday living. There's not much of the dome left, only a few cracked segments that look like a tidal push in any direction could bring them down. This locale seems to have set down rather roughly on the sea floor, and any force applied by visitors, in fact, will leave it in more ruins. Nobody wants a several hundred pound piece of stone crushing them underwater, so best to tread carefully!

Inside the domed building are several areas that can only be described as altars, and scattered around the interior are stone benches, and other damaged goods consistent with the workings of a worshipful temple. On the back of the main wall are six names inscribed in the Erol'a's written language.

Ollaegiana -- Aldaion -- Jaiarri
Dimetaidon -- Iraun -- Ximeli
These carvings are large, taking up nearly ten feet in height for each letter, and the entire wall is patterned, not with the omnipresent mosaic tiles used in the rest of Zeshoran construction, but much larger tiles designed specifically to look like the plates of a turtle's shell. These tiles can be pried off the wall, but given the relatively whole pitiful of this particular temple, that just seems like adding insult to injury. This was obviously a place of great importance in its time, important enough to the Erol'a to have built it so extravagantly.

The purpose of the small buildings, that are spaced in concentric circles radiating out from the dome, become clearer now. They are (were) individual offering shrines, although they're all too damaged to make out whatever names might have been on them. Various bits of what were probably offerings can be found in the rubble and debris, from bits of decorative seaglass, to strings of memhari likely used for donations, and other small items. Some look newer than others, and occasionally something shiny will still be found, implying at least a few someones still visit this place.

If asked about the location, the Erol'a will react with surprise and mild caution -- what were the visitors doing so far out in the secessi? But they will explain that the location was called Astegune, and it was the Erol'a center of worship for the Great Turtles. The six names carved upon the wall are the names of the six Turtles who made up most of the Zeshoran landmass, and the smaller shrines were for the other Great Turtles around the world. However with the death of all the Great Turtles except for Tu Vishan and Sinbrilee eons ago, and with Astegune having been sunk in the land upheaval many centuries earlier, the dedication to worshipping them waned with time. They're still respected in general, but no longer the devoutness that once was. Depending on who is spoken to, the more superstitious of the Erol'a will profess a belief that it was that dwindling of respect that caused the upheaval which sank most of Zeshora, but others will scoff at the idea.