Desolis

Template:Infobox Location Desolis was a ruin before the Fall and the Obsidian Order raised a fortress on the site. It is near enough to the Shard Fall that Obsidian Cabal magic could be wrought, and far from prying eyes.

Beneath Desolis, the Obsidian Eye's Chamber of Souls was constructed. It was here that the Destiny Pool lay.

Lore

Two hundred years before our game’s present day, the members of the Obsidian Order saw themselves as the preeminent sorcerers of their time, and forged their empire based on the use of such magics. They derived their power from the energies flowing out of the obsidian shards that fell from the shattered moon, lacing the world with veins of lava which seemed to conduct this energy from the Shardfall areas to a variety of locations, including Fate’s Lake in the subterranean chambers below the ruins of Desolis. It is the location of this lake that inspired the Obsidians to build their seat of power here, including the Chamber of Souls.

Since various colors of magical glowing crystals can be harvested for use in sorcery and alchemy, the Obsidians used such crystals to craft undying sources of light for their more important structures. These styles employ glimmering, floating crystal shards in a variety of colors. The Obsidians appreciated the older style of ruins they found, though they added their own style of architecture to them as they built the foundations of their empire.

Moving outside the Obsidian Keep, still in the cavernous underground…you can see the edges of Fate’s Lake as it drains deeper into the earth, and the main gates of the entrance into the keep itself, which is built into the walls of the cavern. Inside the gates of the Obsidian Keep, is a fenced-off region separating the main entrance from a smaller side passage, where unfortunate slaves and captives were once driven into the terrible laboratories of the Re-shapers. Here, using the power of the obsidian shards, dark magic and alchemy were employed to twist these unfortunates into terrible, mutated monstrosities.

This complex is the former seat of the Obsidian government. When you first enter this complex through the passage in the rock face of the Epitaph, a huge plateau of earth and stone thrust up by the Cataclysm, you will travel through a huge passage deep into the earth flanked by carved stone dragon heads which act as sentinels, and which match the huge ones on the outside of the entrance. The passage opens into a vast cave called the Cavern of Night, where the Old City’s basement layers are exposed around a funnel of ruins leading to the edge of an enormously deep shaft that descends into the heart of the plateau’s inner core. The Acolyte’s Stair descends into the terrors below. Over two centuries ago unfortunate prisoners were led by the dozens into this place, around the walkway to the right of the stairs, and into the upper dungeons on the opposite side of the great shaft. After they were processed they would be taken down the second staircase, known as the Long Stair, on a singular path that would lead down into oppressive darkness to only one terrible destination, the dreaded subterranean laboratories of the Reshapers.

The desert people that dwell outside the walls surrounding the Epitaph throw their criminals and captured rivals into the ruins beyond the wall, and some of them seek shelter from the burning sun in the Cavern of Night. Those that have survived have claimed the old upper prison ruins as their own, and use the two stairways as choke-points to slaughter the many insane and horrid creatures that rise up from the depths.

The Pool of Destiny lies far, far below… The shaft of the stairs allow for a few harrowing fights with ascending monstrosities, while simultaneously enjoying the view of the Obsidian Falls, which plummet into the caves below, before finally getting to the bottom. A path leads down the center of the cave toward Fate’s Lake, beside the arcing end of the Long Stair. Here, visiting dignitaries and members of the Obsidian Court once looked down to their left and saw the majesty of the Cascades where the falls pour down toward the lake, or gazed down to their right upon the poor souls being led to their doom.

Gallery

• WIP of Desolis Underground including Fate’s Lake and the Chamber of Souls
  WIP of Desolis Underground including Fate’s Lake and the Chamber of Souls
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