Encyclopaedia Azaria #6: The Goddess Shrines
[transcript of animation]
Eliza:
Hello again, it's time for another episode of my Encyclopaedia Azaria!
Today's topic looks at the Goddess Shrines, the oldest known ruins in
the kingdom, and Adam's here to help me out.
Adam: Yup!
Navinka: Do not forget about me.
Eliza: *cringe* And Lady Navinka, too.
Navinka:
Indeed. So, let us begin. There are six known Goddess Shrines spread
throughout the kingdom. Many are sited within modern cities, so that is
how we name them.
Adam: *ahem* The shrine closest to us is Lanaran, and the others can found in Dhjerba, Ornixa, Dragonvale, Estovan and Viens.
Navinka:
Each one was built by the noble Gladier family around a thousand years
ago, and most people think they did this to honour the Goddess for
Azaria's victory over Esturia and the end of the Age of Darkness, where
the pagan animal deities were no longer worshipped.
Adam: I think we covered this last time...
Navinka: There's no harm in repetition, it might help the facts stick!
Adam: Sure...
Eliza:
Anyway, we can give you a quick run down of the shrines and a little
about their history. They're all built using a similar sturcture, but
with some variation depending on where they are.
Eliza: Lanaran's
shrine is situated just between Bane and Laranan itself, and it's the
closest to its original design. It consists of a inner sanctum with an
altar and two ring passages. It was the first to be excavated, but it's
also one of the smallest shrines.
Adam: The next one is Dhjerba's
shrine. Unfortunately the original ruin was destroyed around four
hundred years ago in an uprising where the Esturians, now under Azarian
rule, tried to rebel. Given the extensive damage, the shrine was
remodelled into a cathedral, whose walls use the original stone and
carvings.
Navinka: Probably the most famous shrine is Ornixa's.
As the mines were under ownership of the Gladiers, it is not too
surpring that this shrine is the most extensive and well built. Nobody
truly knows how large it really is, and parts are still being discovered
even today. It doesn't help though that it's hard to tell where the
shrine ends and the mines begin.
Eliza: The biggest shrine is
Estovan's. Unlike the other ruins, it's built high above ground on the
foundations of an ancient fortress. Originally it had eight towers
connected by a suspended ring passage, although now only four towers
remain. It overlooks Lake Estor, but while it's on the private land of
the noble estates, public access is still possible.
Navinka:
Dragonvale's shrine is perhaps the most interesting. The original shrine
was decimated by a terrible flood, and so almost nothing of it remains.
However, my ancestors, the founders of the city, considered the site to
be fortuitous, and so they constructed a cathedral around it, similar
to what later happened in Dhjerba. Remnants of the ring passages still
exist deep underground, although no relics or original stonework have
ever been found.
Adam: Last is the Viens shrine. It's by far the
smallest, as the ring passages were deliberately destroyed as the
capital city expanded, despite the protests of the local scholars.
Pretty much all of its relics have been sold off to various
institutions, including the Vault of Knowledge in Begara, so other than
being a historical site, it's not very interesting.
Eliza: And there you have it.
Encyclopaedia Azaria #2: The Tale of the Binding
Encyclopaedia Azaria #3: The Gladier-Farrontine Feud
Encyclopaedia Azaria #4: The Binding Spell
Encyclopaedia Azaria #5: The Noble Houses of Azaria