Zelestar
A kingdom mostly forgotten by time.
The city of Zelestar is built on the slope of a pit dug around their dark tower nearly a kilometre across. 8 towers topped by complex machinery surround the city, and there is an outer and an inner ‘ring road’ on an elevated circuit. The streets are made of a smooth grey stony material that seems to have been poured as a liquid (like smooth cement). The walls of buildings are made of a similar material, though many have cracked or crumbled over the years revealing a network of metallic fibres that appear to have grown within the stone (like organic rebar). Most of the city consists of structures between 1 and 5 storeys tall, with multicoloured earth toned roof tiles (slightly Mediterranean in style, strange for the area). Buildings are taller towards the center of the city.
In the center of the city, the Might Giver once stood reaching 50m above the bottom of the pit, and all the way to meet the surface. Once the Might Giver sank below, It pulled the center of the city down with it, making the slope much steeper towards the center, and leaving an asymptotic hole about 15m wide at its narrowest.
The ruins of the city are suffused with a dense mist. The area seems to be warmer than its surroundings (Lush shade plants and weeds grow, and no frost forms on the structures), but living creatures in the area feel an inexplicable chill. Mana is sparse in the area, and spells have significantly reduced effectiveness or take longer to cast. The more powerful the caster, the easier it is to cast spells (Though effectiveness is reduced nonetheless.)
The Ghosts of Zelestar
translucent grey crystalline shapes of humanoids can be found in some Zelestari buildings. Some are lighter in shade than others. Gazing within the lighter ones, the skeletons of the petrified can be seen along with shifting glittering particles that seem to trace the nervous system.
Attempting to communicate telepathically with the petrified results in hearing a very quiet distant voice (roll good perception to comprehend). The longer you listen, the clearer it gets. The darker petrified are more coherent but will converse in loops. The lighter ones gibber incoherently, speak sentences that sound right but make no sense, or speak with many overlapping voices. If spoken to for an extended period of time, they eventually resolve into one clearer and more coherent voice calling for them to come to the center of the city and gaze in. “Perhaps we can help each other.” The voice suggests.
Gazing into the hole gives a disorienting sensation. It’s dark, but it seems to be brighter the further down you look. It feels as though you’re looking up into the hollow interior of a translucent white crystal tower - and stars and clouds can be seen outside its walls, and a full moon moves past your view. At the top/bottom of the tower, a black Canine form looks back up at you. It seems both very distant and close enough to touch at the same time.
Tira’s Expedition:
Static Observance senses the presence of Arkhana Silverfrond and is curious about her. It wishes to analyze this somewhat strange form of magic merged with a somewhat living creature. Static wishes to compel someone to euthanize Kana for observation.
“Denizen, resident, subject, insider. Perhaps we can help each other.” Static Observance offers power in exchange for knowledge. Static will offer to grant the subject power and a ‘measurement tool’. If they agree to use the tool to kill, they will grant them boons. Static will try to tempt them with one boon at a time.
If a member agrees, Static will nullify the low mana effect, and give a boon Day 1 - 6d4+6 temp HP that does not reset on long rest, and will be restored upon rest - Ability to cast Ice Knife at will (as a cantrip) Day 2 - Mage armor cast permanently on self - Ability to cast Commune 1x a day (Right as you fall asleep OR are about to wake up) - Ability to cast Detect Thoughts at will (as a cantrip) Day 3 - Ability to cast Summon Celestial 1x a day - 1x 8th level spell slot a day. (No 8th level spells) - Truesight to 15 feet indefinitely
These boons last while within the ruins of Zelestar, and within 5km of Zelestar while Static is present.
Cause
The petrified humanoids were people who tried to stay in Zelestar after the White Tower appeared. They were afflicted with the Cold Death, transformed into data crystals of their own memories and experiences for unknown reason. Static Observance found this trove of data, and visits occasionally to feed on the low hanging fruit. The data has gotten old and a bit outdated, so it is not as good as fresh data generated by new death (i.e. by its patrons)
From Scholar’s first hand account in a scroll on the history of the mageocracy of Zelestar:
The Kingdom of Zelestar started out as a small farming village around 900 years ago and grew into a prosperous nation of mages that really specialized in transmutation magic after the discovery of a Modulator artifact about 800 years ago. (edited) The Kingdom resided somewhere in the southern hemisphere of the Acidalia region (this world map). They discovered the tip of a black tower submerged in the ground near their village and dug it up to examine it. They discovered this tower to be about 20m tall and made of dark crystal with barely visible mechanisms inside. They found that doing certain things with it caused it to start ticking, and the effects of spells to be amplified in a certain radius around it, and found clever ways to utilize this property to construct a great city that had a great deal of magical automation (self repairing buildings, flying platforms, crops that grew incredibly fast, etc.). The Kingdom grew to rely heavily on the amplified magic from the Modulator which was called something in ancient Solaran (which the scholar copied into their account. You recognize that it was called the Gain Modulator 4). People warned of Zelestar over-reliance on the Modulator (or Might-Giver, as the Zelestari called it), but the mageocracy did not heed the warnings or diversify their magic. One year, the Might-Giver began slowly sinking into the ground again. The mages tried everything in their power to stop it; digging deeper to keep it exposed, pulling back with sheer gravity, turning the very ground around it into osmium, but nothing halted the Might-Giver’s retreat. Finally the tower had sunken to the very outer edge of the world and fell through a hole shaped exactly like the tower, and the amplified magic that the kingdom had enjoyed for decades disappeared, and there was chaos Within the same year, it was reported that a white tower of the same dimensions came pushing back through the hole and up the kilometers of earth, back to the surface. The citizens thought this would be their salvation, but it was not. Not only did this white tower not restore the amplified magic, it further drained the region of magic until even the most powerful remaining mages struggled to cast basic spells effectively. The Kingdom fell into ruin as the power they depended so heavily on was stripped away. There was a mass exodus of survivors who moved to more fertile lands.
(This info found in a scroll at the Desert Dyad Market, sold to Tia/Durant by the scroll merchant Aeros)
Zelestar is suspected by the Silverfrond expedition to be located to the East of Icelake, near a void sea.
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Related notes: Static Observance · Arkhana Silverfrond · Silverfrond Expedition