The Grand Fracture of Ati'el
The Labyrinth
The world was never enough for Ati'el. She possesses a wealth of knowledge beyond anything Idalos has ever seen, even more than Yvitha and Treid, and a cruel cunning that allowed her to turn even the harshest loss to her own advantage. Yet with this vast intelligence came a sense of isolation. Even among the other Originals she never felt any sense of kinship, for in her eyes none were her intellectual equal, and no matter how much territory her stratagems stole from the spirits or how many secrets she solved she never felt like she had encountered a worthy challenge. The answer to every puzzle Idalos had to offer her seemed so frustratingly obvious. While her brethren squabbled over examining or conquering the world they'd stumbled across Ati'el isolated herself from them, claiming just enough territory to satisfy some vague necessity and leaving the Immortals she created to manage it alone. She sought instead to discover the secret of creation itself, to find out how the great spirit Idalos had forged Idalos out of the chaos of Emea, and use that knowledge to build a world worthy of her.
When the shattering came Ati'el was the most alone of all the Originals. Cooped up with her research within a tower northeast of Uthaldria, not even her Immortal children had seen her for days beforehand. Her fracture spread out across the land surrounding her tower, twisting it into a three-dimensional maze that mirrored the vast complexity of Ati'el's own mindscape. To this day it stands as a challenge to those who think themselves clever; taunting them to test their intellect against the impression Ati'el left behind.
Date Opened
The time of The Shattering: 600 arcs before the end of the War of The Immortals and The Oath.
Entrance
There is only one entrance to Ati'el's fracture: an arch of wrought iron, upon which is written an inscription: "Herein lies the greatest battle of wits. Turn back all ye who would enter unarmed." The rest of the fracture's perimeter is surrounded by a great wall, and above and below it an invisible domed barrier that prevents flying and subterranean creatures from entering.
Foyer
The foyer of Ati'el's fracture is the twisting tunnels and roads that make up her great labyrinth. The labyrinth is the size of a large city, and is filled with various staircases that force explorers to go up and down as well as is the cardinal directions in order to navigate their way through. One could spend an entire lifetime wandering this labyrinth and never find their way to the center, for the very layout of it is a psychological trap designed to obscure the true path to the tower that waits within from all who seek to reach it. The walls of this labyrinth a virtual invincible, preventing anyone who'd seek to force their way through from doing so.
Yet navigating the labyrinth is only the first of its challenges. Ati'el loved to play psychological games with her opponents; crushing them beneath the weight of their own doubts and fears, and this is reflected in her fracture. Those who enter are plagued with memories and hallucinations based upon their character flaws and failures, which try to break whatever hope they have and drive them into despair. As if that wasn't enough then animate metal soldiers, called automatons, regularly patrol the labyrinth and attack any intruders they come across. These automatons are not very strong individually but seem to be connected to some kind of hive-mind that possesses a great deal of tactical intelligence, and as such tend to attack in large groups at the moments when intruders are at their most vulnerable.
Veins
This fracture has no area that could be considered a vein.
Heart
The heart of the fracture lies at the centre of the labyrinth: at the top of the black tower Ati'el shattered in. This tower is filled with the grotesque remains of Ati'els experiments on captured spirits, some of whom survived Ati'el's shattering and have been driven insane by countless years of isolation.
Well Information
Any and all types of wells can be found here embedded within the walls of the labyrinth.
Permission
Characters can only access this area as part of a modded thread. Please ask at the PSF if you would like to explore.
Knowledge of this fracture's existence is incredibly rare. Your character must have earned a specific knowledge about its existence in a thread to know that it is real and that it is a grand fracture, however any character may have heard the legend of the labyrinth, so long as they do not know that it is actually real. This knowledge can be gained by talking to an Immortal, studying The Originals, or even just deciding to did deeper into the myths surrounding it and discovering some interesting facts.
Notes
- All of the Immortals know where Ati'el's fracture is located, however so far Yvitha is the only one among them with the intelligence to navigate the labyrinth and the desire to do so. She alone has reached the black tower, and may deign to give advice on how to reach it to those she favours.
