Importance

The Central Ziggurat was the largest and grandest structure in all of Aslyd. It housed the ruling Knowledge Holders and their families for generations, standing as the greatest architectural achievement of the Cavari species.

History

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Construction

After the rise of The Holy City of Aslyd, the Cavari species thrived behind the great wall surrounding their city. To celebrate their prosperity, the population sought to build a monument that would act as both a great monument and a residence for their rulers. The Great One, Onaalag, whispered designs for a massive ziggurat into the mind of the ruling Knowledge Holder, and thus work began on what would rise to become The Central Ziggurat of Aslyd. After its completion in the year 867 BVE, it became the center of all religious ceremonies conducted by the priestesses of Aslyd. Several years later, it was joined by several smaller ziggurats that were built throughout the holy city for various purposes.

For generations The Centeral Ziggurat housed The Knowledge Holders and their families. It played a vital role in their most sacred rituals and ceremonies, including the burning of The Great One’s children. After the founding of the city, the Cavaries thanked Onaalag for the gift of his knowledge by frequently sacrificing fertile women into his lair beneath The Ziggurat for him to breed. Left pregnant, such women were brought to the flat top of The Ziggurat before they could give birth, and their bellies were cut open. Their tentacled children were pulled from their wombs and cast into The Grand Brazier atop the structure to prevent them from spreading. So too were slaves and prisoners that had been captured from the jungle scarified atop The Ziggurat, often castrated and beheaded.

For a full century, The Grand Brazier burned atop The Central Ziggurat, standing as a beckon that all citizens of Aslyd could look up to as proof of their city’s greatness.

Fall Of Aslyd

In the year 766 BVE, during the reign of the last Knowledge Holder, Mauron, The City of Aslyd was attacked and destroyed by The Mother of Tentacles, Aifa, who led a great swarm of her tentacled offspring to consume the population. Mauron himself was slain atop The Ziggurat by the massive beast known as Vaecath, and his body was cast into The Grand Brazier. Though the citizens were slaughtered and enslaved, the ruins of the city remained mostly intact, including The Central Ziggurat. Aifa made the great structure her residence while ruling over what little remained of the population, turning the women into mindless breeding slaves for her tentacled monstrosities.

During Aifa’s short reign, Vaecath settled atop The Central Ziggurat. When she was betrayed by a trio of her eldest children known as The Triumvirate, they tore Vaecath to pieces, tentacle by tentacle, letting his blood and flesh cover the structure. After his death, The Triumvirate took his place atop the Ziggurat, covering the outer surface of the structure entirely beneath their tentacled forms and burying it beneath them. During their reign, the corridors of The Ziggurat were filled by tentacles that covered every wall, holding the bodies of several women that served as living wombs.

Several years later, in 758 BVE, The Creator returned to Aslyd. Hovering above the city in his flying vessel, he sought to save the rest of his world from the tentacled swarm. Using his powers, he ripped the entirety of the deep jungle from the surface of Ayphieal and sealed it away it into a new realm of darkness, forever banishing the tentacled abominations. Aslyd, and thus The Central Ziggurat, were removed from the world, surviving in the realm of darkness as ruins.

For centuries, The Triumvirate ruled over the ruins, burying what remained of the city and The Ziggurat beneath generations of tentacles.

Structure

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Overall Shape

The Central Ziggurat of Aslyd was a massive step pyramid constructed entirely of black stone located directly in the center of the city. It had a staircase that surrounded the main entrance and ran up the front side of the pyramid to the top. The flat top acted as a platform where the reigning Knowledge Holder and priestesses could look down at the city below, and it held a grand brazier consisting of a circular base made of black stone. Its inner corridors were etched with depictions of The Great One’s tentacles and the process his Holy Mothers were forced to endure, from conception to being cut open atop the ziggurat by priestesses.

Shortly after the year 766 BVE, the grand brazier was crushed beneath Vaecath’s great weight. It was left as shattered chunks of stone roughly in the shape of a circle.

Throne Room

The throne room was a chamber placed deep inside The Ziggurat with walls that were carved to mirror the pyramidal shape of the outer structure. A throne carved of black stone sat against the far wall atop a low dais. A long corridor opposite of the throne led to a main entrance, and two side corridors on the other walls of the chamber leading to other areas of the structure.

After 766 BVE, the skeletal remains of High Seeker Audir were permanently fastened to the wall above and behind the throne by Aifa.

Lair Of The Great One

The deepest and oldest part of The Ziggurat, The Lair Of The Great One was a massive cave in which Onaalag spent his life. A corridor within the structure led to the entrance of a long tunnel with countless steps carved into the floor that descended deep beneath The Ziggurat. The tunnel ended at a set of massive stone doors that led into the subterranean cave, and the entrances to several branching natural tunnels were at the rear of the chamber. The branching tunnels were a confusing maze of twisting passageways, and only one led up to the surface.

After his death in 768 BVE, the cave became known as The Tomb of The Great One, for it housed the charred remains of Onaalag.

In the year 766 BVE, the large doors to the cave were shattered by the tentacle swarm and left as rubble upon the cave floor outside the tunnel.

In 761 BVE, after Aifa was betrayed, Onaalag’s ashes and charred remains were moved into large vases scattered throughout the cave. The cave then became known as The Tomb of The Mother of Tentacles, for Aifa was sealed inside, bound to a massive pillar of living tentacles in the center of the cave stretching from the floor to the ceiling.

[WORK IN PROGRESS]

Appearances

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• Vaid Empire: Mother of Tentacles
  • Chapter 1 (First Appearance)
    • Aifa Became A Holy Mother Inside The Throne Room Before Being Impregnated With Nula-Bal By Onaalag In His Lair.

[WORK IN PROGRESS]

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