Gates of Origin
| Gates of Origin | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Settlement | Kar-Thal |
| Location | Inner fold of the Citadel Mountains |
| Realm | Terasil |
| Constructed | Unknown (Pre-Isolation) |
| Cultural Origin | Orasian |
The Gates of Origin are a pair of immense stone structures embedded within the deepest reaches of the Citadel Mountains. They mark the entrance to the inner valley believed by Orasians to be the resting place of Oras, the ancestral spirit of stone. Long sealed and unmoving, the Gates have become a central point of reverence, silence, and ancestral speculation. No civic path passes through them, and they have never been known to open in recorded memory.
History
The Gates are referenced in pre-civic chant-lines and echo glyphs as the *First Closure*—the act through which the realm was sealed to preserve the balance of Orasia. Whether the gates were shaped by Oras or emerged naturally through resonance is disputed even among Lorewardens.
By the time of the Era of Isolation, the site was already considered closed. Attempts to approach or unseal them during the Great Erosion reportedly caused resonance disturbances felt throughout Kar-Thal and Sanctuary Vale. Since then, the Council of Stone has declared the valley beyond the Gates untouchable and ritually unapproachable.
Architecture
The Gates are not symmetrical doors or hinges, but two massive slabs of interlocking striated stone rising from the mountains themselves. Their seam is narrow, nearly imperceptible, and lined with spiral resonance markings that do not match any known pattern.
Surrounding the Gates are hundreds of embedded chisel marks—believed to be oath-seals, each placed in silent acknowledgment that the way remains closed. The air around the site is reported to distort tone and breath slightly, causing many visitors to speak in whispers or fall silent altogether.
Function
No formal function remains, though the Gates are used in symbolic rites during city-wide transitions and ancestral invocations. Stonewardens sometimes post silent vigils near the outer passage, not as guards, but as listeners for changes in harmonic field.
Cultural Role
To Orasians, the Gates represent the unknowable boundary between stone-as-memory and stone-as-origin. They appear in echo-poems, civic allegories, and the final line of many death oaths. Pilgrimages to the outer threshold are permitted only under deep silence and by those granted formal passage by Rite-Keepers.
The Gates are never depicted directly in Orasian art. Only indirect forms—twin lines, spirals interrupted, mirrored slabs—are used to signify their presence.
Interpretation
Scholars and mystics alike interpret the Gates differently:
- Lorewardens describe them as a harmonic fulcrum—a sealed frequency that balances Terasil’s memory and mass.
- Rite-Keepers speak of them as a threshold that must never be crossed until the final resonance has been spoken.
- Pilgrims sometimes claim they hear faint internal tones when meditating nearby—a sound like pressure without breach.
No attempt to open the Gates has succeeded, and some believe that doing so would unmake the realm itself.