Ashlar Vaults
| Ashlar Vaults | |
|---|---|
 | |
| District | Kel-Siruun |
| Settlement | Kar-Thal |
| Realm | |
| Constructed | Era of Isolation (c. 200-3000) |
| Cultural Origin | Orasian |
The Ashlar Vaults are the sacred civic archives of Kar-Thal, located at the center of the Kel-Siruun district. These subterranean chambers preserve the legal, genealogical, and geological memory of the Orasian people. Known for their tonal silence and mineral-rich acoustics, the Vaults serve as a ceremonial site of oath-keeping, record transcription, and ancestral consultation. Access to the innermost chambers is tightly restricted and granted only to sanctioned Lorewardens under the guidance of memory-oaths.
History
Constructed during the earliest expansion of Kar-Thal in the Era of Isolation, the Ashlar Vaults were established in response to the need for permanent civic continuity following the first memory-schism of the Orasians. They were expanded significantly during the Great Erosion, when external archives were lost or rendered inaccessible. Over centuries, they became the symbolic and functional anchor of Orasian law and lineage. Several generations of Lorewardens have carved and updated the vaults using ritual tools passed through unbroken stone-oaths.
Architecture
The Vaults are composed of concentric gallery chambers arranged in descending tiers around a central harmonic core. Walls are etched with resonance-stable inscriptions, and ceiling arches are tuned to prevent echo bleed. Light is minimal and sourced from mineral seams and glowstone threads embedded into floor lines and seal ridges. Passageways feature harmonic locks that open only to those who match the encoded tone of a given civic rank.
At the lowest level lies the Echo Chamber of Binding, a near-perfectly silent vault used for memory restorations and sealed testimony rites.
Function
The Ashlar Vaults serve as Kar-Thal’s primary archive and legal repository. Their contents include law-stones, lineage spirals, mineral-ledger records, oath fragments, and civic precedent tables. In addition to storage, the Vaults support the instruction of inscriptor apprentices, resonance-chiselers, and historical interpreters.
Cultural Role
The Vaults represent the Orasian belief that law, memory, and identity are not separate but co-etched into stone. Lorewardens are not merely scholars, but tonal stewards who ensure that civic knowledge remains harmonically aligned with the present.
Ceremonial readings from the Vaults take place during foundational civic festivals and judicial review sessions. The act of inscribing a new decree into the stone is considered a generational event, typically preceded by a week of tonal stillness across Kel-Siruun.