Ashlar Vaults
| Ashlar Vaults | |
|---|---|
 | |
| District | Kel-Siruun |
| Settlement | Kar-Thal |
| Realm | Terasil |
| Constructed | Era of Isolation (c. 200–3000) |
| Cultural Origin | Duranthi |
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 Duranthi people. Known for their profound stillness and mineral-aligned strata, the Vaults serve as ceremonial centers for oath inscription, ancestral consultation, and memory preservation. Access to the innermost chambers is tightly restricted, permitted only to sanctioned Lorewardens under formal stone-oath protocols.
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 recorded memory divisions. They were expanded significantly during the Great Erosion, when external archives were lost or sealed. Over centuries, the Vaults became the structural and ritual anchor of Duranthi law and lineage. Each generation of Lorewardens has contributed to the vaults using inherited ritual tools and unbroken chisel-traditions.
Architecture
The Vaults are composed of concentric gallery chambers descending around a central axis of weight. Walls are etched with continuity inscriptions, and ceiling arches are shaped to disperse spatial pressure. Lighting is minimal, sourced from glowstone threads and mineral seams embedded along floor paths and seal ridges. Passageways are secured with seal-locks that open only through encoded mark-matching specific to civic rank and lineage authorization.
At the lowest level lies the Chamber of Binding—a perfectly silent room used for sealed testimony rites and full-cycle memory transfers.
Function
The Ashlar Vaults function as Kar-Thal’s primary archive and legal repository. Their contents include law-stones, lineage spirals, mineral-ledger records, oath fragments, and civic precedent tablets. They also serve as instructional sanctums for inscriptor apprentices, stone-right interpreters, and historical stewards.
Cultural Role
The Vaults embody the Duranthi belief that law, identity, and remembrance are inseparable and must be preserved in stone. Lorewardens are not merely archivists but memory-bound stewards responsible for ensuring that all civic knowledge is inscribed with structural clarity and ancestral fidelity.
Ceremonial readings from the Vaults occur during foundational anniversaries and judicial restorations. The inscription of a new civic decree into the Vaults is considered a generational event, often preceded by a full week of ritual stillness throughout Kel-Siruun.