Heroes' Fountain
Absalom has no shortage of local legends, but the marvelous Andoren exhibit called the Heroes’ Fountain is so grand that even a native Absalomian could be forgiven for momentarily forgetting all about their hometown heroes. Marble, granite, and quartz columns encircle the fountain’s main feature—a 250-foot-wide scene composed of dozens of Andoren folk heroes locked in a frantic fight against faceless monsters, amorphous fiends, and cloaked humanoid villains. The fountain’s cerulean waters issue forth from spouts strategically placed throughout the scene, such as where heroes’ swords would draw blood or from the mouths of roaring dragons. The detail of the enormous statue—which is, impossibly, carved from a single block of snow-white travertine—is so arresting that the Festivals Committee has hired civilian traffic coordinators to ensure that gawking pedestrians don’t halt directly in front of a moving cart. At night, the Heroes’ Fountain is illuminated by a thousand everburning torches placed around its base.
Comments