Barada: Points of Interest 10-15
10. Shams Al’Oloq
Above Barada, in the centre of the Ruins of Bel stands a heavily guarded but dilapidated coliseum. At it’s centre, jutting out from the ground is a protrusion of obsidian, although the rest of this alien stone of black glass lies beneath the surface in a man-made crater.
The histories say that long ago, before the catastrophe, this rock crashed to earth in the Bahalrama Desert, where it was found by nomads. On attempting to extract a portion of this stone, the nomads discovered that the impervious stone caused light to radiate out from the metal of their picks as they struck it.
As news spread to the scholars of Barada, Hw. Habn’Izm (the foremost thinker of his age) arranged for the meteorite to be brought to the city. The effort took weeks of dragging the stone behind teams of animals, until finally it arrived.
After much time with the stone, and many experiments (all of which were documented in tomes still held within the walls of Barada’s university), Hw. Habn’Izm determined the following properties of the stone:
With this information, Hw. Habn’Izm petitioned the city to place the gem, on the surface in the ruins of the grand coliseum where it could be obscured and protected but still absorb the light of the desert sun. From there, a network of metal rods was constructed that extended out from the stone to all of the areas of the city. Where these rods reached the ceilings (and in a few cases walls) of the caves beyond, jewels were embedded to diffuse the light across the area. Thus was Barada’s gentle light established.
The stone had a fairly tumultuous reception amongst the theologians of Barada. At first welcomed as a gift from Al-Oloq (for surely a black stone from the black reaches of night could be a gift from none other), its properties to emit light were later seen as suspect.
However, once its properties were fully understood – namely that the light generated was moon light – it was once again considered a holy blessing. While some theologians then and now have hit upon the true nature of the stone (that it is a gesture of the truce between Oloch and Belnias), it was largely attributed to Oloch and was given the name Shams Al-Oloq (Oloch’s Sun).
Before the use of the Shams Al-Oloq, the city was lit by braziers of continuous flame. These have now been decommissioned, although the Guilds Hifar and Sahar still maintain and add to the city’s collection of these braziers, just in case the city should ever be besieged and the network of lights disrupted.
11. The Temple Quarter
A little way down the Markaz Alja’whara, through a guard outpost and beyond a series of winding tunnels to Barada’s many residential districts lies the Temple Quarter. Here a central courtyard leads towards the front of a tall ziggurat that extends out from the wall. To the left and right, archways lead to temples containing shrines dedicated to each of the Gods.
While Barada is best known for Oloch worship, the city’s people give thanks and praise to all of the Pantheon (although Belnias is generally under-represented). While there are smaller, more specific temples and shrines to the Gods throughout Barada, the main centre of worship for the city is the Temple Quarter, which holds shrines to all of the Gods equally in a testament to the Balance.
The shrines are arranged in two groups of seven, with each deity paired off with a counter balancing deity on the other side of the quarter. The arrangement is as follows:
| Brigantia (Agriculture) | Ormad (Learning) | Dianekt (Peace) | Arawn (Balance) | Duantis (Earth/Stone) | Gobnin (Fire) | Belnias (Light) |
| Silvanus (Hunting) | Lugh (Art) | Narda (War) | Matrixia (Magic) | Degdia (Air/Stoms) | Mercannan (Water) | Oloch w/ Elreyna (Dark w/ Moon) |
Notably, as is the Alagrian cultural tradition, the gods are not represented in humanoid form, instead being represented by the symbols of their domain. The exception of course is Arawn, whose humanoid form reminds the viewer that she was once mortal.
At the far end of the Quarter is the Zigguart Situ Niquat, which acts as the main temple of Barada.
12. Ziggurat Situ-Niquat
A grand temple for Barada’s largest religious ceremonies. Iconography of the Gods abounds throughout this temple, designed in the style of the six-pointed star-based asteramids of Akhret. At its centre stands a raised, six-sided platform.
The Ziggurat Situ-Niquat (Ziggurat of the Six Points) is dedicated to all of the Gods of Ara equally, although critics suggest that the running motif of sixes that runs through all such efforts biases towards the Gods most closely related to the balance of elements and energies.
13. Ramad Alramad
This dark stone building is heavy with the smell of smoke. Green fires burn endlessly on columns outside a temple bereft of the usual markings of the god. Groups of mourners walk the grounds and filter into the temple awaiting the next service.
Within the temple, a great furnace, wide and deep, takes up almost the entire far wall, A large number of slates of rock lie within, ready to accept the bodies of the deceased. After services are carried out for the departed, a great fire begins to spread within the furnace and a metal plate slowly covers the opening as the smoke begins to rise. After a pause the plate rises and in place of each body lies a pile of ash. From a hole at the back of the furnace, a Salamander winds its way out and travels from pile to pile, collecting a little ash from each body and placing it within a leather bag. It then presents this bag to a veiled priest of Oloch, who says a prayer over it and carries it away.
Mourners will carry out a private ceremony at the shrine of their choice, and later join other mourners for one of the regular group cremations that occur. This is a practicality, as while the fire is always kept burning, it is maintained at a low intensity and increased for ceremonies. However, in practice this has led to an increased sense of unity amongst the peoples of Barada. Rich or poor, all are equal in death.
After each cremation a small amount of ash is added to the bottom floor of the Olochuli. The rest is released out onto the desert winds, hence the Temple’s name Ramad Alramad (Ash to Sand).
The Ramad Alramad is a grand funerary pyre where the majority of Barada’s dead are created. While it is almost entirely non-denominational, it falls under the purview of the Obfuscati, and an Alagrian phrase is etched above the furnace, which reads “May the bones burned here serve the Lord of Night evermore”. As a result of the desire for non-denominational worship, the fires of Ramad Alramad burn green to prevent any deity-specific associations with Gobnin or Bel.
Further History
While many cities have had to contend with the competition for space between the living and the dead as they developed, this very quickly became a serious issue for the subterranean Baradans, an issue that came to a head in the early centuries following the catastrophe.
At this time, it was mooted that bodies could be burned to save space. Theologically this created a number of issues, but ultimately the church of Oloch agreed to the changes, justifying that destroying the body on the prime material plane did not prevent Oloch from claiming his right, and instead prevented anyone else from using it.
In time cremation became the honoured ceremony within Alagria and a sign that you were considered to have lived a suitable life. Those who were judged poorly in life were given the more shameful “sky burial” (left in the desert to be eaten by the beasts). Within Alagria, those whose souls did not reach Oloch were considered to be ‘penitents’; those who had sinned but could be redeemed through trial in the afterlife. Some followers of Oloch, the Penitentacostals, raise these penitent spirits into the bodies of the deceased in an attempt to hasten this redemption.
14. The Olochuli
Like the Markaz Alja’whara, this chamber is another tall cylinder with a spiralling platform leading down. However, unlike its jewelled counterpart, this chamber is set all the way around with hollow compartments, each of them containing plaques and mementoes kept in memory of the dead. At the very bottom of this tall chamber, the floor is covered in a thick layer of ash, the remnants of past Baradans, scattered here in part after their cremations.
Once used to house the bodies of the dead, these loculi were repurposed when cremation entered typical practice. Now these compartments house name plaques for the deceased, and mourners visit to leave trinkets, messages and other mementoes. It is tradition after each cremation that some of the ash left over is added to the floor of the Olochuli.
At the very bottom of the Olochuli lies the entrance to The Obfuscati's domain within Barada, the Obscurium Al-Oloq. Unbeknownst to the residents of Barada, the Olochuli has a magical defense that can be triggered by the Primus Obscurus of the Obfuscati. Once triggered, this defence creates a field of magical darkness (as of the Darkness spell cast at normal level) that fills the bottom half of the Olochuli.
Additional fact: A loculus is an architectural compartment or niche that houses a body, a loculi is the plural.
15. The Obscurium Al-Oloq
Winding off from the floor of the Olochuli chamber is a plain, black tunnel that leads to a labyrinthine warren of corridors and chambers, all of which are bathed in magical darkness. It would be nearly impossible for an intruder to find their way through. The Obfusati however, specialise in learning to perceive within the dark and travel through unimpeded.
At the centre of the temple lies a great elliptical chamber, barely illuminated by a number of yellow Continuous Flame spells, each housed within hexagonal lanterns around the room’s edge. In the middle of a pool of water stands a raised platform, on which is etched the Ochi Olochi. The yellow of which is the only colour within the room.
From here the Primus Obscurus entreats to Al-Oloq in prayer, while their attendants raise the covers on the room’s lanterns. There in perfect darkness, the Primus hopes to entreat with Oloch to uncover the secrets hidden within the darkness.
The Obfuscati use a series of techniques revealed to them long ago by Oloch to develop blindsight and those senior enough to enter the Obscurium tunnels live most of their lives in darkness. While eventually most of them learn their way around by memory, hidden at the bottom of tunnel junctions are directions written in the braille-like language the Obfuscati use to read in the darkness.
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