Maurac Catacombs (MAWR-ack)
Refuge was hard to find in the early days of The Shattering. No place felt safe, and much was torn down and ripped apart by the primal magical forces that crackled across the landscape. One of the few respites available in what would come to be Polira was the Maurac Catacombs.
The Catacombs started as a natural network of limestone caves that were exposed when a massive earthquake thrust up a giant pockmarked cliff, splitting the Maurac Plain, near the future Draver Mountains, in half. This was very near to the ancient city of Avilimar, and when it began to collapse, many refugees fled to the natural cave formation, bringing whatever they could carry.
Soon, a sort of order began to form among those who sheltered there. A leader arose, by the name of Geila Azema, and she developed something of an advisory council to help deal with the needs of the people as a whole. It was through her foresight that the refugees began moving up to the higher caverns, and blocking off lower entrances, to give them one entryway, with a long ramp that could be easily defended by a few people, or even a few pots of scalding water.
The council organized living quarters according to need, and rationed food supplies as well. Water, luckily, was in plentiful supply, as there were many pools and springs inside the complex. It was Azema who decided that all who came peacefully looking for shelter should be accomodated, and the limestone of the caves proved suitable for expansion by hand, for those not wanting to travel too deep into the hillside.
Azema arranged for parties to go out hunting and gathering food supplies, and other needed things, but she also sent search parties back into the city to scavenge for knowledge, all that survived of what was written down. The catacombs became not just a place of shelter, but a repository of knowledge and learning, for each shared what skills they had with others, so that it would not all be lost in the darkness of the times.
From this growing community, the first seeds of civilization began to sprout. Farm fields were created at the base of the cliff, and outbuildings constructed. As The Shattering subsided, the town of Lower Maurac began to develop, as more sought refuge there. This settlement eventually became the kernel of the new nation of Polira.
Even today, there are some who still live in the caves of Maurac, keepers of ancient relics and artifacts. The cave system has become part solemn retreat, part museum. The tomes of lore are no longer stored there, as the limestone caverns are not suitable for current day parchment and vellum, but the rooms that housed them are still available to tour.
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