Auruvys

When the gods bring their wrath, their reign, what is left behind? Naught but the divine torque by which we are bound even in death. They give us rain, ask us, 'can you smell the dirt, and life?' But we smell only iron and char. And what is this that they call divinity? It is only man painted with a filmy facade.

Yvarda Rain

During the First Aveaan Empire, Auruvys was known under another name and was built to be the city's escape route in times of siege. It was a narrow, stone tunnel with several entrances throughout the city of Aveaas that doubled as a storm drain in the rare occasions of flooding.

At the onset of the last godstorm thousands of Aveaan citizens flocked to the tunnel, desperate to evade the molten gold the gods rained down. However the drizzle soonafter turned to downpour and thus flooded the tunnel, coating the ground and walls - and people - in the gold. It drained out and cooled in a pool in the shallow valley where the tunnel spit out a ways east of the city, but by then the damage was done. Several thousand Aveaans were killed instantly, forever bound inside their golden casts.

Auruvys, the Golden Crypt of Aveaas, has been preserved through the centuries. Whether the crypt is preserved out of respect or enduring threat is unclear, but it is a morbidly decadent sight regardless. Most of the tunnel's accesses have been permanently closed off but there are entrances in the city's central square, as well as supposedly deep in the Empress' palace, through which travelers can walk among the haunting, gilded statues.

by mirescosmo

Through death the spirit is rendered eternal.

- The Pyramisic Doctrine

The crypt has since become a symbol of the city of Aveaas in its own right. Golden depictions of Aveaas' fallen from the last godstorm can be found adorning tapestries, book covers, and maps, and there are even two golden statues at the entrance to the Guardsrest catacombs in Mareve.

The fact that it does not rust or tarnish would support the notion that it is truly gold but what of the fact that, in nearly three hundred years, it hasn't a single scratch? No doubt numerous thieves and criminals have tried their hands at any possible means to break off a chunk of gold for themself. It doesn't matter that it is a crypt, that it is sacrilege. Nothing can be sacrilege in the face of desperation and survival. And there is more gold lining that tunnel than anywhere else in the world; it is a horde of wealth as much as a mass grave.

Yet there is nary a scratch nor chip. It is preposterous.

_{— from the journal of Isarius Sarryx}