The Abbey of Nocia Mar
The area around Nocia Mar is a subarctic area of tundra located along the southern coast of the Great Western Ocean. It was settled very early on in the development of the continent of Calandyrion. Originally, it was a group of 5 men and their wives that made the area their home. While occasionally others would visit it was a rare person or couple that chose to stay. It soon became apparent that the little hamlet would survive. That led the inhabitants to set out to build a temple to worship a deity to help them survive. While no deity has ever been named in the rumors surrounding Nocia Mar two things are known; the community is reported to still exist, and the citizens live to great ages.
Purpose / Function
The temple is inhabited by a hermit who serves as intermediary to their God.
Sensory & Appearance
The temple being made completely of ice lends itself to light diffraction which makes the inside of the individual rooms to be optically difficult to deal with. As a result, the hermits that have lived within have tended to become disoriented and tended to mutter softly and incomprehensively when visitors arrive to feed them each day. To this day no one knows who the hermits are talking with.
Valuables
Since no individual hermit, once chosen, ever leaves the temple there is little of value there.
Hazards & Traps
It is possible that the individual hermits have simply gone insane or they are speaking with an unidentified deity.
Alterations
Upon the death of each hermit a new floor is added to the top of the temple. Until the winter comes the new hermit lives atop the temple in the open air. Surprisingly there are only 10 floors within the temple.
Architecture
The temple is constructed completely of ice. The blocks of ice are harvested during the during the first winter after the death of the previous hermit. Each floor consists of three rooms and the ice is lofted into place by rope and tackle which is then dismantled until it is needed again. It is unknown why the Summer warmth has not melted the older floors of the temple.
Being a subarctic environ means that Summers are short and warmed by the longer hours of daylight enough to melt the tundra enough to form ponds and small lakes. Plenty of herd animals such as reindeer and elk which are hunted by wolves. In addition, the occasional brown bear and polar bear hunt seals. There are fox and lynx that hunt smaller game like arctic hare. Finally, the oceans and rivers are full of salmon and varied types of crabs. However, once winter hits the days become quite short and the rivers and coastal areas become ice bound meaning the bears hibernate and fishing is not an option so food must be gathered and prepared for long-term storage for winter sustenance.
Comments