The Silent Spire

The cell door opened, and Toreo winced immediately. New death reeked of filth, but old death had a more insidious nosefeel, of vile decay and neglect. Whoever was in this cell had died months ago, and what was left of their body was crawling with insects and filth.
Magistrate Valier stepped into the cell behind him, a stern expression on her face. "The Spire delivers food to each occupied cell. Surely they would have noticed that the meals went uneaten?" Cara walked to the backwall and raised the dumbwaiter cover, revealing old, rotting food. She recoiled involuntarily. "Disgusting."
Marshal Toreo shook his head and stepped back out the door, motioning to the morgue workers, who scrambled forward. They had suspected this was a death, based on the report; the morgue wagon would deliver this body to the coroner, who would confirm the cause of death. "Whoever this was, they must have taken the vow of silence seriously. To starve to death without making a sound?"
"Or maybe they were screaming until their last moment, and nobody acknowledged them." The Magistrate pressed her lips together, her eyes cold. "We're going to unlock every cell in this row and the adjacent rows and put their occupants to the question, see if they heard anything. I'll interrupt some spiritual journeys, but I'd rather that happen than miss what may have been an arranged murder."

Purpose / Function

The Silent Spire is a quasi-religious center, though the people there would loudly complain at that characterization. Despite the name, it is not a freestanding 'spire', nor is it even remotely linear; it is a building built into the side of a hill, with an exterior pathway switchbacking up the hill, and cells built into the hill proper.
Marketed as a spiritual retreat, the Silent Spire permits those who find themselves 'overwhelmed' in modern Etoilean society to temporarily retreat to a hermit's existence in the foothills. Guests are requested to bring reading material (or nothing, if they prefer) and, upon arrival, purchase a length of stay from 1 week up to 8 weeks. Once they enter a cell, they are locked in; guests may not leave until their stay is complete.
The cells are not prison blocks. Each is a fully featured studio suite with separated bathroom and water supply, and food and laundry service is delivered by dumbwaiter three times a day. The intent is for each guest to enter a slower pace of life and of meditative contemplation, in total silence. While this is described as a 'lifestyle alteration' by the owner of the Spire retreat, it has been classified as a 'religious practice' by the Principality of Etoile, but this has no significant consequence.
Upon the completion of their stay, the door to their cell is unlocked, and the guest may leave. This is optional; for the very rare case that a guest never wishes to return their prior life, an arrangement may be made that permits them to stay indefinitely, if they have the resources to pay for their stay.

Architecture

The Spire is relatively new architecture, though its provenance is highly suspect. The anonymous owner of the Spire commissioned an architect fresh from The Academy of Etoile to build a 'naturalist' resort hotel, harkening back to early historical records of animist religious tribes predating the era of petty kingdoms. Some of these records included sketches, and the architect based the design of the Spire on the sketches, of a purported cave-dwelling druidic society.
Halfway through construction, it was revealed that the record that the owner was referring to was an academic forgery, and that the 'style' of the resort was entirely manufactured. Construction proceeded anyway. The Spire is considered 'novel' in style, though it apes several trends of ancient architecture - low slung construction made of sun-baked earth and adobe, cobblestones weathered and filled in with sand and gravel, with vertical, narrow windowslits ostensibly to prevent significant damage from rain.
The 'old' styling did not prevent modern amenities. Power generation is handled through an independent network of windmills, not connected to Capital City mains power, driving a central shaft that connects to each row of rooms as well as pumping water to a elevated cistern.

History

Nobody knows the identity of the owner of the Spire, but it was built after a series of opinion articles in the Etoilean Standard lamenting the 'quickened pace' of modern life. A central theme was that urban life in the Etoile Capital City  was stripped of it's meaning and vitality; the daily grind of dreary office work or manufactory management merging with pseudo-forced rituals of after work drinking and coming home exhausted to sleep, only to wake up and do it again. While this view was skewered by writers of non-urban origin (noting that the drudgery of agricultural work was even worse), the attitude struck a chord; the salons of the Capital were buzzing with the new 'spiritual malaise' that was claimed to be the root of all modern ills.
Not long afterward, advertisements for the Spire began to appear, in both the Standard and Monitor broadsheets as well as nailed to signboards and given out as flyers. The Spire promised spiritual renewal, no matter one's faith, through the simple act of escaping the City and living a simple life in a refuge for a fixed amount of time. The idea was immediately seductive, and the Spire was booked through for three seasons straight almost immediately.
Naturally, while many found a renewed sense of focus and purpose after their stays at the Spire, the endless silence and inability to leave drove others to distraction; the Spire is still a successful commercial concern, but is not as popular as it once was, with the focus on spiritual renewal fading away as a temporary fad.

Tourism

In 725, the Spire is used by many as a comfortable vacation spot, conveniently close to the Capital City (less than an hour away by Power-Wagons) but offering total isolation. Many busy workers take stacks of books and journals with them to the Silent Spire, reading through them in a quiet environment without worrying about their meals or laundry in the meantime. Because of its nontraditional 'resort' offering, the Spire is significantly cheaper than resorts of similar luxury in The Stagonids or similar destination tourist areas.

Founding Date

712

Parent Location

Etoile Capital City