Tash Ptara Complex

The Tash Ptara Complex is the ruins of a once great Lepidosian temple ziggurat and surrounding mounuments abandoned during the fall of that little-known civilization. In modern times, the Leather Jacket Nomads use the site as a place of refuge and spiritual devotion when traversing the Southern-adjacent reaches of the Eastern Tesseract.

Purpose / Function

Like Tash Nisen on the adjacent cube face, Tash Ptara features a large ziggurat and likely served a religious centre for the extinct Lepidosian culture. Unlike Tash Nisen, the ziggurat is the primary focus of the site, the outbuildings being small and manifestly designed for only a small number of permanent residents. The contemporary local water source - a necessary amenity for survival in the arid Eastern steppes - has never been located, perhaps even having been somehow raised from a well beneath the inaccessible mortuary complex (see below).

Alterations

While the upper sanctuary and rectory have been visited by archaeologists, the mortuary complex below the ziggurat has remained more or less unexplored since the discovery of the site around the year 9950 AR. The Leather Jacket Nomads are partially of Rostran extraction and, thus, carry over some of the superstitions and religious qualms about incautious treatment of the dead from their Esotericist forebearers.
After the first Nomads descended into the complex and realized what it was, they posted a guard force at the entrance and forbade any further incursions by outsiders on the sacred resting place of the mummified Lepidosians therein. A jumble of oar-markers - some wooden, others carved from discarded motorcycle fenders - have been staked into the broken cobbles near the entrance as a warning to any trespassers. This forbiddance does not extend to the upper structure, however, as no bodies were ever found there; in this case, the Nomads made surprisingly careful written and photographic observations before occupying this section, and are welcoming to scholars who make the ardurous journey up the staircase.

Architecture

The Tash Ptara ziggurat was originally constructed as equal parts funerary monument and monastery for the obscure, apparently monotheistic religion of the long-lost Lepidosian peoples who once inhabited the arid Eastern F cube layer. A single broad stairwell proceeds downward from the ground level of the ziggurat into the mortuary complex below. The overhanging lintel for the top of this stairwell provides a platform for a speaking dias and coincides with an even broader staircase leading up to the ziggurat's peak. At the very top of the ziggurat lies a small temple structure known as the 'sanctuary.' Beneath the sanctuary, tunnels are built into the highest fifth or so of the ziggurat to create a sheltered living space, or 'rectory,' for a dozen or so resident priests and priestesses.

Defenses

It is believed that the clergy who lived on-site may have been provided for by donations left at the surrounding outbuildings and that the site itself might have been fenced off from outsiders to ensure a monastic existence for the residents. Bronze weaponry found at one such outpost, typically denoted as the 'gatehouse' on archaeological charts, suggests there was armed security at this time. The climb up the several hundred steps to the rectory would have been exhausting, especially for anyone carrying more than the clothes on their back.

Tourism

The Leather Jacket Nomads treat the upper sanctuary and rectory like equal parts museum, storehouse, and inn. Aside from a few stone beds and broken earthenware vessels, these portions of the structure were nearly devoid of furniture or adornment when the first Nomads found the site. Though the proximity of Eastern F to the Southern Tesseract means that the region suffers seasonal electrical storms and increased background radiation, the bulk of the structural elements provides overnight visitors with some protection from these effects while also providing an excellent vantage point for the observation of the accompanying aurorae. The surrounding terrain is a hilly steppe, meaning the height also allows oncoming visitors to be observed from a great distance from the peak.
Though the surrounding outbuildings have largely been reduced to rubble, the Leather Jacket Nomads can string tarps across some alleyways to provide protection from the harsh sunlight. These sheltered alleys become places of rest and trade for weary travellers who have strayed from the central path of the Nomads' seasonal migration. Visiting archaeologists are most often feted here and are subsequently granted access to the site in an uncharacteristically open way on the part of the Nomads - so long as these visitors do not stray into the forbidden mortuary complex.

RUINED STRUCTURE
ca. 1200 AE

Type

Temple / Religious complex

Parent Location

Eastern Tesseract

Owning Organization

Leather Jacket Nomads