Pyhua'aity

What dangers would live in this so called Nest of Night, that surviving or dying there would be such a great honor. Or worse yet, make one apt for ruling over an entire nation? Well, the Novalma are very much against been categorized as under the rule of the Kuarassi, but how else would one describe it?
Anyways, I hope to be able to see a bit of this place in the coming event. If one fortune thing comes from the passing of the last Kuarassi, let it be that we learn more of this fascinating civilization

— Tades Fugh's Journal, 1961

This underground structure beneath Kuarassi City is considered both sacred and profane. An integral part of the tradition of Ascension, where the new Kuarassi is selected, Pyhar'aity is also considered the prison to all ill and darkness within the Novalma folk.

Structure

There are no maps or information what lies within the Night's Nest. In fact, only those that have survived the Trials of Night know what lies inside it and any reference of their past inside the Pyhua'aity is considered capital crime within Kuarassi City.
A pattern of preparations between Kuarassi candidates, however, is basis to some speculation: The place is dark, filled with enemies and other ambient dangers. Some theorize that the Pyhua'aity gates don't actually lead undeground but to another dimension.

Entrances

These special locations all around Kuarassi City are well guarded gates. No entrance has less than four guards watching over it any and all times. Three lights are always on around the gate: equidistant at the top of the portal.
Retangular in shape all entrances are doorless with only a thick and hard shadow that hinders any attempt to cross into Pyhua'aity. The colors and details around each portal such as size, material and color is unique and their actual location is not public, even if one can identify the structure with a cautious glance.

References

Was the brightest of lights, and by so would cast the darkest of shadows. When night came and the sun left the darkness that befell the world could not be defeated until the Sun

— Transcribed Tales, Volume 1

The words Pyhkua Raeity first appears in transcribed tales as a place similar to Hell. A birthplace for all the darkness in humanity and in the Gods, a deep chasm that created curiosity which fueled the worst in a search for answers. Pyhua'aity, however, only appears further into the volumes, when referencing the first Trial of Night further into Novalma history.

Myth

The first Kuarassi and even a few after them, did not pass the Trials of Night. The first mention of these proceedings tell of a darkness that almost destroyed the whole continent of Novalma before being emprisioned under the ground of Kuarassi City.
Following its emprisionment, the darkness still had to be weakened or it could escape and spread over the whole world. The ones fighting this darkness were always the strongest, and periodically, on the darkest night of the year, the Kuarassi would join them in an excursion.
Still, the Trial of Night would only happen generations later, when a Shadowfighter that had fought under three different Kuarassi joined on the Ascension, becoming a Kuarassi themselves. This Kuarassi wrote into law that only those that had fought the true darkness of the world could be the brightest light, and take the mantle, initiating the tradiotion of Trials of Night.

Alternative Name(s)

Nest of Night, Darkness Lair

Type

Underground / Subterranean

Etymology

From the Archaic Novalma, first records use the words Pyhkua Raeity. Pyhkua (pyh meaning no, and kua meaning light) which means night or darkness and the word Raeity (rae meaing birth or womb, and -ity the suffix for location) meaning nest or birthplace. Pyhkua Raeity meant the birth of all darkness, and by association, all evil.
The modern spelling is considered a derivate of the original Pyhkua Raeity in both grammar and meaning: Pyhua'aity is not the same as Pyhkua Raeity, but it is where darkness resides and rests, Night's Nest.