Ancient Altar

Due to Summer Camp 2024, this article is now out of date and needs rewriting.
One of the most perplexing objects in space with an unknown origin, the Ancient Altar is a large platform discovered just within the confines of Neptune's orbit in the Sol System. It is now found in the Glass Prison, locked away for all time after wiping out the human species by unleashing a mysterious primordial virus on to Earth.

Structure & Design

Lying on a bed of concrete is a tall, grey concrete box lined with red carpet. The carpet is tattered, with remnants of unknown yellow symbols written all across its borders. Just before one steps up the altar there is a pressure plate, and when activated pulls down one of the sides of the concrete box. The design of this altar is both incredibly simple and incredibly alien - it does not look like anything a human could design, despite its simplicity.

The altar, including its platform, is 150cm wide, 50cm long, and 90cm tall. It is seemingly perfectly designed for a human to stand upon, which raises the questions: who designed it? Where did it come from?

History

The first and only people to ever step on the altar were of course the humans. Their first travel into outer space, beyond their moon's orbit, led them to this altar. A man named Gino Accardo was the only human to step on the altar, activating a plate, and caught the virus first. He entered the spaceship after leaving the altar, and in the next thirty minutes the entire crew aboard the spaceship had caught the virus, and then died just after returning to Earth, giving enough time for the virus to be transmitted as it required a living host to be passed on.

When they returned to Earth the virus spread rapidly across the United States Of America, and then travelled north and south to Canada, Central and South America. As people tried to flee the country, some brought the virus onto planes and ships, taking the virus worldwide. The outbreak had reached every single continent on the planet, except Antarctica, and leaving tribes that lived on remote islands alive.

That was until the virus started infecting other creatures, especially fish. Fish served as carriers of this virus, and swam to islands that had the unaffected tribes, and transmitted them the virus when the people ate the fish. Just over a month after the virus had come to Earth, the entire human population had died out, except for the three who had escaped the planet entirely.

Only three people had hijacked spaceships and left the planet, Nico Malan, Jóhanna Aita, and David Tennason. Unfortunately, Nico Malan had caught and quickly died to the virus, and Jóhanna was swallowed by a lordricarr, leaving only David alive, who still remains alive to this day.

Current Residence: Glass Prison

The Ancient Altar is locked away in a secure facility deep within the Glass Prison. This particular sector of the prison is forbidden to everybody but those with a secure passcode and lock system. Because of the nature of this altar, it is extremely dangerous and is not messed with.

Despite this, many people have successfully broken into the prison in order to extract the virus. None of these people succeeded in reaching the altar, but the fact that they made it past bone-wood and tarsarium exteriors, reinforced with lock magic, is impressive regardless.

Virus

Another mystery about this altar is the virus that can still be found within it. The virus is nothing like any native to Earth, or even the Sol System - the Scourge of Earth as it is known destroyed almost the entire human species in a week, and by a month it had reached every single remote group of humans on the planet.

The People's Association's small team of virologists were given a small sample of the virus to study. Unfortunately, this two-year study brought zero helpful results as the virus was much too complex and dangerous to be carefully studied.

Item type
Magical
Current Location
Dimensions
150x50x90cm

Related Articles

 
Glass Prison
Building / Landmark | Aug 14, 2024

A prison floating in space. The Glass Prison is reserved for only the toughest criminals.

David Tennason
Character | Jul 17, 2024

A person from Earth. The only human survivor after a virus wiped out the species, David Tennason now resides within a space bubble somewhere in space, owning a spacecraft named HMS Tennason.


Comments

Please Login in order to comment!
Dec 3, 2021 16:30 by John Johnson

Am I the only one bothered by the fact that people casually talk about a specie's extinction ? Like, does David know ? And how did the virus kill everyone ?

Dec 3, 2021 16:44 by Mochi

Most people in my universe don't like humans much because of how they treated their planet; most other races on other planets make sure that they aren't killing their planet, and so they look down to humans. When they went extinct, people weren't really upset. And yes, David is very aware of it, and of course he is very sad about it too. And as of now I'm not too sure how the virus kills people, all I've decided is that it does xD

I hope you have a great day!   Explore the endless planets brimming with life of the Yonderverse! Go after creatures, discover new places, and learn about the people you find along the way.   Come prep for WorldEmber with me!
Mar 7, 2023 04:37

How long ago was the extinction of the humans? Poor Dave, the only human left. Are there any stories about him at all like history books and stuff like that?

Want to check out more read my bard article
Mar 7, 2023 07:48 by Mochi

It was about two years ago! Since then Jupiter and the jovians have taken control of Earth. David is still alive but because he's the only human still alive most say the human species is extinct. Thank you for liking and commenting!

I hope you have a great day!   Explore the endless planets brimming with life of the Yonderverse! Go after creatures, discover new places, and learn about the people you find along the way.   Come prep for WorldEmber with me!
Mar 20, 2023 12:06 by Dr Emily Vair-Turnbull

Poor David.   Also I'm glad that they've sealed the altar away in a glass prison. I hope that the virus doesn't escape.

Emy x
Explore Etrea
Mar 20, 2023 12:55 by Mochi

Poor David D: the virus may escape.... better hope the prison is secure >:)

I hope you have a great day!   Explore the endless planets brimming with life of the Yonderverse! Go after creatures, discover new places, and learn about the people you find along the way.   Come prep for WorldEmber with me!
Powered by World Anvil