The Sixfold Sepulcher
The monument to all the lost victims of The War of Boiling Skies, mulched into sludge and denied a proper burial
The great can shout and give speeches, but there is no glory in war. Thirty Million dead can attest to that. What glory did they find, on those killing fields? Thirty million men and women went off to that awful war and never came home. And how many were never found? Mulched into sludge by the Ezdhûl cannons that boomed like thunderclaps? Trampled by the feet of the allied forces? "IN MEMORIA AETURNA" - 'In Memory Forever'. The only carving on the sepulcher. Built in memory of those who were never found. Who died nameless, in the gas-choked mud, their bones swallowed and lost. For millions, the only closure they'll ever have.
Purpose / Function
The purpose of the Sixfold Sepulcher is altogether simple and somber - designed to serve as a memorial to the untold millions of war-dead who lost their lives in The War of Boiling Skies and the awful, grinding inhumanity of that war to end all wars that has not been matched in death count before or since. For, in that most awful of wars ended by the signing of The Dûlhralian Accords, the systemic genocide of millions reached its absolute zenith with the innovation of the Ezdhûl lead-spitters, cannons, toxic gas clouds, and metal tanks and flying machines that ground all life into sludge in the wake of their advance.
In that war, millions died to advance mere inches - their bodies blown apart in mist, torn apart by brutal shelling, hacked apart by their enemies - and while some of the dead were lucky enough to recieve proper burial, untold millions were not; their bodies were far too mangled to ever be conclusively buried, while other corpses were so mulched together with other bodies that it made identification all but impossible.
That is the purpose of The Sixfold Sepulcher - built in a joint effort by the remains of the Ezdhûl people after the war with the symbolic assistance of some of their enemies and foreign powers alike to commemorate the forgotten dead of the war and to help give their families who would never have a body for their loved ones closure at long last.
Alterations
Though the strange, shattered nature of the Sepulcher might lead one to assume it has been altered in the past, that is in fact part of its simplistic design, meant to evoke the image of "something shattered which will never be whole again", as those who built it felt a pure and untouched obelisk would be too out of touch of a memorial.
Architecture
The architecture of the Sixfold Sepulchre is a pure but broken thing - constructed out of beautiful marble and granite, it is a gleaming spire of brilliance in the fields in which it stands - standing nearly 80ft (24.3m) tall, its tip is broken off and shattered in a purposeful design choice meant to evoke the respect of those who knew of the war and its tragedies; of a monument that stands as broken as the continent and its people themselves were in its aftermath.
To many, this broken design also evokes the continent's collective vow to never embrace such advanced, inhumane technology ever again.
Defenses
The monument has no defenses aside from some simple magical enchantments to ward it from the passage of time and mundane wear and tear.
History
The history of the Sixfold Sepulcher begins in the aftermath of the signing of The Dûlhralian Accords and the end of The War of Boiling Skies, where the infinite mechanized legions of The Ezdhûlian Alliance were crushed with the death of Thorgrom Blackgranite at the hands of Kyra Aenai in the Saintbuster Silo deep in the bowels of the Alliance's capital, Kal-Dûlhral.
In the aftermath of the war, as the Alliance was dissolved and the Ezdhûl Mountain Citadels turned into independent nation-states, the last act of the Citadels was to put forth a proposal for a simple monument to honor the war's dead, and to give a final peace and solace to the citizens of the Citadels and all nations who had lost family members in the war who would never come home - and to those who had lost friends and family whose ultimate fate was unknown; mulched into sludge by pounding cannons and marching feet until their ultimate fate was unknown, but presumed to be death somewhere in the nameless theaters of the war.
For the people of Zheng-Kitar, the idea was a welcome one - and with much somber respect, most of the countries set aside their differences to retrieve forgotten bodies from each of the nations who participated in the conflict and inter them in the soil of the battlefields on which they fought and died. Once retrieved, these corpses were interred in special caskets and wrapped in shrouds of their homeland's national flag and lowered into the ground beneath the Sixfold Sepulcher as a grand memorial service was held on the day of the Sepulcher's completion - on this day, most every country on the continent went silent for two entire minutes with the chiming of the bells at noon - one minute to honor the dead whose bodies made it home from the war, and one minute to honor those who did not, and were forgotten.
Notably, this act of post-war solidarity was rejected by the Kingdom of Raoulin and by its leader, Kyra Aenai - who refused to allow one of their dead to be buried beneath the Sepulcher.
Tourism
The Sepulcher is a somber place, and sees infrequent tourism in the modern day - placed in the south-central lands of the modern-day Shaoshu Empire along the eastern slopes of the Tianzhao Peaks, it is often visited by those whose lifespans have allowed them to endure since the war's end nearly 800 years ago, and those who wish to visit such a place to pay their respect to ancestors or the war-dead...or to simply remember one of the darkest periods in Zheng-Kitaran history.
You can tell alot about the war from who went to the Sepulcher after it ended. The Ezdhûl , wild families, and all sorts go all the time, even now. But the Silver Haired Slaughterer and her forces? They only come to spit on their memory. To deny them even the basic fucking decency of being remembered. They were our dead too. Don't they realize we suffered too? Why is our grief lesser than theirs? Why?
Founding Date
3710
Alternative Names
The Tomb of the Lost, The Lost Monument
Type
Monument, Large
A great read. Really well put together:)