At the southeastern edge of known lands, beyond the Iron Mountains and overlooking the entrance to the Long Strait, lies the Tower of the Sun. Built in an age when civilization still cowered in the shadow of immense dangers, this mighty structure was a beacon of vigilance and protection. It once guarded the lands against threats emerging from the southern seas, its grandeur a testament to the goliath ingenuity that shaped it.
Now, the Tower is a ruin. Its once-proud silhouette, visible for miles, is broken and weary, with half its defenses reduced to rubble. The celestivere that once crowned it—a magical mirror that reflected the sun's journey—has been lost to time, and the staff that marked it as a sentinel of the Himminin is shattered. The Tower of the Sun is no longer a bastion of protection but a haunting monument to a forgotten era.
On Approaching the Tower of the Sun
The Tower of the Sun rises like a jagged tooth from the hills overlooking the Long Strait. Its curved walls, crafted from sun-golden stone, are weathered and cracked, their carvings of radiant suns and celestial paths all but eroded. The once-grand entrance arch has collapsed, leaving a precarious gap for daring explorers to traverse.
Inside, the remnants of its former splendor lie in disarray. Fragments of mosaics that once depicted the Elder Giants' journeys and the solar cycles litter the ground. The central chamber, where the celestivere once stood, is open to the sky, its vaulted ceiling long since fallen away. Vines and creeping plants have overtaken the structure, mingling with the bones of its past defenders and lending the ruin an eerie, desolate beauty.
Outpost of Brolt
Decades ago, the human city-state of Brolt sought to repurpose the Tower of the Sun as an outpost. Drawn by the promise of a stronghold overlooking the Long Strait, their engineers began to rebuild. They reinforced the storage vaults and improvised a new barrier from the rubble of the fallen walls.
However, their efforts met a swift and brutal end. The workers encountered resistance they could not have anticipated: a petrified tree trunk within the ruins that radiated latent magical energy, and ferocious attacks from the wilderness. The final blow came in a violent raid—its origins unknown—that left the site deserted and the vision of a fortified outpost abandoned. To this day, no one from Brolt dares return to the Tower.
Den of Beasts
The Tower of the Sun has become a place of dread, its ruins now a lair for creatures of nightmares. Most notably, a roc—a gargantuan bird of prey—has claimed the Tower as her nesting site. Her massive chicks, still growing but already formidable, can be seen perched on the Tower’s crumbled parapets, surveying the surrounding hills for prey.
Few venture near the Tower for fear of attracting the roc's attention. Tales of her devastating strikes and the skeletal remains of her past hunts scattered around the ruins are enough to keep even the most daring adventurers at bay. What was once a bastion of safety is now a symbol of untamed wilderness, a reminder of nature’s enduring power over the ambitions of mortals.