Long ago, the temple of Melora was the centre of the yuan-ti empire, but they were overthrown and destroyed by the man who would become the Sunderking. The survivors, vilified by humans, have been living in the ruins for nearly 1,000 years. They await the Turning, when Melora will bring the world back into balance.
Tol Mannic was once a tall marble tower, full of the grace and splendour of the yuan-ti empire at its height. At some point in the war with the Sunderking, however, the tower was toppled, and now the site is a field of shattered debris, still pristine after nearly a thousand years. Due to some ancient magic, the trees surrounding the area still refuse to grow on the site.
The ruin is rarely visited, but the road through the forest to the site is still extant, thanks to the engineering of that long-gone empire. Travellers who wish to explore the ruins will find it a day’s journey from the town of Blue Water, and may even find some other travellers there: mercenaries, wanderers, and undesirables trying to find a place to lay low while the storm blows over.
There are no riches in the ruins. It has been over nine hundred years since the great tower was toppled, and bandits and desperados have picked the marble detritus clean in the centuries since. All that is left is that which is too large to move: the marble blocks themselves, the statue of a serpentine Melora in a long-dry fountain at the base of the tower, and the barracks on the outskirts of the site, their walls carved with victories of the yuan-ti over the goliaths.
On Approaching the Ruin
"It has been over a thousand years since the fall of the Ssthessic Vrasa, a thousand years since the mighty marble tower of Tol Mannic stretched towards the sky, a thousand years since the vaulted halls of that massive monument were filled with conversation and laughter. Now, in the clearing in the centre of the Mannic Woods, where trees even now dare not grow, there is only silence."
The caves below have been inhabited for just as long. Their community is small, by necessity, and occasionally it is made smaller by the exodus of a group who are unwilling to continue the wait for the Turning. The passages themselves are rough and rudimentary, a far sight from the architectural marvels of centuries past, but the inhabitants are unwilling to risk the attentions of those above-ground, and make as few excavations as possible.
Though it is uncommon for any to leave the ruins, any yuan-ti unwise enough to leave their sanctuary find that the kingdom above is a hostile place, and either leave Endon or meet the same fate as their ancestors.
Statues of Melora
The history of the Yuan-Ti Empire is a long one, and though many historians, adventurers, and xeno-anthropologists like to tar non-human races with the same brush, making sweeping declarations about ‘warlike’ races and ‘barbaric’ people, the history of any empire shows the ebb and flow of public inclination.
The Yuan-Ti Empire -- the Ssthessic Vrasa -- had its fair share of barbaric practices, such as the now-forbidden blood magic their armies employed, the slave hordes that powered their economy, and so on, but they were also celebrated artists, architects, and philosophers. Their theology also varied: in the early to mid-Empire, the Ssthessic flocked to the worship of Melora, who represented the impassive and impartial turn of nature.
Survival vs Significance
The refuge at Tol Mannic is a risky one for those that still cower in its shadow. Tol Mannic is one of the most-visited of the ancient Ssthessic sites, and one of the smallest, making life dangerous and difficult. While it is easier to live in the refuge beneath Tol Fallent, and some occasionally do leave for those tunnels, Tol Mannic is a place of special significance to the Ssthessic: the seat of their Emperors, and the height of their power.