Black Monastery

The Black Monastery is the headquarters of the Dark Monks, and is located in Eastern Tyrrus. It is built high into the Dragoncrags, in the region known as the Blackwald.
The Black Monastery is a heavily fortified set of black stone buildings, interposed with idyllic gardens and deep pools of water. There are four main buildings in the compound; the main hall, the living quarters, the training hall, and the black archives. The Black Monastery is one of the only sanctioned place of worship for the Dark Gods in the world, and is untouchable by the nations of Tyrrus.
The Black Monastery was once the only place where Dark Monks could be trained. However, with the population of Tyrrus growing, and the vast amount of strife that has occurred across the region in the last few decades, the Dark Monks have received a growing number of initiates, and have had to split the training across a number of secret structures across the region.
=== History ===
The Black Monastery is one of the oldest structures in Tyrrus, having been first founded sometime in the second century, before even the founding of the Rune Kingdom. The original founding of the dark monks is an event shrouded in myth, but was likely originally built as a fortress and home for the religious leaders of the Barrowling folk, an ancient dark-worshiping culture.
Over the years, the Black Monastery has gone through multiple renovations and rebuilding. It has frequently been attacked, abandoned, occupied etc., gradually wearing away the original structure.
The most recent of such renovations was undertaken by Gaius Lestrade of the Nightguard, in order to make the structure more defensible. This involved the construction of an extra layer of heavily fortified walls, and gatehouses along the mountain path leading to the monastery.
=== Shrines ===
The Dark Monks teach that there is wisdom to be gained from all sources of darkness. As such, there is a shrine to all the major known dark gods in the monastery.
Four of these shrines are larger than the others, these are the main four dark gods worshiped by the monks: Daxanine, Morvelen, the Faceless God and Velkyn, each of which have their own dedicated chapels in the monastery. smaller shrines dedicated to the following demonlords: Malphakain, The Horde, Azjol, and Czoloch, are located in the four main towers of the monastery.