Masonry, etc.

In today’s edition of The Tsar Tribune, we ask noted scholar and architectomancer Tippon Pool “What are the buildings in the Valley that are simply a must see?”
Well, first off, I’m a native of Tsar. I was born here, I grew up here, and considering how cruel and unusual some of the architecture is, I’ll probably die here. So the first place would have to be Our Lady Of the Bloody Hand Paladin Academy. 
I’d call it “Instructional design”. People from all over the Valley who here the Call come there - travel far - to try and earn their Honors. The building has to be functional - as a church - as a school, but it also has to tell people what they’re meant to learn, what they’re meant to feel.
The imposing spire of the life-sized replica of the bloody hand, the enchanted blood fountain, it’s intimidating. It’s awe inspiring. It warns you of the dangers ahead. There’s steps everywhere - needless steps - moving you up and down levels. It’s exhausting just to cross from one side of the chapel to the other. Everything is difficult. To get to the entrance hall you must go up 77 steps, down 77 steps, and up 77 more. And some - I think they - I think they don’t get it. They see it as - They consider it impractical. And it really isn’t because it’s your first lesson. And it’s a lesson you learn every morning - every time you need to do anything - it’s a reminder. I love it.
Second - of course, you understand - second would be the Royal Palace of Skor. For certain it has towers - it has golems - it has everything. It’s a good building, it has a purpose, it looks nice. That’s not what’s special about it though. The Valley - and I say with love - is a rough place - it’s a mean place, and it’s surprising that anything that big is still there. It’s from the fourth age! Do you know how many civil wars - civil wars with siege weapons - Skor has seen? How is that building still there? How has it not burned down, been teleported to the astral plane or been eaten by dire fiendish clockwork caterprisms* by now? Stand there - stand in front of it, and marvel in awe at something so resilient.
*Editor’s note: It has been at least 15 years since the last dire fiendish clockwork caterprism attack in Skor, and the Skor Tourism Board says the risk of attack is at an all time low of “Unlikely”
Third - I don’t know, the Academy in the Forge? It’s big. It’s the biggest building in the Valley. You could cut it in 4 and it would then be the 4 biggest buildings in the Valley. Go there if you like big buildings. It’s quite large.
Fifth, The Gem of Tarren’s Junction. It’s a museum of big gems - pretty rocks - applied geology. If that’s your sort of thing. What makes it special is that gems look like trash - like utter garbage - unless they’re lit in the right way. So the whole building’s carefully using walls, magical lights - mirrors with magical lights - that sort of thing, to make everything look beautiful. It’s really hard to do! It has more mirrors than any other building in the Valley, despite being the size of a particularly big house. Plus extra magic for security and so on. Take a look! You can see none of it! It’s utterly unimpressive! Boring - exquisite - I love it.
Sixth, the docks in Lycia. Pick a building, any building. It’s a long way, very long. Bring a book .Learn a new language. Develop latent magical skills. Tamp down on your expectations. The whole town was built by a pupil of mine. It’s good - it’s ok - it’s quite nice sometimes. The buildings don’t matter much. What does matter is the Valley. You find a place - it’s full of monsters - but you build a town there anyway. You put up roofs and walls and so on - all the good bits of a building - knowing you’re probably only a week out before something tramples it into the earth! Terrible. But these buildings, they’re art. They’re someone’s vision. Someone decided they were going to put their soul into it. May as well paint your life’s work onto a jar of alchemist’s fire. Terrible. Ephemeral art at its best.
Finally - finish as we start - The broken sword in Dejune. There they gave Honors for the first paladin of the Engineered Princess. Can you imagine? This hasn’t happened - there hasn’t been a new god in the Valley for the entire of the fifth age - and here they even take paladins. Things happened in this building - history - so much history - and it’s barely a decade old. It’s beautiful too. It’s - I don’t know how to put this into words. A building - it serves a function, it must do, even if that function is just to exist without falling down. This building, it’s function is unique. It does something nowhere else does, nowhere else can. If you disassembled the building and rebuilt it elsewhere, it wouldn’t be the same. If it burned down and was rebuilt - it wouldn’t be the same. You can’t replicate it. I’m biased, I’ve followed Muir from when I was young and foolish until now -old and foolish. But I stepped into the building and closed my eyes, and I thought I could feel the stones - they were under my feet - flowing up to the roof - and stretching up to the Seven Heavens to the feet of Lady Kingsley herself. That’s pretty good for a building, don’t you think?