Gravity Anchor

A Gravity Anchor is a magical device first constructed in Kiaris'yinima, an ancient city in Inshiwizi, Exegol.

## History

Exegol has long been known to be a land of endless mysteries so great that not even the ten-millennium spanning Sith Empire could not completely unveil. Many of these anomalies are tied to the vergence believed to be at the land's core, bordering the river Talona in the northern land, and the further one is from the vergence's center, the lesser its effects will be. This appeared to be the case until the Sith Eternal dared to step foot on the lands of Inshiwizi. The mighty Sith were met not by a tame, submissive territory but yet more great mysteries to pick apart; the most prominent of which were the strange structures known as Gravity Anchors. Four-thousand, five-hundred sixty-three years before the Battle of Endor, agents of the Sith made landfall at northern Qtiyinasi. The island first appeared to be lifeless, spare for vegetation, but as the Sith made their way inland, they found it more and more difficult to navigate as their known rules began to break down. Streams flowed uphill, rocks floated in place when they were kicked up by the boots of the newcomers, and not even night and day appeared to have any significance any more. Terrified by these fundamental changes, the newest scouts of the group fled back to their ships, losing their pursuers in the mysteries of Inshiwizi. These novice scouts recorded for the first time in non-Inshiwizan history the bizarre structure that would later become known as a Gravity Anchor. Like many objects of the era, they appeared to be reliant on a Force-imbued power source, most likely a kyber crystal. This information was brought back to the Exegol mainland and copied into the records of the Sith Citadel.

Further into the wilderness, the leader of the Sith exploration team eventually gave in and commanded the group to turn around and return to their ships. However, when they returned, they were met not by the proud red-and-black flags flown by their great Harrowers but by rotted, ruined vessels eroded by the passing of time. It took them years to repair and rebuild what was left of their once-proud fleet and return home. Even then, the home they returned to was not one that recognized them. In the span of months, years had passed on the mainland, and Exegol had once again undergone a severe draft for a war against the Jedi, leaving most of the land deserted or with a skeleton crew of inhabitants. In the remaining years, the exploration team recorded their findings alongside that of the initial deserters, noting a second Gravity Anchor located on a small peninsula in southern Qtiyinasi. These two Anchors were named Siauri and Nuri--the "nothern anchor" and "Nuri's anchor", respectively. While the exact function of the structures still remained unknown to the Sith Eternal, the information gathered by both groups was cross-referenced to form a basic outline of its external structure.

In the year 5 BE, an Eternal taskforce was dispatched to expand their influence into southern Exegol and exterminate any and all non-Sith. In addition to an armada of warships, the taskforce was also equipped with several large kyber arrays, carried by their Xyston-class battlecruisers. Generally used to fuel their immensely powerful city-shattering energy weapons, the kyber arrays were repurposed in an attempt to activate the device known as Anchor Siauri. Upon activation, the Anchor appeared to nullify the effects of the Inshiwizan anomalies, including the exaggerated flow of time across Qtiyinasi.

This Eternal taskforce, formally known as the Operation: Starsplinter battlegroup, then made its way south to the second recorded Anchor, slowly progressing through the entire width of the island with a kyber array in tow. Nuri's Anchor, too, was reactivated before the group returned to their ships, and unlike the Sith Empire expeditioners, they came back to a fleet that had perceived the flow of time the same as them. Further Sith Eternal operations into Inshiwizi revealed the locations of more such Anchors, either by direct observation or Inshiwizan records that had survived the passing of time. Located to the west of Qtiyinasi, Anchor Akiratis ("horizon anchor") stood on a strategically important position overlooking Qtiyinasi and the surrounding waters. Two more Anchors were mentioned in several intact Inshiwizan records, located to the southwest of Inshiwizi's largest landmass. Anchors Tyûk and Sitazirsi ("strength anchor" and "anchor of the skyline" respectively) stood apart on a diagonal line, roughly the same distance between them as the two Anchors of Qtiyinasi.

Many undated texts all referenced an Anchor positioned at the top of the higher of the two "sister mountains", Tisira Jitkinas, suggesting that one could summon the legendary Skydragon Nuri, should the need be great enough. Among historical records of Qtiyinasi were origin theories of the Inshiwizan lands, the most accepted of which pointed to Qtiyinasi and Dikiynai once being a united landmass, conjoined by the great city that once stood in the center of Kiaris'yinima--the "quasar's outlook". According to the peoples of central and eastern Inshiwizi, Kiaris'yinima's city was the site at which the first Gravity Anchor was constructed, a base for civilization across southern Exegol. However, nothing remains of Kiari'yinima's center but a blasted crater as deep as the ocean floor.

Across eastern Inshiwizi, on the island of Dikiynai are the two Anchors Shâsot and Chwûq ("anchor of passionate struggles" and "ember anchor" respectively). They appear to center around a single point, also surrounded by dried riverbeds and thin streams that might've once fed water to a mighty city. In all, eight Gravity Anchors are known, and of those eight, only three have been repaired to the point of having any effect on the environment. It is suspected that these ancient monuments to the skies can do more, but without knowledge of how to operate them, the most the Eternal can do is halt the anomalous effects of the Inshiwizan-Exegol vergence.