Night Temple

Illustration

**Night Temple** was supposedly just a private Citadel of clan Valor. At first glance, it was a frontier outpost for the knights of Valor, a transfer base that was supposed to serve as a staging ground for their push further North during the active expansion of the previous decades.

## Function

Night Temple was a *prison* meant to contain a single creature and it was guarded by a hundred Awakened fighters, two Ascended knights, and a Saint.

## Location

It was an eerie place situated on the underside of the Northern Island, in the eternal shadow that makes it harder to access, but also more defendable. Not even an army of Nightmare Creatures or Awakened would be able to take it by force.

The **Northern island** was beautiful, silent, and strangely peaceful. The only landmark on the island was the ruins of the *ancient fortress* that perched precariously on its northern edge. At the very corner of the platform that lay beyond the gate, almost unnoticeable, a narrow set of stairs led down, cut from weathered rock. The path snaked around the overhanging slope, clinging to the stone surface as it led to the dark side of the island.

The path leading to the Night Temple was long and narrow. There was barely enough space for two people to walk side by side. To the right was the stone wall of the island, and to the left was the bottomless dark abyss of the Sky Below. One careless step could spell a person's doom.

## Gateway

The Gateway in the Night Temple was different from the one in the Sanctuary. There was no need to touch the altar to activate it but the altar is indeed cut from a slab of black stone. There was a statue of a veiled woman holding a star and a bolt of lightning behind it.

## Structure

* Exterior
* Interior

### Exterior

A magnificent structure protruded from the underbelly of the floating island. It was made out of black stone and resembled a tall, somber cathedral that was somehow built upside down and hovered above the abyss of impenetrable darkness. The foundation was its highest point, and its seven belfries descended into the depths of the black void, each ending with a short chain that held a massive bell cast of tarnished green copper.

The light of the sun never reached the Night Temple since it was located under the island. The cathedral was shrouded in eternal shadow, with only the pale shining of the distant divine flames caressing its black walls. In a strange reversal, the velvet darkness of the abyss and the scattering of false stars in its depths seemed like a vast night sky hanging above it.

### Interior

Before the gates of the temple, a large hall stood. The interior of the somber cathedral was as bizarre as its exterior. Some of the corridors are constructed properly but other parts of Night Temple were upside-down, the flat floors serving as ceilings and the arching ceiling serving as uneven floors. It was disorienting and sprawling, resembling a vast, convoluted maze of black stone.
## Inside the Citadel

The whole Citadel was separated into *three areas*. The ***outward ring*** was where the outsiders were given a space to establish a base. They were forbidden from entering the ***temple*** itself unless escorted by one of the Masters. This was where the Lost lived and the Gateway was situated. But there was another area inside the temple, one that even the Lost weren't allowed to enter, the ***Inner Sanctum***. It was guarded by human Echoes.

## The Temple

* Bell Tower
* Grand Hall
* Inner Sanctum
* Jail Cell

### Bell Tower

The chamber at the Bell Tower is a room built of cold stone and was dark and full of deafening silence, arranged in the shape of a heptagon. Its seven corners were drowning in shadows, and at each of its seven walls, a large mirror frame stood.

### Grand Hall

Located in the central temple, this place was both magnificent and uncanny. It was vast and full of darkness, similar to the Ruined Cathedral in the Dark City, the only difference was this tenebrous cathedral was built *upside down*.

Far above, the ceiling was flat and stretched into the distance. The floor, on the contrary, arched downward like a giant bowl, with load-bearing stone seams protruding from it like bridges and roads. The hall was silent, somber, and absolutely empty. There are no mirrors in the great hall.

In its center was where the black altar had once stood.

### Inner Sanctum

At the very heart of the Inner sanctum, the area was not too large, but right below was the main bell tower of the cathedral, which was taller and wider than the other six belfries.

Inside, there were somber corridors leading to a spacious hall. There was not a single reflective surface in the whole of the inner sanctum.

### Jail Cell

It was a circular chamber built in reverse and had a tall floor. The domed ceiling of the chamber was sloping down like a deep crater. In the center of the cell, a large iron cage stood, each bar of it as thick as a man's arm. Strange runes were inscribed all around the cage, circling it entirely. The runes can drain essence at a terrifying speed. It was built to contain Awakened. The room was dark and silent, with only a single oil lamp burning on the wall near the exit.

There are no windows in the stone chamber so it was impossible to track the passage of time.
## Rules

If one is allowed inside, there are several rules one must follow:

* Outsiders aren't allowed to summon any Memories or Echoes inside the Citadel. They can only go into the allowed areas unless a Master is escorting them.
* Outsiders may not speak with the inhabitants of the temple unless they address them first.
* All items outsiders bring inside have to be inspected.

*Note: They provide clothes for outsiders inside which consisted of tunics and trousers made out of crude cloth and a pair of leather sandals.*

## Inhabitants

There are around a hundred Awakened in the Night Temple. With the exception of two Masters who serve as Saint Cormac's lieutenants, all of the Awakened are Lost.

The somber cathedral hid an entire army.

### Leaders

* Lord Cormac - Saint
* Sir Pierce - Master
* Lady Welthe - Master

### Known Losts

* **✞**Unnamed Lost - a man in his thirties, with a gaunt face and clear, grey eyes. He can detect lies.
* **✞**Female sentinel - in her thirties, one of the guards at the gates of Night Temple. Her ability enables her to don some form of invisibility.
* **✞**Unnamed Lost - possessed an Aspect that allowed him to see the unseen.

## Background

After humans encountered the Hollow Mountains, their progress in that direction stopped but Night Temple still remains. Logically, it is supposed to be empty. But it's not.

In the second nightmare, it was mentioned by Cassie that the *Night Temple* belongs to the cult of the *Goddess of the Black Skies* — Storm God. The deity of darkness, stars, and guidance, so, no light is allowed on the temple's premises.

## Trivia

* They sealed the temple after the prisoner broke out using the mirror shard.
* Only Cormac can unseal the Temple.
* The inspection was meant to prevent mundane mirrors from being brought into the Citadel.
* There was not a single reflective surface in the Inner Sanctum. The Lost wore either armor made out of leather or dull steel that does not give off reflections, they drink water from opaque containers and not letting a single drop fall to the floor.
* The source of those thousands of mirror shards from Cassie's vision is the chamber at Bell Tower.
* The entire garrison of the Night Temple was wiped out. Only Sunny and Cassie are the only witness and the whole citadel was destroyed by the fight between two saints.

## References

1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 Chapter 567 No Escape
2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 Chapter 556 About Those Potatoes
3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 Chapter 566 Imprisoned
4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 4.3 4.4 Chapter 562 Into the Night
5. ↑ 5.0 5.1 5.2 Chapter 557 Night Temple
6. ↑ 6.0 6.1 6.2 6.3 6.4 Chapter 574 Black Altar
7. ↑ Chapter 563 Inspection
8. ↑ 8.0 8.1 Chapter 581 Bell Tower
9. ↑ 9.0 9.1 Chapter 575 Confrontation
10. ↑ 10.0 10.1 10.2 10.3 Chapter 576 Inner Sanctum
11. ↑ 11.0 11.1 Chapter 565 Unleashed
12. ↑ Chapter 569 On the Seventh Day
13. ↑ 13.0 13.1 13.2 Chapter 563 Lost Sentinels
14. ↑ Chapter 587 The Explosion
15. ↑ Chapter 583 Web of Lies
16. ↑ Chapter 596 And We Were Gone