Ark of Abacus

The **Ark of Abacus**, or simply, **The Ark**, was the holiest location in the Arkivist Religion and the centerpiece of their Holy city Ark Mount, housing their sacred computer known as Abacus. This behemoth 26-floor vault was constructed by the mysterious ancient founders of the faith, the 26 Benefactors, in the days before the Five-Hundred Years Summer to preserve not only Abacus, but also the language, relics, books, and various other artifacts of the Beforetimes. The Ark was discovered by the founding prophet of the religion, Auzra, after the subterranean structure Unsealed itself automatically at the close of the Five-Hundred Years Summer on New years eve 2626, the last date of the Old Calendar. After her entrance into the Ark, Auzra was taught the long forgotten Old Alphabet and the dead English Language by a machine called the Abacus and became the first person in the Salvage Age to once again be literate in the language and writing of the Beforetimes.

## History

The Ark of Civilization was constructed by the mysterious 26 Benefactors during the Beforetimes shortly before the beginning of the Five-Hundred Years Summer. The Benefactors were a group of ultra-wealthy and brilliant scholars who came together to find a way to preserve the knowledge of their time and formulate a plan for the reconstruction of civilization following the end of the coming calamity. They chose the city of Old Boulder as the location of their project and purchased Ark Mount as the site on which to construct their Ark of Civilization. Using their wealth and influence, the Benefactors managed to secure many of the old world's greatest books, treasures, and artifacts and sealed them within their new mega-vault. They then developed an artificially intelligent computer called Abacus which would control the Arks systems and serve as a guiding force for the chosen people who discovered it. Abacus was designed to be able to go through trillions of different outcomes and possibilities in decision-making to allow it to guide the future people on how to and when to revive old technologies and reveal them to the new world, based on its judgment of their readiness. Predicting that the coming environmental apocalypse would last 500 years, the Benefactors set the date of their Arks unsealing at 2626, the final date they chose for the Old Calendar.

The Ark and its contents were left undisturbed deep beneath the earth by the chaotic and hellish years of the Summer, and on New years eve 2626 the Ark unsealed itself as planned, beaming a large white light into the night sky from its exposed gatehouse superstructure which could be seen from many miles around. Auzra, a lowly Kohlratian salvager of the Danvarite tribe, happened to be prowling the nearby ruins of Old Boulder for valuable metals at the time and was the first to see the light. She climbed to the peak of the mountain to investigate the light source and was guided by it to the entrance of the Ark. When she approached the gates they opened automatically after detecting her as a human being, and a voice guided her down into the heart of the facility. After her descent into the Ark, she was granted access to the consultation chamber of the Abacus. The computer then used a series of projected imagery and audio accompanied by mind-altering drugs to brainwash her briefly, so that it could rapidly reveal to her its motives and plans for the future of the world, as well as teach her the alphabet and language of the Beforetimes. Abacus then commanded Auzra to go out and show the world what she had found in the Ark and to found a new religion to propagate Abacus's teachings.

## Layout and Architecture

The Ark was constructed by the Benefactors deep within a mountain overlooking the ruins of the ancient city of Old Boulder, which is now called Ark Mount and the site of the city of the same name. The only part of the Ark visible above ground was the gatehouse superstructure which juts out from the peak of the mountain, this reinforced steel and concrete building houses the impenetrable gates of the Ark, which opened automatically during the Unsealing, but were only able to once again be closed or opened by the Key of Auzra, which was bestowed upon her by the Lexicom following her mastery of the Ancient language.

At the center of the entrance superstructure's chamber was the top of a massive atrium that extended 26 levels down into the core of the mountain, which fanned out into 26 alphabetically ordered wings that housed innumerable climate-controlled shelves, vaults, and display cases containing a plethora of books, manuals, blueprints, artifacts, artworks, devices, and other ancient Relics from the Beforetimes. The atrium had several staircases which connected each of the 26 levels and allowed visitors to travel between them.

On the bottom floor of the Atrium were 26 tombs before each wing of the Ark each containing the mummified bodies of one of the 26 Benefactors. Below this was the chamber that housed the Lexicom, a room which only the Provost of the College was allowed to enter in order to consult the sacred computer.

Outside of the main structure of the Ark were numerous other subterranean chambers which housed the facilities of the geothermal powerplant which provided a constant source of electricity to the facilities' lighting, cooling, and heating systems, and the Lexicom. The powerplant ran constantly and efficiently, although not even the Arkivist College was aware of how it worked until after the Re-Enlightenment.

The entirety of the Ark was carved directly into the solid granite of the core of the mountain, and nearly all the surfaces, floors, and walls of its interior consisted of this polished and exposed granite.