Serpent Lodge - Temple of the Serpent Lodge: The Temple of the Serpent Lodge, also known as the Delphos, was an imposing stone building set in the middle of a huge crater on Davin that had a diameter stretching across thousands of metres.The crater was located at the end of a long valley, and the chief way to approach it by land involved travelling along a stone causeway set along the bottom of the valley. The causeway was lined with the crumbling stone statues of ancient Davinite kings.The actual temple was an octagonal structure, with a bastion and tower built at each corner. A further eight towers surrounded a dome raised in the centre of the structure, and each tower was tipped with a blazing fire. A single large archway led into the dome and the fane itself. The approach to this dome involved climbing a set of massive stone steps that were lined with coal braziers and pillars carved to feature serpents.At the top of the steps was a path that narrowed as it approached the gate that was similarly lined with burning fires and stone pillars. However, between the gated archway and the top of the steps was a wide circular pool. This pool generated three narrow watercourses that rushed towards the steps, and in fact continued down it, with one channel on either side and one set in the middle, splitting the staircase.The gate itself consisted of two large doors of beaten and carved bronze. They featured a complex design only fully understandable when the gate was closed. It showed a large tree with spreading and fruit-laden branches. Many minor serpents twisted and spiraled around the edges of the design, but two great snakes coiled around the tree and each other, with their heads entwined together above it.When he saw this image, Captain Garviel Loken noted that it was strikingly similar to that worn by Space Marine Apothecaries; the ancient symbol of the caduceus. The paving in front of the gate continued the image of the tree by featuring a carving of three great roots that led to the edge of the wide pool. Apparently, once the gates were closed they could only be opened from within.There was a secret chamber at the heart of the temple, called the "Axis Mundi" -- the "womb of the world" -- protected from detection by powerful Chaos sorcery and screening technology. That technology had been installed by disgruntled Tech-adepts of the Mechanicum in return for heretical technical knowledge given to them by the Word Bearers Legion that the Emperor had forbid the Mechanicum from possessing.Circular in nature, the chamber had a sacrificial circle and sinkhole built into its centre. It was here that the Lodge members conducted the rituals and the sacrifice of one of their own priestesses that earned the attention of the four major Chaos Gods and allowed Erebus to enter the Warp and communicate with Horus during the wounded Warmaster's stay in the temple.Davinite belief was that the injured taken inside were left to the care of the spirits of the deceased, and their ultimate destiny would then be revealed -- to die and join the spirits of the dead in the beyond, or to find a second chance at life.They were expected to come forth healed, but if this did not occur after nine days, their remains were brought out and burned, the ashes cast into the pool. The reborn Horus came forth to greet his waiting Astartes upon the ninth day after he was taken into the Delphos.