Aquitania¶
"Secrets must be kept. You know what you need." — Monan, ascendant of Nyx (S031)
Contested
Named in the open question Name of Nyx's hidden sanctuary in the Aquitanian Mountains; the merge step wires the link.
The Jungles of Aquitania are a rainforest grown over the ruins of a dead civilization, and the Aquitanian Mountains that rise from them hide two of the Fifth Age's great secrets: the sanctuary where the goddess Nyx shelters the god Arcantus, and a buried temple that is the prison of the Elder God Seth'Arax. The Sancturi-era gazetteer gives the region in a sentence: "The Jungles of Aquitania have long been a fierce and wild place. It is even more so now with the regrowth of the new rainforest over the ruins of the decaying old forest and the Hollowing. Green Dragons, though few in number, appear to be the apex predators in these lands" (S324).
Also called: the Aquitanian Jungles (S201).
The jungles and the old capital¶
A Sancturi-era company reached the heart of the jungle by one of twelve anchored portals in 704 SM of the Fifth Age and found the "Aquitantian Capitol in the Jungles": a stepped pyramid, "beating of wings," and a young green dragon perched on it (S192; S191 lists the destination as the "Aquitantian Capitol"). The ruins belong to a people the gazetteers call the Aquitan, who "were wiped out" during the Draconic Ascension, "and the remaining Aquitanians were absorbed into the Kajatt, Kamnara, and the Huur" (S387; see Humans). Green dragons rule what they left.
Gap
The gazetteers place the old Aquitan kingdom "in what is now Qom" (S387), not in these jungles, and no source says whether the pyramid-capital in the jungle was Aquitan, or how far the jungles lie from the desert of Qom.
The Sanctuary of Forgotten Secrets¶
In the tallest peaks of the Aquitanian Mountains the goddess Nyx keeps a hidden library and refuge, named in the session notes as the "Sanctuary of Forgotten Secrets" (S193, S201) and, in the earliest of them, the "Sanctum of Untold Secrets" (S190). The notes of the thirtieth session hold the key lore: the god Arcantus "has been searching for a way to restore his godhood (ability to return to his shard). If he dies on the mortal realm, he will become a sleeping god. If he returns to his shard, he would lose to a challenge by Asmodeus and Asmodeus would gain more control over the Mithis Plane," so "Nyx is presently hiding Arcantus in his Sanctum of Untold Secrets (embedded in the tallest peaks of Aquitanian Mountains)" (S190). The company's own notes place it in a word: "Aquitanian Jungles, Sanctuary in the mountains" (S201).
The sanctuary is a library. Its wings, as the company found them, were Historical, Biology, Alchemy, Arcane (behind warded doors) and "Industry (Rare Mineral Extracts from Granite)" (S201); a tome on rare mineral extracts from granite, "several blank pages," turned up in their hands two months before (S193). The company also carried the "Book of Kera'Jaol" to "sanctuary" (S198). A dwarf engineer, Drek, is noted beside the word Sanctuary (S193).
The Aquitanian Temple of Seth'Arax¶
Beneath the jungle lies a temple of the Elder God Seth'Arax, which a Sancturi-era company entered in 704 SM. Its key has nine rooms: an Entry Hall; the Temple of Seth'Arax proper, "defiled," where the Namakan High Priest Cullin was found; the Tomb of Paragons, kept by the devil Shalak; the Halls of Focus and of Channeling, with a spiked pit trap on the passage between them; the Hall of the Progenitors, guarded by a hulk, a mantis and plague; the Halls of Preparation; the Dread Gate and its energy source, a Cube of Portals; and last the Prison of Seth'Arax (S177); the Dread Gate is a matter for the rune-magic pages. Two powers contend for it: "Pitch is trying to free its master/creator Seth'Arax. Umbric Queen is trying to survive, regain control of the Gate" (S177). The Pitch is Seth'Arax's creation, and the temple is one of the places where its seals are kept; another temple of the same god, with its trials and its prisoner, is described under the White Towers.
Gap
The notes do not say how the temple was found, who the Umbric Queen is, or where in Aquitania the entrance lies.
Earlier accounts¶
The earliest session to name Nyx's refuge calls it the Sanctum of Untold Secrets (S190); the two later sessions call it the Sanctuary of Forgotten Secrets (S193, S201). This page follows the later notes.