Star Wars Roleplay: Chaos

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Approved Location The Temple of the Silmä

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I N T E N T | To create a temple for the members of the Silmä, and others, to use in roleplay.
C R E D I T S | The Temple [x]
| The Ingress [x]​
| The Omnivident [x]​
| The Archives [x]​
| The Pivara [x]​
| The Observatory [x]​
| The Sacrificium [x]​
| Minor Ps Tweaks & Headers Done By Me
C A N O N | No
P E R M I S S I O N S | N/A
L I N K S | The Silmä
| Illyria
| Nimue
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S T R U C T U R E - N A M E | The Temple of the Silmä
C L A S S I F I C A T I O N | Temple
L O C A T I O N | Illyria
A F F I L I A T I O N | The Silmä of Illyria

A C C E S S I B I L I T Y | The temple itself is buried deep in the mountain ranges of Illyria, making it difficult to find unless you know the exact location. The exact location is a closely guarded secret between the Illyrian Royalty and the Silmä themselves. A few other covens across the Galaxy are also party to this information. However, it is not hidden in any way. It is easily visible when flying over Illyria, or when standing at the peak of a mountain. Any unwary traveller or curious mind may have the chance to stumble upon it.

Because of the Silmä’s defensive and distrusting nature, gaining access to the temple itself is exceedingly difficult. The route toward it is ladened with traps and false passages that lead you astray through the heart of the mountains, and the path leading up to the ingress is guarded heavily by students and lesser priestesses of the coven who, despite their lower status, still possess significant abilities in the force and in magik.​

D E S C R I P T I O N | Buried in the centre of Illyria’s vast mountain range stands a pyramid of obsidian rock. Though it is visible from the peak of any mountain, and its purple hues can be seen for miles on a cloudy night, one would need to fly over it to see the entire pyramid and its surrounding area. With steep and dangerous climbs on all mountains surrounding it, the only way into the temple area is a carved valley through a mountain that joins to the path leading up to the ingress.

Stretching for a few miles around all sides of the pyramid is a flower-covered graveyard with dirt that glows an unearthly shade. Filled to the brim with headstones, effigies and shrines of the same black rock as the pyramid, the only marginally empty corner is the south-east corner at the rear of the pyramid where members of the Silmä have yet to be placed. A gated section of wrought ebony metal sits at the forefront of the graveyard, where the Silmä carved the path through the mountains to build their temple. This gated section contains grander pillars of obsidian stone, along with some statues in the likeness of notable high priestesses and members of the Silmä, with runes carved into them that add their own eerie glow to the cemetery.

Carved into each corner of the pyramid are makeshift chimneys, the edges of which are gilded in silver and phrik. Most nights columns and plumes of smoke pour from the vents in various shades of purple, tainting the very atmosphere the same hue. The very top of the pyramid, while missing its point entirely, is also encased in the same silver and phrik mix as the vents. On nights of importance to the Silmä, and during rituals, a golden beam of light can be seen erupting from the hole in the top of the pyramid.​

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T H E - I N G R E S S [x]
The Ingress, while primarily labelled as an entrance, actually stretches a mile and a half into the pyramid and stands around twenty stories high. The bleak stone it is made from is carved head to toe in ancient runes depicting names of the members of the Silmä, used to protect the temple itself. When new members of the Silmä join they carve their name into the ingress in a ritualistic celebration, meant to show that they give their lives and souls to the coven and to the temple. The names date all the way back to the dark sith lord Kruel Zing who commissioned the pyramid himself.

After crossing the threshold you are greeted by indents in the walls, home to statues of obsidian carved in the likeness of Kruel Zing and the most notable members of the Silmä coven. The further you get into the ingress the less frequent the name becomes until you are faced with pillars and blocks of plain obsidian rock where names are yet to be carved.

Because of the lack of doors on the ingress, and much like the graveyard that surrounds it, it suffers the worst from the purple fumes that leak from the vents. On nights when the Silmä are particularly busy it is almost entirely covered in a thick blanket of fog, and the only thing to guide your way down the vast hall is the dull glow of ancient names carved onto even more ancient rock.​

T H E - O M N I V I D E N T [x]
The Omnivident is the force nexus that resides in the heart of the pyramid, down a set of long hand-carved stairs that go deep under rock and stone of the mountain. While the rest of the pyramid is constructed of obsidian rock, the cave containing the nexus was a natural formation, found by Kruel Zing when creating the temple. It has been hollowed out to host a sufficient number of bodies when required and is home to a pool of translucent milk-white water around ten feet in diameter known as the omnivident. A single thin stream feeds the omnivident, flowing from somewhere deeper than the Silmä have dared to explore.

Upon entering the cave a neat fire pit is presented front and centre, with an unnaturally large cauldron placed over an eternally burning coal. Covering the floor and hanging loosely from the ceiling are blooms of white flowers, growing around naturally formed clumps of white crystal. Dotted around the caves amongst the flowers grows a fauna not found anywhere else on Illyria. Imbued by the power of the nexus, this glowing yellow mushroom, known as the Pölvästi, forms in clumps and illuminates the cave with a glow to rival that of the omnivident itself.

A craggy roughly carved bench of stone lines most of the edge of the pool for the sisters to use during their rituals, except for the northern edge that faces the entrance. Instead of a makeshift bench, the sisters of the Silmä put cushions almost over the edge of the pool. These are primarily used by the high priestess and other higher members of the Silmä when using the pool to see into the past and the future.​
T H E - A R C H I V E S [x]
The Archives is home to the vast library of books owned by the Silmä. The Silmä do not allow open flames in the archives, so any who do not possess the power to create their own light are lost to the darkness the moment the heavy wooden doors close behind them. Tall bookcases stretch from floor to ceiling line every wall and form the corridors of the archives, pressed so closely only one at a time can walk them. The floors are designed from marble specifically to echo footsteps through the hallowed halls, alerting the studying members of the Silmä of another's presence.

The archives take up the largest portion of the pyramid and are incredibly easy to become lost in. The first few floors of which contain books on all kinds of knowledge. From cookery to fishing, to alchemy and the dark side of the force. These floors are labelled and organized into categories, making them easier to navigate if you keep track of what section you’re in.

However, the rest of the archives house the Silmä’s predictions, visions, prophecies of the past and future. Bound in ancient cracked leather of various shades the books on these shelves have no titles, no authors and no dates to distinguish them by. This was intentionally done by the second high priestess of the Silmä to protect the secrets they contain by confusing and befuddling any stranger who managed to get past their defences and into the archives. The only way this section of the archives can be navigated is via a book called the codex** kept in the possession of the high priestess. Making it almost impossible for any, including the sisters of the Silmä to find what they are looking for without her permission.

Infrequently dotted throughout the archives are sections of bookcases rounded off to form makeshift rooms. The Silmä place sets of simple tables, chairs for the Silmä to use while they study. On the last level of the archives, where the most recent predictions of the Silmä are kept, is an office for use by the high priestess. While not walled off entirely, it is surrounded by a circle bookshelf that is, more often than not, half-empty. It also contains the only sources of light in the archives, though they are still non-flammable sources. This office is reserved for the ritual the Silmä know as “entombing”, where their most recent predictions are immortalized in the tomes that, when full, will join the others in the archives.​
T H E - P I V A R A [x]
The Pivara are primarily used in place of a forge. Inside these makeshift kitchens, the Silmä perform their alchemy and prepare potions and spells. There is one located in each of the four corners of the base of the pyramid. Their foundations rest beneath it entirely, but the rooms have been carved out with extra height to their walls to account for the vents. The large rooms were also left with a purposefully cave-like nature, with channels and pockets in the walls to help channel the fumes when the Silmä work. The walls of the pivara are lined with wooden shelves, cupboards carved into the stone themselves, and various tables to hold the Silmä’s ingredients.

Hanging from the ceiling of the pivara are long chains connected to large copper cauldrons suspended over pits of eternally burning flame. The pivara are large enough to host forty to fifty cauldrons, each with enough room to be surrounded by some of the more essential ingredients of the Silmä’s art.​
T H E - O B S E R V A T O R Y [x]
The Observatory is located on the floor just below the peak of the pyramid, and is used by the sisters as a way to view the skies. The sisters believe that the movement of the stars also predict the future, and study them religiously in this room in order to better understand the knowledge they receive in their prophecies. Only members of the coven themselves are allowed entrance to this room. Even the royals of Illyria are rarely permitted.

On one side of the observatory, the obsidian rock has been exchanged for sheets of solid, painted durasteel placed on a rail that lines the walls. These sheets are able to slide back to reveal the skies, and to make way for the telescope the eighteenth high priestess had commissioned. The telescope itself is only big enough for one person to gaze through but is set on a platform that requires the priestess construct a set of stairs beneath it. Two sisters are stationed at the telescope day and night, as two people are required to move the telescope to its desired position.

The rest of the room is often as dimly lit as possible, in order to prevent the light disturbing the clarity of the telescope. Intermittently lining the other walls are bookshelves of the same type found in the archives, though these instead contain all the personal knowledge on the stars that the Silmä discover during their studies. Between the bookshelves are hand-drawn maps of the stars in range of Illyria, labelled with notes in white ink made by the sisters over the years. Maps of Illyria, as well as masterfully crafted globes, litter the entire room. There are also desks and chairs to be used for studying.​

T H E - S A C R I F I C I U M [x]
The Sacrificium is the room used for most, if not all, of the Silmä’s rituals. Rather than create a room in the likeness of a mountain peak, Kruel Zing had a peak ripped from one of the mountains of Illyria and transported to the pyramid instead. It was carved down to fit and lined with obsidian stone to match the rest of the pyramid, but the inside remains formed the way nature intended.

The sacrificium is bare, save for three braziers of dark metal, each positioned at the point of a triangle. In the centre of these three braziers is a stone table covered with the ancient runes of the Silmä. The walls of the sacrificium are carved with much the same, and a few torches hanging from rings embedded into the rock are littered sparsely amongst them.

However, the most eye-catching part of the sacrificium is the total lack of ceiling. The walls taper inward toward the point like one would expect of a pyramid, but where there should have been a tip there is, in fact, nothing but the open skies. This was designed purposefully, as many of the Silmä’s rituals are performed by the light of the moon.​

O T H E R
The Temple of the Silmä is the primary home of the sisters of the Silmä. It contains various rooms needed for them to reside there such as lecture halls, dining rooms, properly fitted kitchens, washrooms, dormitories and lounges. However, most of these rooms go largely unused thanks to the dwindling numbers of the Silmä. The temple also contains a private bedroom and adjoining rooms for use of the high priestess.​

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With the route to the temple being so well hidden, the Silmä have found very little need for defence. When it was constructed Kruel Zing commissioned extra paths carved through the mountain valley to confuse unwary travellers. These false paths and passages lead to the heart of the mountain and beyond, and those who were reported to be lost in them have never returned. The Silmä believed these paths to be infallible. However, a few instances of close calls throughout their history encouraged them to add measures to ensure that on the rare chance an attack should occur, they were prepared. The Silmä do not fight by ordinary means and instead protect their temple with witchcraft and magiks.

R U N E S - O F - J U S T I C E - A F T E R - D E A T H | The graveyards surrounding The Silma's great temple often appears freshly dug. Flowers grow in lush amounts while strange runes seem to shimmer off the off-brown soil. The Silma do not believe in wasting a vessel after the power of the Force has long since fled it. Instead, they use the area surrounding the temple as a special burial ground. The darkest magicks of the Silma come alive when these runes detect a threat to the temple. Generations of dead live under the grounds the trespassers walk on. Upon the rune’s activation, the ground will quake as the dead come to life to defend their own. The dead bodies are usually frail and nothing more but bone with flecks of skin or wrappings draped from them. Individually they are weak and usually not armed with much more than a stone spear or primitive bow, however, the Silma are old and ancient. There are thousands of them, an army of the dead waiting to be awakened.

S T A T U E S - O F - I M M O R T A L I T Y | The Temple of the Silma is a massive structure, a maze to the unfamiliar. In this maze, there are hundreds of statues filling the halls. Each one is the depiction of an honoured sister of the Silma who changed the order in some fashion or another. These heroes, immortalized in stone, had their final life essence drained from them so they could be embedded into special crystals within the statues. The statues are capable of releasing dark side tendrils on their enemies or any who are deemed an enemy of the Silma.

F I N A L - R I G H T S | The true power of the temple lies with the High Priestess. As the leader of the Silma and the ultimate master of their ways, her power is considered immeasurable compared to her sister’s. Deep in the Omnivident a special power may allow the Priestess one final chance to defend her temple. The Omnivident is capable of sucking the life out of a living being, and using the life force gained to empower the High Priestess. Through this, she will gain years added to her life as well as a temporary multiplication to her power and connection to the Force. The ritual is a simple one, yet the lasting effects can become more and more damaging to the Priestess’ psyche.​

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In ancient times, before the hundreds year war plagued Illyria, the Silmä were a powerful Force Order that exerted no small amount of influence over Illyria. They controlled the Illyrian Forest's and guarded them viciously. The order was founded when a Dark Lord of the Sith, Kruel Zing erected a Sith Temple in the centre of Illyria's largest forest. The obsidian pyramid was constructed by the Sith Lord in order to commune with the Dark Side and imbue weapons with its twisted power. Once his work was finished he abandoned both the planet and the temple. A small number of Illyria’s savage clans stumbled upon his temple and began to revere the power that bled from the black stone.

Over the years, and as the coven developed into what the Silmä know it as today, many changes have been made to the temple Kruel Zing once erected. What started a bleak, black stone that struggled to rival against the shadow of the mountain morphed with each pair of hands it passed through. The first of the high priestesses to bring great change, and the most change, to the structure of the temple was the first high priestess to ever take the mantle. Building upon the work left behind by their idol, the first high priestess was responsible for constructing and maintaining much of the temple as it stands today. She was the one to discover and carve out the cave surrounding the omnivident, making it suitable for their purposes. This was also the time when she decreed the cemetery surrounding the temple to be created, as the Silmä were much higher in population and had a constant stream of bodies to begin filling it.

The second change to the temple did not come till years after when the constructions of the pivara began and the Silmä added the vents on the side of the pyramid to account for the fumes that their craft created. The additions of silver and phrik to contrast the obsidian stone were also added around that time. However, it was the fourth priestess who brought about the biggest change to the rooms within the temple itself. The archives being one of these changes. The high priestess, who after discovering a young sith apprentice in the midst of the shelves that held their prophecies, destroyed all the signs that would have directed unaware minds to the pieces of the future or past that they hunted for. Both current and past sisters of the Silmä agreed this was in the best interest, to protect the knowledge they were charged with.

Beyond these changes, the temple of the Silmä has remained mostly the same throughout its time, standing as a beacon to all the Silmä represent and strive to achieve.​

** | Codex Sub To Be Submitted and Linked at a Later Date.
Credits to Aries Creed Aries Creed for allowing me to expand on the Silmä and for doing the security section of this sub!
 
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Submission Name: The Temple of the Silmä
Link to Submission: [X]
Reason for Moving into Pre-Codex: I'd like to add some links to some submissions I've created that tie in with this sub.

Moved to pre-codex per OP request.

Please remember to include a list of changes made when you tag a member of codex staff to move your submission to live judgement.
 
Changes Made

i. Added Links to the Pölvästi and the Omnivident into the Links subheader.​


ii. Added Links to the Pölvästi and the Omnivident in the Points of Interest subheader.​
T H E - O M N I V I D E N T [x]
The Omnivident is the force nexus that resides in the heart of the pyramid, down a set of long hand-carved stairs that go deep under rock and stone of the mountain.​

Dotted around the caves amongst the flowers grows a fauna not found anywhere else on Illyria. Imbued by the power of the nexus, this glowing yellow mushroom, known as the Pölvästi, forms in clumps and illuminates the cave with a glow to rival that of the omnivident itself.​


iii. Fixed some minor spelling and grammar mistakes.​

This is ready for live judging! John Locke John Locke
 
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