Editing Setting:Tabula Gloria/Benalor/The Gate

Quite possibly one of the more enigmatic of the Benaloran ruins, the Gate lies in the northern mountains, a rather remote and uncivilized part of Benalor's former holdings. The Gate is a truly massive cylindrical structure, dug into the hard rock of the mountain itself. There is not much known about it to Imperial or even Animari scholars, though extensive exploration has been conducted there with great peril due to a periodic, yet largely predictable '''Drakonid''' presence there. It could be said that this ruin is the penultimate product of Benaloran engineering, its sophistication eluding even the most proficient of Benalor experts, unable to be reverse-engineered as of yet. Some would even go as far as to suggest that the Gate may be far more complex than the ambitious '''Heavenrider Program'''.

=The Biggest Secret=
Though Benalor openly touted the highest technology of its time, even this Empire had its fair share of secrets to keep. Evidence of this was the discovery of Weylosian spies at the '''Ebony Tower''' leading up to the '''Three-Way War''' and their summary execution. But even the Mana-sapping abilities of the mighty '''Ansal''' fighting machines were not nearly as important as what the Benalorans had built years earlier in the north of their Empire. Benalor maintained an intelligence network of its own throughout its history, keeping tabs on its neighbors, including the strong Vashial and the rising power of Weylos. Soon after Vashial united under a Congress of Elders and power being transferred to '''Queen Tarekh al-Anshial''', Benaloran strategists were thinking about how to deal with the increasingly militant magical power to the west. This was when the initial research into the '''Mana Redistributors''' and the Ansals on which they would be installed began.

But a contingency plan was also underway, just in the off chance that their other countermeasures would not suffice. This plan would manifest in two parts. The first of which would be an underground, armored city large enough to house the vast majority of the Benaloran population. Set to be built in the far north of the Empire, "the Gate" as it was code-named would be easy to build away from the public eye, as well as out of the eyes of enemies. The location was also chosen because of the various water springs coursing through the rugged mountains in the region, only requiring the need for hunting and agriculture in order to survive. But it wasn't even the shelter aspect of the Gate which deemed it as the most top-secret project for the Empire. There would be an experimental teleportation device to be placed into the Gate which would allow for one-way instantaneous evacuation in the even less likely case in which an enemy would not only locate the Gate, but also breach the incredibly thick walls.

=Preparation for Retaliation=
According to a rare Benaloran document found recently by the College of Antiquities, the Gate was built over at least one hundred and fifty years, over the reign of three Kings: '''Laxoran IV'''; '''Esteg I'''; and '''Esteg II'''. Its primary structure was carved directly out of the mountain and reinforced with some of the most innovate Shaping that Benalor has ever produced. Also built into the structure were countless weapons made of the finest gunsmithing the Empire has ever had to offer. But the Gate was not only a pinnacle of defensive architecture, but it would also be revealed by the aforementioned document that in the meantime, the Gate would be used as a training facility for a heavily classified army. After Esteg II completed the Gate in the middle of his reign, he established a paramilitary force to operate separate of the Benaloran government in the case it would ever perish for any reason. The '''Aethergears''' as they would be called by Imperial scholars were an elite force, trained with the rigor and discipline of a Weylosian soldier and augmented with Shaped armor to compete well with Vashialian magic. Were they to receive a special set of orders, the Aethergears would mobilize and take place of what would be a defunct government, putting the Benalorans who made it to the Gate under martial law.

Other than establishing order within the colossal evacuation shelter, Aethergears would also patrol the Gate's perimeter to keep it safe, as well as sending regular regiments to the presumably destroyed cities to search for clues to the identity of their assailants. It would then be up to the soldiers to determine whether a counterattack would be viable, or if it would be best to further distance the Benaloran people through the secret device within the gate, a device in which even they would not be privileged to know the instructions of until they unsealed its chamber. In the latter instance, the Aethergears would serve in a defense capacity as their destination would be unknown to them for security reasons.

=An Incomplete Plan=
There was a second part to the contingency plan - the Heavenrider Program of '''King Esteg III'''. Though it was billed as a means for Benalor to contact beings residing in the Heavens Above and pursue diplomatic relations, the Program was also a crucial piece to the puzzle which would make the contingency plan work. The Heavenriders chosen to ride the flying machine in the Heavens were first and foremost skilled in diplomacy, but they were also hand-picked among the Aethergears for their hardiness and combat readiness were they to encounter hostiles. The machine would have a special device on board, a device in which the Heavenriders would deploy back down onto the World Itself and into a wild, unpopulated land. The location of this device would serve as the other link to the teleportation device within the Gate, the Heavenriders to be in the best position to choose where this link would be. Once the device was planted onto the World Itself, a signal would be given to the Aethergears within the Gate to unseal the device within it and start sending people to the other side. Afterwards, the Aethergears would destroy the link to thwart the enemy.

At least, this was the theory. Once the Heavenriders reached the Heaven's Horizon, not only would communications be lost between them and the technicians on the ground, but they would soon run into much worse trouble. Though there is no record of exactly what they encountered up there, it is clear that the device didn't even leave the flying machine, much less reach the World Itself. And once the '''Wight''' fell to Benalor and gave its warning of the Empire's demise, things went from bad to much, much worse.

=The Worst Way to Die=
After its defeat in the Three-Way War, Benalor couldn't stand to lose at home, especially to what they thought was an impending Vashialian assault the likes the government could never imagine. As far as they knew, their rival's magics now were capable of reaching the Heavens Above, the Wight one of their plentiful mutated creations which not only destroyed the Heavenriders but, as insult to injury, used one of their bodies to deliver the warning. With that in mind, the Vashialians could easily destroy them and not even step into Benaloran territory to do so. King Esteg III, already demoralized by the failure of the Heavenrider Program, initiated the evacuation to the Gate. He would also send a message through one of his advisers to deliver to the Aethergears, to initialize the teleportation device within the structure. Though the King wasn't sure if the link survived from the flying machine which carried the doomed Heavenriders, it would be better than nothing, though some present-day scholars believe it was a panicked decision made under great duress instead.

Only half of the Empire's population made it to the Gate before the legendary strike was made upon Benalor from the Heavens Above, most of the latter half either dying immediately from the blast, or soon becoming injured or killed from the resulting shock wave which ripped through the civilized areas. Witnessing the blast from afar, the Aethergears decided to put the Gate into lockdown were another strike to come, a process which would have made it impossible to open the door to the Gate. They believed that this would give them enough time to fend off the presumed Vashialian advance long enough to activate the device within, which would not work for what, to them, was an unknown reason. Hundreds of thousands of people were locked inside the Gate at this point. Though they had access to fresh water, they were not able to hunt or to grow food in their subterranean environs. Some Shapers were among the locked population and were able to modify much of the Gate's inner structure to grow some of the natural mushrooms that grew inside the springs, but it wouldn't be enough to prevent starvation on an indescribable scale. That was coupled with the increasing case of cabin fever among the Gate's occupants, driving many of them to kill themselves and get it over with. And when the madness struck the supposedly hardened Aethergears... all hell broke loose.

=Life after Death=
Long after the last screams likely echoed through the Gate's halls, the Drakonids found the rugged, notched exterior of the facility, as well as its usually pleasant climate to make it an excellent breeding ground. It also seemed to be an area which was plentiful in Mana, something in which the Drakonids value greatly when seeking to rear their young. Every autumn, as the winds are shifting to become more northerly, they flock to the Gate to partake in their mating rituals. Afterwards, they would retreat into the warmer caverns to spend the winter. Once spring came around and the snows were beginning to melt forth from the peaks, the new parents and their hatchlings would emerge and head back to the Gate to hunt for game and for the hatchlings to absorb the copious Mana around the construct. Though the timing tends to be somewhat regular, there have been instances in which the Drakonids were present at the gate earlier or later than usual, causing some conflict with potential explorers.

One such case was the expedition of Assistant Explorer '''Elanor Tagren''', sent to the Gate to investigate into its function. Usually, it is best to go to the Gate during the summer, as to avoid the seasonal Drakonid broods. However, she was assigned to investigate in secret, which meant that she would have to go there when no one else dared - during the mating season, as the Drakonids are too busy fighting each other for mates' attention to bother with possible prey such as Tagren and her crew. Sneaking past the groups of Drakonids there, the crew managed to get to the Gate's door, somehow able to find an alternate entrance into the facility through the slowly decaying exterior (the Gate was only meant to be a temporary place for people to evacuate to, despite how well fortified it was). Once inside, Tagren made two astounding discoveries. It was a sea of skeletons as far as the eye could see, many of which curled up in place showing signs of a slow, painful death of malnutrition. Others showed evidence of slash marks, broken bones, and bullet holes in their beings. Among the dead was the other discovery - suits of Aethergear armor. Though damaged, the armors would still make for an incredible find to be studied by eager Benalor experts back home at Tabula Gloria.

A tragic end which ironically breathes forth new life into the world, in more ways than one.

[[Category: Tabula Gloria]]