The Arch

D3

The Arch is a large structure of mottled grey stone, forming a ring whereby half is above ground and half is below ground. It is located within the Sacred Hall of the Reunified Arch, a large and imposing building that stands atop the Black Down and is reached by a lengthy flight of stairs. The Arch itself is deep within the Hall, not openly accessible to any visitor who happens to walk in. The Hall also contains a good deal of the church's treasures in its vaults.

Having been mended by Emkathon, using the Phereia, the Arch is evidently now functioning in the way it did originally, prior to its having been broken at the Empire's founding. What precisely this means is a matter that scholars and priests continue to study and debate. What cannot be debated is the fact that the Arch is a powerful artifact that permits communion between deities and mortals, and as such cannot be allowed to be accessed by simply anyone. Scholars who wish to study it first-hand must obtain the proper permissions from the Church, and be supervised at all times while they are in the Arch chamber. Candidates for Emperor will presumably still be passed through it as well, when the time comes, although the precise procedure that will be followed under those circumstances is still uncertain.

The Arch continues to have a more mystical 'Guardian' as well. Typically this position is filled by a child of about the age of 8-12, who experiences a calling to join with the Arch and serve as a link between it and the rest of the world. This sense of being chosen continues until the child reaches adulthood, at which point they are released from their service and resume their 'normal' lives (to whatever extent that is possible). The Guardian is not a formal member of the Church hierarchy, being in some respects beyond their control, but the Church certainly keeps in close contact with whoever is the current Guardian. Known past guardians include Cornelia Nash and Silvia Rionet.

D2

The Arch is a large structure of white and black stone. It evidently existed in the area of what would become Diablotin prior to the arrival of the city's current human inhabitants, and was already an artifact of tremendous power. From evidence revealed in the Prehistoric Diablotin section of the first campaign, it was located at that time on an island, which later became the Black Down. It seems that, at that time, people were sacrificed to the entity within it - whether as a form of veneration or placation is not clear. Dorea Lirette passed through the Arch and survived, but in the process the constellation representing the Rat disappeared from the sky, and it seems the god was somehow trapped within the Arch along with the original malevolent entity. The invaders moved the Arch to a new location, on what would later become the Imperial isle.

By the era of the first campaign, the Arch was located in a secret chamber beneath the palace, watched over by a guardian. It was employed as a means of testing candidates for the throne, who would each pass through it and emerge, one bearing some sign (never revealed) of having been chosen. Occasionally, unsuccessful candidates died in the testing process, but more often they were left alive but mentally unstable. Those who were deemed too unbalanced to return to normal society were kept locked away in the palace, and their ravings were sometimes recorded in the Codex Lunaticium.

The PCs in the original campaign discovered that beneath the Black Down was an inverted Arch, and the two had once been joined. In passing through the inverted Arch, they went back in time and experienced lives both as soldiers in the Quicksilver War, and as the heads of the original tribes who settled the region over two thousand years before. They were then returned to the present, seemingly unscathed.

At the conclusion of the campaign, Pasith Belden summoned an avatar of Ox, who carried the Arch back to its original location atop the Down, reuniting the two halves. This seems to have released the Rat god from its imprisonment, but also the other, more sinister entity. The Arch is currently a curiosity, and is venerated by some, but it no longer holds any magical power.

D1

The Arch is an ancient magical construct of unknown origin, which has existed since prior to the conquest of Saraknyal. It was formerly housed deep within the Imperial complex, where few people ever saw it. Candidates for the throne of the Empire, nominated by the Great Council, passed beneath it, and it was believed to select the one most fitting for the position. The unsuccessful candidates were often left mentally unstable or physically fragile, and some did not survive the process.

Ultimately the entity within the Arch proved malign in its intent, deliberately selecting rulers who would not live long in order to hasten its next 'feeding'.

The Arch was paralleled by a similar but inverted structure located beneath the Black Down. It was its move from its position atop the Down, and the binding of the Rat god within, which caused the fall of House Rat and many other subsequent problems. Its restoration to its proper place resolved at least some of those problems, but may have caused others. Only time will tell...