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Deep beneath much of Elenia stretches a vast and ancient complex, with a depth and purpose lost to the nation's human settlers. Through sprawling corridors of white marble and unnamable red stone, decrepit mechanisms hum and vibrate, manned by the deathless labor of Animate servitors. Across the many years since they were abandoned, many pests have filled the space, feeding on the vaults like a slow-rotting corpse. Yet still they live, continuing blindly on their original purpose.
Without the vaults, Elenia would still be a backwater province of the Empire of Brahma, forbidden to exploration due to the many dangers infesting it. Without them there would be no portal, no supply of powerful artifacts to fill the gap between Elenia's armory and that of its enemies. In many important ways, the human population of Elenia is no different from the other creatures infesting the vaults--we pass through ancient systems we cannot comprehend, feeding on its rich resources while offering nothing in return.
The Vaults were known to Brahma and its explorers long before Balthazar and Lo first ventured east. After a century of human settlement, their full extent remains largely unexplored. What little we have determined about their purpose only serves to deepen the terrifying implications of what we've seen. During the first wave of settlement across Elenia, Lo Jeong led several significant campaigns into the vaults, armed with naturalists and archaeologists as well as plenty of soldiers. Most of what we know dates to these original explorations. Even so, many myths of these first days persist to the present day, deliberately encouraged and republished in sanctioned books. What is the royal family trying so desperately to hide?
The White Vaults are deliberate structures constructed of reinforced stone passages, chambers, and access tunnels. They exist all across Elenia, and may even extend under oceans and national borders. No one is precisely sure where their boundaries can be drawn, or how interconnected they are. One thing is certain, however: even if it were possible to travel large distances, it would not be practical.
The White Vaults were not a mere living space. They contain mechanisms, machinery, aqueducts and pipes. While the purpose of some is obvious, much of it seems to accomplish no particular purpose, despite the significant resources invested in constructing them. Take two steps into the vaults, and hear the hiss of steam and grinding of ancient gears. Strange statues glimmer with glowstone lanterns, reaching towards the viewer from a past long forgotten.
All citizens of Elenia know two things the vaults contain: a portal, and valuable artifacts. So far as anyone knows, there is only one portal, located in the upper levels beneath the White Spires. On the other hand, almost all sections of the Vaults seem to contain supernatural equipment, tools and weapons once wielded by the ancient creators of the vaults. If there is nothing interesting to be found in a particular section, it probably just means someone else got there first.
The vaults are not uniform in construction, but are divided into distinct biomes, with clear identifiers and populations in each one. Those nearest the surface are sometimes called the "upper vaults" and share several similar properties. More recent predators and animals tend to inhabit these sections, rarely much of a threat to an experienced adventurer. On the other hand, the magical items, weapons, and cores that can be extracted from the upper levels also seem less interesting.
Random collapses and landslides that open into the Vaults sometimes expose these upper sections. Their population of servitors are the weakest and most run-down and easiest to circumvent. It's also the section of the vault most likely to be explored on a sanctioned basis. By contrast, the Deep Vaults frequently tempt explorers who do not make a return trip.
Before there was an Elenia, there were vaults luring Brahma's bravest and boldest to venture down. Despite centuries of time, much that was unknown in those early days remains a profound mystery into modern Elenia.
Consider the simplest question: Who built the Vaults? They overflow with strange machinery and magic, suggesting an advanced culture far beyond anything in Middara today. They may even have understood how to create portals, though this cannot be known for certain. Perhaps they chose their location for the Vaults because of the portal, rather than crafting it themselves.
Not knowing who or what they were, Elenian archaeologists refer to those who built the Vaults as the Precursors. What little is known about the Precursors has all been determined via indirect study and observation. No single compelling case for the nature of the Precursors has yet been made, either in Elenia or elsewhere. Their true nature remains elusive, as hidden as their name.
Whoever they were, they had biological needs similar to us. They built living areas throughout the vaults, many of which are supplied with running water and the suggestion of glowstone-illuminated gardens. They divided their space into living quarters as we do. Some sections of the vaults include rooms that suggest kitchens, bedrooms, and bathing areas. The Precursors built to last, filling even their most insignificant workshops and libraries with Animate servants. Many of these beings continue to follow the directions left to them by their ancient masters, preserving the sepulcher of their unknown creators into the present day. These still-functional Animate are by far the most dangerous, as they fight with the greatest energy to protect the vaults. We are the intruders, and they always respond accordingly.
They might have been larger than we were. The scope of even insignificant sections of the vaults suggests the scope of those who dwelt within. Almost nowhere in the vaults could be considered 'cramped' with even insignificant passages often stretching high overhead. Some place the size of the Precursors at about ten feet high, though this is entirely an estimate. For all we know, they just enjoyed walking around below high ceilings.
They understood magic and technology in ways we do not yet comprehend. The vaults overflow with huge machines, many of which are still functional into the present day. Yet despite still working, most have no obvious purpose. Sure, there are exceptions--Jeong expeditions have discovered automated foundries, smithing, and pipeworks. But for every workshop producing comprehensible objects, there are a dozen more continuing at some occulted path into the modern day.
Many who vanish into the Vaults do not fall to the infestation, or intentional traps from the creators. Rather, they fall because much of the space serves an industrial purpose of unknown design, and they are crushed, burned, or electrocuted by ancient infrastructure. Within the vaults, we're little more than ants, scurrying over arcane mysteries far beyond our comprehension.
As far as we understand, not a single one of the beings who first built the vaults still dwells there. Far from an abandoned wasteland, the White Vaults are teeming with subterranean life, making passage far more hazardous than the mere machines would suggest.
First and most numerous among its residents are the pests, creatures that wandered in when earthquakes or other natural hazards brought down the vaults' ancient walls. Where this happens, Cave Sickles, Loas, and other such beings are often the first to move in. These beings seem entirely oblivious to the space where they now live, to them it is just another habitat. Many of these are so insignificant that the intended guardians do nothing as they spread, allowing sickle nests to infest whole wings. Only when the rot goes so deep that machines begin to fail and walls collapse do the automated defenders intervene. By then, it is too late.
Second most numerous are the vaults' servitors, various Animates and related creatures given charge over the vaults at some ancient date. These beings are never 'intelligent' on a human level, though some of them do bear disturbing similarities. The magical means sustaining them can fail, leaving suits of abandoned armor strewn at random through the halls. Many assume these are the marks of a previous explorer, yet this need not be the case. Many were never human at all.
Most dangerous of all are the Ancients. These threats have no equivalent or counterpart in modern Elenia, suggesting they've been native to the vaults for a very, very long time. Those capable of speech even seem cognizant of the passage of time, and the differences between modern humans and the beings who built their home. Some of these were once Animate or other servants, but gained greater autonomy across unnumbered years of service. A few can be persuaded or bribed to ignore humans present in the vaults.
If there is one mercy, it is that the more dangerous beings tend to prefer the deeper sections of the vault, where humans travel less frequently.
Chief among these beings is a terrible entity known as Hogrifar. This ancient being resembles no other creature of the vaults, a massive humanoid head made of rotting flesh and dragged along by numberless writhing digits. Lo Jeong tried and failed to negotiate, then slay this creature, in an account now memorialized as the First Battle of the Spire. He was unsuccessful, though the battle did wound Hogrifar, driving him underground. His power is diminished in modern Elenia, yet the threat he presents is quite real. When expeditions travel too deep beneath the surface, he or his servants may be the last thing they ever see. Hogrifar's self-given title is more than just a name, however. He really does seem to command the vault creatures around him, even the Animates and other servitors. It seems unlikely that he could belong to the race that created the Vaults, given he is too large to enter much of the ruins. Hogrifar defies classification. He is no outsider to Middara, and cannot be banished. Yet he seems to ignore the typical rules for living things, with a body of detached parts and seemingly lifeless flesh.
In a wiser nation, the vaults might serve as a cautionary tale and little else. Similar ruins in Brahma and elsewhere have been sealed off without a second thought, protecting the surface world from unknown hazards beneath. Elenia would never let something so useful go to waste. Just a few floors beneath the surface, and we discovered the single most incredible object in Middara: a portal. How much more could be waiting just below?
The Vaults have become so integral to Elenian civilization that they're part of the MAST test given to each Institute graduate. Literally--the MAST itself is conducted in real parts of the vaults, albeit cleared and blocked off from the rest. Every new citizen has at least some experience with what the vaults are like before they leave for their new lives in Middara.
Fashion too bears the signs of the vaults. The royal armory of its monarchy is filled with artifacts taken from the vaults, and so the Precursors' creations have become a sign of wealth and class across Elenia. A mercenary wearing an enchanted blade from the Vaults is instantly perceived as far more competent and experienced than one with a firearm, even if the gun is more effective in every objective way.
Imagine tireless laborers who never eat, never question, and never complain. These deathless Animate flood the Vaults, and form a large part of the infrastructure that keeps it running into present day. Though the means to create them is obscure, Elenia has mastered the art of capturing and repurposing them to serve new masters. Animate are a common sight in workshops, warehouses, and secure sites all across Elenia. Act carefully around them, and they probably won't even kill anyone!
Yet much that should be obvious about the vaults remains hidden from the average Elenian. If asked, most would incorrectly suggest the vaults only exist directly beneath the White Spires, and any ruins found elsewhere are entirely separate, however bound they might be by purpose or origin. The vaults beneath the Spires are considered royal property of the Jeong house, and form a not-insignificant part of their wealth. Each year a number of 'exploration contracts' are put up for auction by the royal family, varying based on their needs at any particular time. The cost of these can often run into the thousands of gold, and are the exclusive domain of the most elite and qualified adventurers.
The terms of these contracts are always simple: inviting the brave to venture into the vaults, improve their maps, and gather valuable artifacts. By opening the task to the Elenian public, the Jeong family avoids the expense, and frequent loss of life they would likely incur. Casualties are a practical guarantee, while some teams simply fail to return altogether.
Those who do make it back with valuables are permitted to split their findings with the Jeong family, thus continuing the flow of valuable items into Elenia's national armory. As the years pass, the upper levels of the Vaults have largely been exhausted, forcing explorers to venture deeper and deeper into dangerous territory. They are lucky, then, that competence also seems to be growing.
Buried deep in Jeong maps and Lo's secret journals lie hints and whispers of another layer beneath the Deep Vaults, where red stone gives way to pale green, and already huge tunnels become gargantuan, dwarfing any human explorer who would dare enter. This deep, it is said the corridors are paradoxically cold, whipping with a constant freezing wind. Those who speculate about the origin of Hogrifar suspect he must have come from such a place at some ancient time, using the powers he wields to dominate the lesser beings of the upper levels.
These stories remain entirely unconfirmed, especially by the Jeong house. The family denies its existence in the wording of every exploration permit, allowing those who purchase them to explore either the white vaults above or the deep vaults beneath. No other section is entertained.
If it does exist, the engineering required far eclipses anything produced by humans in any world. Only one entrance was written of even in Lo Jeong's darkest journals, and that describes a horrific sight. The monarch wrote:
"We followed the ancient conduits for some time, determined to discover the purpose of the many mechanisms we had encountered. Eventually we came to a bridge of thin metal, and crossed its sprawling gulf. Then we came to an expanse vaster than any yet observed. Pillars of rusting alloy held a ceiling of arches, so large that even our largest glowstone could not illuminate. We continued past fortifications of incredible size, each a castle unto themselves. Their crenellations now covered with webs, and no light shone from dead windows. Mighty cannons lay abandoned, each as large in themselves as modern airships, with barrels stinking of foul alchemy.
Finally we came to the door. Its uttermost extreme escaped the reach of our light, large enough for all of Arsen Castle to pass with room to spare. Unspeakable metal composed it, illuminating in the runes of ancient spellcraft as we approached it. I cannot say what we heard when we came to the door, nor will any man among my army. When we heard it, I ordered an immediate retreat to the surface at best possible speed."
No expedition to this part of the vaults has ever been attempted again, nor is it marked in any of the official maps. If Lo Jeong got his way, all hints leading to it are likely destroyed by now. Elenia is far safer that way.
