Lore24 Mar 11: Black Monoliths

All around the world one can come across huge black monoliths. They are made of a substance that most closely resembles obsidian, but is much more durable and entirely resistant to magic. Their shape varies: some are giant cubes, others are tetrahedrons or pyramids. Some seem to be cut with mathematical precision, while others look like they were hewn with primitive tools. They can be found far from each other.

They are often seen as a warning, a portent of doom, so people mostly avoid settling near them. The Sorcerer-King Kesh-Eur did have one of them uprooted and moved to the central plaza of the city of Agarit, But he later died of a plague, and the townsfolk blame every single misfortune on the monolith ever since. They avoid touching it, and moving it back, or simply getting rid of it is unimaginable to them.

As for the origin of these monoliths, many theories have been put forward. Some say that they are the work of demons, put up to entrap the unwary. Other think that they are a part of a spell the gods used to keep Gar from waking up. Yet others say that they were made by a civilization so ancient, nothing else from their works survive, and some scholars have linked them to the mysterious people who came before.

Image by Omri Ohana

 

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