Category | Marvels, Voidships |
Type | Helas Vessel |
Continent | Brucrumus |
Region | Grashakh |
Alias | Svoghast Helas |
Owner | Orchish Empire |
Built | 28 Lunar 1812 DE |
Map | Mirtheon |
Like other Helas Vessels, this "Spire" has an otherworldly appearance with sharp jagged features. The surface of the massive edifice is deep black with dimensions exactly like her sister vessels. The term Spire of Krak-Oth came into usage long after these vessels with their refugee crews came to Bal-Kriav. Their creator named each after the living sentient engine at their core. The Spire of Krak-Oth is powered by the sentience of Svoghast Helas; spawned in the Creation War by a primordial mastermind named Beldileck.
The Spire of Krak-Oth is a Helas Vessel class voidship. These were ships employed in the Creation War to transport primordial armies between worlds. After the primordials were defeated, rather than see them destroyed by Covenant forces, they were set adrift in the Void. The Covenant went to great lengths to find them. They rightly feared this technology could be a game-changer for any who found even one of these primordial transport. With the end of the God Era, the Angelic Departure (9494 GE - 9500 GE), they ended their search.
Some time in the Lith-Crillion Era, four Helas Vessels entered Osâchar's atmosphere. In an area of Durkoth civilization, a people then very tribal, these ancient primordial-built vessels came to rest. They were hundreds of miles from each other. The villages built near them were to grow into towns and cities. It would be centuries before Durkoth explorers and researchers found a way to get inside them, yet that time of trial and failure profoundly affected Durkoth civilization. During this time, the study of mystical arts and sciences became schooled. Their knowledge of math was pushed forward four centuries after they breached the alien vessel's hull, entering a series of chambers. It would take a decade to find a way to reach the next group of chambers. This was because the ship had adapted to the magic used to breach the first chambers. Thereafter, each series of chambers they entered provided a wealth of knowledge. These findings along with changes in study, applied training, and other advances would eventually give the Durkoth the edge to dominate those around them.
In the Torc Wars, the Spires came to be palaces, then religion centers for the Saints of Maen.
In 537 HE, the Spire of Krak-Oth left Osâchar and entered the Void. It reached Bal-Kriav in 862 HE, landing in the largest wetland of Mirtheon.
The last Durkoth saint to rule from this place was the then mortal Krak-Oth. When he and his Durkoth followers came to Bal-Kriav, they brought thousands of Theegan slaves. In 863 HE they founded Argruxiel. The Durkoth and Theegans spread west from the Spire of Krak-Oth dominating just about everyone they came across. In 892 HE, the Durkoth of the Araj empire founded Zînin-Gulc. By this time, the empire stretched from Zînin-Gulc in the Tribe Steppes to Argruxiel in Grashakh.
During the Durkoth Descent (995 HE - 1355 HE), the Spire was locked up, warded, and then hidden with magic. The Gimhak lived in the vicinity of the structure for centuries, but never found it. In the Second Epoch, the Orchish Empire pushed into Mirtheon. On 9 War March 1146, they built fort Gháshulg in the shadow of this Spire. Blac'drugulois, then but a leader of a federation of orc tribes, took the Spire as his new palace. In the decades that followed, fort Gháshulg, future capital of the Orchish Empire, came to surround the Spire of Krak-Oth. Even so, this great structure looms higher and more prominent than any other feature of the city.
The Spire of Krak-Oth is the tallest unnatural structure of Grashakh. The ominous structure rises 2000' above Amoral. Due to its location on a mountain plateau, and its great height, the top of the Spire is often blanketed in clouds.
Some speculate that Blac'drugulois was driven insane from a primordial influence trapped inside the spire. The Gharbúlúm, personal guard of the current emperor of the Orchish Empire, are stationed in this spire. The Court of One Hundred Eyes are also headquartered here.