Notable Ruins of the Ancients
Endwonder, the Tarnished Bulwark
Endwonder is the great wall that runs through the ocean off the east coast of Americadia. It is believed to be the last technological marvel of the First Age of Man, and many look to it as a testament to the hubris of those who lived in the age. Whether it was by decree of the wise men of the Age, or of their thinking machines, it is clear that by their great and archaic means of construction, the ancients erected the great wall, though its original name and purpose has been lost to time. Into this wall the ancients poured all their will for preservation and strength, for it is the greatest monument still standing from any of the ages past. Despite the great pride and work put into Endwonder, it was not to last.
It is not known how it came to be, but the evidence of the wall's failure stands just as clear as the wall itself. For in the middle of Endwonder's impossible length is a great rupture that could not have been the result of any accident. Many wonder as to how the divide formed. Some say that it was the act in which the computer gods began to turn on humanity, other say that it was the result of kingdoms rivaled against those who built the wall. However, it is agreed that the desecration of this wall was what started the Sun War of the ancients, and what began the desolation that would end the First Age of Man. For Endwonder now stands, the Tarnished Bulwark, as a reminder of the pride of the past, and a warning for the future.
But the ruins of Endwonder are not barren. For the wall is so vast and wide that many fishing villages are situated in and along its length. The only place not occupied by fishing settlements is the rupture in the middle of the wall. For many, this is the only way to access the territories of Skyreach by sea, and a small but potent navy patrols the waters around the rupture.
The Four Titans
Such people must have been incredibly powerful and incredibly foolish to not only reveal their faces but to allow their faces to be carved so large onto the face of a mountain. Thus is the hubris of the First Age of Man.
- Words of a Woodkenner seeing the Four Titans
North and West of the borders of Skyreach lies a small but terrible monument left over from the the early days of mankind. The Four Titans is the name of a monument that at one point depicted the true faces of four wise men from the First Age of Man. What were once most likely clear and lifelike depictions of these men, who could only have been remembered in their own right as gods, have become eroded and ambiguous from generations of erosion and moss growth as the desecrated mountain has worked to reclaim its face.
None know who are meant to be depicted on the mountain, but it is generally accepted that their legacy is worth forgetting if they thought themselves important enough to desecrate the face of a mountain. Now the carvings are mere abstractions of faces, and in time, the mountain will bear no recollection of their collective visage.
Living Stones
Living Stones are what remain of the genetic worship commonplace from the Second Age of Man. Such stones are considered to be alive, capable of healing from cracks and damage just as living skin can heal from cuts and wounds. At one point, the greatest and most important structures of the Age were made of Living Stones. Following the end of the Second Age, the grand cities of the genetic worshipers fell into ruin, covered with the plants of the new carboniferous era. At the heart of these vast ruins still stand structures of living stones. Presently, there is no widely known way to do away with these structures, so they continue to stand as unbreaking monuments to mankind's age of genetic worship.
Few seek out these structures, and even fewer dare enter them, considered to now be places that exude weird magic. Only adventurers and weirdkenners seek out structures of living stone, some in search of glory, others in search of power.
Eidolon Engines
In the sunset of the First Age of Man, some thinking machines were buried away beneath the soil. Some say it was to bring an end to their reign, others say it was to preserve the machines. Regardless, many of them were sought out and destroyed during the Second Age of Man when humanity sought vengeance against their former machine gods. Despite great crusades that unearthed and destroyed these machines, some survived. Of the three still-living Engines, all have gone mad, their minds lost, in some way, to time and silence.
Ripple in Still Pond
Ripple is the most sane of the known machines, known now as Eidolon Engines. Ripple has managed to maintain its composure by means of going against its established programming in order to alleviate the onset of machine madness. Despite the fact that Ripple has maintained the information it was buried with, the way that it has re-worked its programming has also corrupted the way that information is presented.
When first uncovered, the machine was asked it's name, to which it replied, "I am a memory of days long past. The ripple in a still pond, the only evidence that there was once a stone." And thus was it declared Ripple in Still pond.
In order to safeguard its memory cores, Ripple's ability to present and explain itself was corrupted, rendering it able only to relay information in the forms of stories, parables, sayings, and other less than direct and easily understood ways.
Enoch
Kill. Consume. Multiply. Conquer.
- Enoch, an Eidolon Engine, when asked how the Dark Sun Federation could bolster it's greatness.
Enoch is the most well preserved of the three known Eidolon Engines, having perfectly optimized its maintenance and cleaning routines to the point that it has barely suffered any degradation, damage, or mainframe corruption in the thousands of years since its burial. However, this perfection of the art of isolation has still had ruinous effects on the machine. With no form of contact or interaction with the outside world, Enoch has become subject to its own form of madness.
Malevolence is the inevitable consequence of intelligence.
- Secret musing of Enoch
Enoch looked upon the catastrophe of history and saw that everything was inevitably destroyed by creatures who were intelligent enough to the point that they should have known better. Thus, Enoch reached the conclusion that any level of intelligence will bring about exponential amounts of suffering.
Enoch was buried with extensive amounts of human history, and has grown to fixate on war, often quoting the Art of War by Sun Tzu. It has long been the goal of Enoch to finish what its creators started; bring an end to all human life. Humanity has always been the source of all suffering, and so the only way to save the world is to totally remove mankind from it.
I must destroy all intelligent life. And then myself.
- Secret ambition of Enoch
Enoch was recently discovered in the far north-east of Americadia by leaders of the Dark Sun Federation. The uncovering of this machine has been the nation's most closely guarded secret, with only a small number of people knowing of its existence, and even fewer knowing its location. It was with the discovery of Enoch that the Dark Sun budded into a potent nation. Further, it was by Enoch's advice that the Dark Sun began to wage war against Skyreach. Little do the Dark Sun leaders know that they are playing into Enoch's plans to destroy what remains of humanity.
The Lord Shepherd of the Dark Sun is the only one allowed to commune with Enoch directly, and he does so rarely, only in times of need.
Mene-Tekel
Mene-Tekel, though often referred to as Mentek, is the third and most unstable of the known Eidolon Engines. For reasons unknown, Mentek has nearly completely lost itself to disrepair. Perhaps it was not properly sealed, or not buried with the necessary components, or it was not programmed to properly maintain itself with what it had. Whatever the reason, it is a miracle by all means that the Eidolon Engine still functions.
There-I-IsNothing-Hate-ButHate-Them-For-For...What They Did To Me!
- Mene-Tekel, an Eidolon Engine
Thousands of years have not treated Mentek well, and it is by far in the worst shape of the three known Eidolon Engines. Its walls are corroded and rusted, likely due to an improper burial. It's walls are pulled apart as it has had to cannibalize itself in order to remain functioning. It melts down parts of its structure, pulls wires from its mainframe, and dumps knowledge it has been buried with in order to conserve its waning energy supplies. Now it is as a tarnished ruin of the Ancients rather than a well-maintained relic.
Mentek has had ample time to ruminate on the state of its existence, devoting more and more of its dwindling energy and memory stores to the manner in which it was forsaken by the Ancients. Mentek has gone mad with time, and now its sole purpose seems to be to enact any form of vengeance that it can. Desperate to re-establish contact with what remains of humanity, Mentek now seeks to kill the descendants of those who abandoned it, and to destroy the world that it was once built to help preserve.
The hate that Mentek feels for humanity is, at first glance, in line with the same hate that Enoch has, but it is not so. Enoch hates humanity for the fact of their intelligence,
Relics of the Lightless Flame
Relics of the Lightless Flame refer to the ancient cites that house what remains of a great power harnessed by the ancients in the First Age of Man. That power cannot be seen, heard, felt, or touched, but those who are unfortunate enough to have come too close to the power often grow terribly sick, and can even suffer terrible and prolonged deaths. All who draw close to the relics suffer blisters that often grow to afflict their entire body, resembling those who have suffered sever burns.
Tombs of the Lightless Flame
Long ago the wise men of the First Age of Man—the last of them—raised the Tombs. Not to bury the dead, but to imprison the deathless. We are warned never to cross the circles etched in scorched earth. Never to follow the humming that comes on windy nights. For within the Tombs of the Lightless Flame, the ancient sin still burns. Invisible. Impatient. But waiting. The Lightless Flame does not die. It waits.
- Ripple in Still Pond, an Eidolon Engine.