The Sanctuary of Foratuna [Fo-Rah-Too-Nah] is the holiest site of the Mother Church of Ororr: the desert place where the Great Prophet built his sanctuary tower, in which he formulated the principles of the new religion, and laid the foundations for the Ororran state.
The Sanctuary is a complex of religious buildings and housing for the priesthood, including a great hall and holy circle or chiyaka, at the centre of which is a black stone tower said to have been the residence of the Prophet himself.
It lies on an escarpment on the eastern edge of the Maresh Hills, uplands which surround the vast desert of Mangasor. The site was built around a hollow formed by a natural spring, forming an oasis of vegetation in an otherwise arid environment.
Foratuna became revered as a holy site because of two curious geographical phenomena. The first is a deep hollow carved by a spring. Water seeps out of the rock and has eroded the cleft over time. The hills are dry and lifeless, but this moist cleft is a rare oasis of life, rich with flowering vegetation, insects and other small creatures. This oasis seemed like a miracle to travellers and nomads lost or wandering the dry hills, and for thousands of years has been treated with awe and reverence. Visitors scattered seeds of edible green fruits and herbs. Because soil accumulated in cracks and depressions, green and virid plants are isolated from each other much like plant pots, allowing them to miraculously grow side by side.
The second reason for the site's reverence is its position overlooking the Great Basin of Mangasor, making it an ideal site for witnessing the miraculous flood. Every decade or so, a combination of heavy rain and buildup of water in the eastern hills covers the whole basin in a shallow lake, causing the bare stony desert to temporarily flower with a riot of life.
The most famous story tells how it was discovered by a herder, in the days of the High Iskean cultures, millennia ago. He lived in the plains by the Great River, until one day his home was destroyed by barbarian raiders. He and his surviving family were driven east into the desert, but one by one they died. They struggled on, desperate for water, until he was the only one left. Suddenly he saw, shimmering in the distance, a flash of silver light that drew him on. As he stumbled up a desert hill, the ground suddenly shook and a chasm opened up beneath him. The earth cracked, and he realised he was looking down into the moist green womb of the Goddess of the Earth. He climbed down into the green chasm, and drank deeply of the cool water. He ate of the fruit from vines that hung thickly on its walls, and fell into a mystic vision of the Greenplugin-autotooltip__small plugin-autotooltip_bigGreen
The Green Kingdom of flora and fauna includes humans, mammals, birds, whales, greenfish, and most green plants and crops cultivated by humankind. Lady who soothed his brow, washed him and clothed him.
He returned to the cities of the river, told his story, and forever after it has been a holy site. He became one of the old prophets of the Old Religion.
The earliest construction on the site began in prehistory, three thousand or more years ago. The first was a banked enclosure probably with a rough drystone wall in a circle around the central cleft. Three other banks were built, radiating from the circle heading due west from the central holy site, with the other two arms northeast and southest, roughly following the line of hills which curve in those directions. The westerly arm was certainly a processional causeway. Taken together the three suggest a female body with legs spread, exposing the holy site.
A circle of banks was later raised around the site, with further earthworks beyond suggesting encampments and walls or fences raised in a wider protective circle. In this period there was no permanent settlement, but local people would flock here for seasonal ceremonies and festivals.
In the later early imperial period, the western processional bank dyke was broadened and flattened, and the first temple structure built. This original temple was little more than a covered staging area, with square stone columns holding up a carved wooden roof. In later En-Sanni times this was enlarged, and a series of stone structures built around the site to hold a permanent priesthood. The kings of the River States constructed a grand processional route southward across the desert to Ayetua.
The founding tale probably has some basis in truth, because the oasis cleft would have seemed miraculous by early travellers. The Marech region was been considered holy for many thousands of years by successive cultures, but there is dispute about the etymology of the name, 'Foratuna'.
As applied to the original holy site, the most likely is vor Atoun - meaning dedicated to an ancient Iskean sun-god, venerated by the old River People. This was name of the ancient temple complex. The EnSanni feminised this male sun god when Seqal became assimilated into their Empire.
Another suggestion is Fortuna, an ancient personification of luck among the early Thalsic people, possibly even deriving from the languages of the Godmen. The link is tenuous, but the suggestion is that wandering travellers may have praised herplugin-autotooltip__small plugin-autotooltip_bigHerbs
Herbs are usually green plants cultivated and used for use in medicine, cooking or for other purposes.
Herblore is the traditional practice of making decoctions, extracts, powders and other preparations from the roots, leaves, seeds, bark and fruit of plants found across the world.greengreenAnásthiasAnásthiasgreenMunatangreengreen for the luck of finding water in the desert.
For'aat is also suggested, an Ancient Daaltirich word meaning “hill place” or “enclosure on the hill”. This also seems a credible explanation.
The majority of pilgrims to Foratuna arrive by river at the port town of Ayetua, then a three-day walk northward along the Processional Road, through the desert up to the Maresh Hills. The Road is lined with processional markers, once carved into the likeness of animals real and imaginary, now long since eroded.
Beneath Foratuna is a complex network of caves, carved over time by water flowing from the natural springs above, but also gouged by floods over hundreds of thousands of years. Little is publicly known about the caves, but they are thought to be holy, literal entrances into the body or womb of the Mother Goddess.
The cave mouth at the heart of the temple complex descends as a vertical shaft, before opening into a vast open cavern called the Lacuna, partly lit by reflected sunlight. The Lacuna is mainly smooth rock with pools and hummocks of rock. It can only be accessed by a staircase descending from the Prophet's Tower, meaning only the Messekk are able to enter without clambering down the rocky shaft. is used by adepts of the temple for training in magicplugin-autotooltip__small plugin-autotooltip_bigMagic
In common terms, magic is the art of producing a desired outcome through occult means. Various arts are described as magical, from common street illusionists, village herbalists, and rituals for the intercession of deities. However, true magic is the art and science of elemental mastery, harnessing elemental creatures and instructing them to perform simple or complex tasks..
Beyond the Lacuna are several cave mouths, two smaller and one larger. The larger is blocked by a bronze fence with no obvious gate or lock. It is secretly secured by pins inside hollow metal poles, which can only be moved by magic. Raising the pins allows the gate to turn on a vertical hinge and swing, allowing adepts to pass.
Beyond the gate are numerous smaller caves and tunnels, used for storage. Along a series of tunnels is the Cave of Shackles, which was used historically for securing prisoners who worked to excavate and repair the tunnels. Such work is now rare and the cave is rarely visited. Unlike the rest of the caves it has a narrow shaft allowing a little air and light to enter.
Some distance from the Cave of Shackles is the Stone Forest, a series of three caves thick with stalactites which regularly floods. There are several openings for egress of water. An artificial cave doorway is carved behind a pillar at the far end, though small enough that it requires crawling through.
At the far end of this long tunnel is the real Holy of Holies, the Cave of the Womb. This cave is huge with a high ceiling, and several levels filled with milky water. The water is nutrient rich and hosts a virid zooid bioluminescent microorganism. The water is therefore toxic, though only if ingested.
In a recessed cave on the far side of the lake is the Heart Stone, or the Seed Stone, the Stone of the Prophet. This is the heart of religious magic.
The Prophet's Tower is a tower approximately 30 metres high, which was the private residence and workspace of the Great Prophet during his time at Foratuna. The tower is a black, glassy material, seemingly without signs of blocks or seams. Atop the tower is a dome of verdigrised bronze, with a slit opening for use as an observatory.
The temple at Foratuna holds the only visual representations of the Prophet in the world. According to law, images of the prophet and his followers are entirely forbidden, except for the authorised paintings and murals at Foratuna.
In the Tower is a life sized statue of the Prophet, made from the same glassy black stone material as the tower itself. The Prophet apparently created the statue as an exact replica of himself, so that followers would recognise him if he returned. The statue is viewed only by the most prominent members of the church.
In the 8th century a controversial replica of the statue was made using a careful mould of the original statue, and placed at the eastern end of the temple church at the entrance to the holy circle. It became a climactic moment in the final ceremony of the Shouft. The statue was later painted by the artist Perbosas after complaints that the matte black replica was too dark to see any features. Perbosas painted the clothing and face of the Prophet to give a lifelike appearance, but this statue has always been controversial.