Giftdark

The Giftdark is an archeological civilisation in what is now the Anrel Isles, which flourished during the Celadon Epoch, approximately 3000-4000 BMEplugin-autotooltip__small plugin-autotooltip_bigBME (Before Modern Epoch)

Used to date years Before the Modern Epoch.. The civilisation is named for its elaborate underground temples with tactile features, suggesting they were used in darkness. It is unclear whether the Giftdark culture was a widespread belief or part of elite spiritual practice. Little is known other than the remains of its distinctive temple architecture, which uses alternating spaces of darkness and light, presumably for ritual purposes.

Giftdark temples were laid out on an east-west axis. The entrance was always to the west with a public courtyard. East was an open colonnade or peristyle, leading to a succession of smaller, darker rooms until the smallest eastern sanctum, thought to have been completely dark. Temples were aligned so that at certain days of the year, the rising westerly sun would be visible through all rooms, illuminating the dark of the sanctum.

The smallest and most rudimentary temples have three chambers, often built underground in a hillside or barrow. The grandest known examples had nine chambers, with intermediates having five or seven, always odd numbers. The significance of these numbers and the precise use of the rooms is unknown.

Giftdark temples use stone construction with precise and sophisticated geometric designs incised into the stone at waist height and on the floor. They are otherwise unadorned, with no naturalistic carvings or inscription.

The name “Giftdark” was devised by scholars of the Rasian Academy, who discovered and excavated the few remaining temples sites in the Anrel Isles. Surviving temples only survived as they were later used as tombs.

The culture is thought to have been most active in what is now westernmost Trésard, in regions now lost beneath the sea. Surviving examples are found on the island of Muúl, in Northland and the western slopes of the Laharkin Range. Some have theorised that Giftdark temples were an attempt to recreate oracle temples built in prehistoric ages times.

The original campus of the Rasian Academy is structured in homage to the Giftdark temple, with grand public courtyards to the west and the Grand Master's sanctum at the east.