Aidonian Catacombs

They left the Grotto silently, and made their way slowly, deliberately, to the Catacombs. Lida kept one hand comfortingly on her mother's elbow as they walked, making sure she didn't trip with the urn. The dark entrance to the Catacombs yawned before them, and a priest emerged from the shadows to greet them somberly.

The Aidonian Catacombs are a series of tunnels and passageways dug out beneath the streets of Aidona. They are used to store the ashes of the dead in Aidona since, as in most of the Deep, the stone ground makes burial sites inefficient.

Purpose / Function

The Catacombs were built as a place to store the ashes of the dead. They are open to the public and can be accessed through a number of entrances scattered throughout the city. Many Aidonians visit the Catacombs on occasions like anniversaries or birthdays. They bring offerings such as coins, small gems, and favorite foods, or light small candles and mage lanterns.

The Catacombs are free to visit, and are mostly supported via taxes on imported goods. It costs a relatively small fee to purchase an alcove in a communal hall, and more to purchase a familial crypt. The larger and more private rooms are the most expensive, as they take more work to construct. The purchasing fees are used to support the priests and tenders who work in the Catacombs, providing room, board, and a small monthly stipend.

Architecture

The Catacombs are a vast network of tunnels. There is one main entrance to them, next to the Death Obelisk. This entrance is rather nondescript for such an important landmark; it is simply an archway leading to stairs, which descend into darkness. The archway is made from polished andesite and has carved pillars supporting a small arch. The arch's keystone is decorated with a carving of a skull in a wreath of crystals. The pillars each end in a similar, larger skull carving. Beyond the arch, there is a wide threshold of polished marble leading to a set of stairs. The stairway is sheltered by a small, three-walled building made from the same polished stone as the archway, which makes up the fourth wall. The roof of this building is very slightly slanted towards the rear and shingled in dark slate.

As the stairs descend, the passageway becomes very dark. The way down is generally lit by handheld mage lanterns carried by the priests that work in the Catacombs, one of whom is always waiting by the entrance to lead visitors into the tunnels. The darkness of the entrance is intended to convey the somber and reverent mood one should have when visiting this resting place of the dead.

The tunnels themselves are continuously being worked on, as there are always more dead to be added. The tunnels closer to the main entrance are older, while the ones furthest away are usually the newest. The main tunnel, connected to the entrance, is wide, about ten feet across, with a low, flat roof supported by a series of columns along the walls. Every ten feet or so, a side tunnel opens up which leads to the crypts themselves.

There are a few different styles of crypt present throughout the Catacombs. They vary in size and the number of dead which they can house. Placement of one's ashes into a crypt is dependent on one's status, profession, and, in some part, one's wealth. The most intricate type of crypt is reserved for the lords of Aidona, who have their own hall named the Hall of Lords. Each lord has their own crypt, which is a ten foot by ten foot room. In the center of the room is a plinth, on which the urn with the lord's ashes is placed. This urn is typically made from a a fine stone and polished to a shine. The plinth is carved with the lord's coat of arms and pillar-like designs on its corners. On the wall behind the plinth, a portrait or other depiction of the lord is hung. Carvings on the walls depict notable events in that lord's rule, although some lords have more interesting events than others.

Many Aidonian families will have a familial crypt, where all of their ashes are stored together. This of course becomes muddled when taking mariages into account, but each family has its own way of determining where their loved one's urns will go. Most familial crypts are long, narrow rooms, which are expanded gradually via the wall opposite the crypt's entrance. On either side, alcoves are carved into the walls in rows, usually with elaborately carved decorations, each of which will house one urn. Families will occasionally visit these crypts, placing offerings of coins or a favorite food to memorialize their loved ones. Wealthier families will sometimes commission drawings or portraits of each family member, which are placed into the respective member's alcove next to the urn.

Some Aidonians, for various reasons, do not wish to be placed or have their family members placed in a familial crypt. In these scenarios, the urns are placed either in a private room, with a single shelf on which to place the urn, or in a communal hallway. The communal hallways branch off from the main hallway. Like familial crypts, they consist of rows of alcoves in which urns can be placed, but these alcoves are less heavily decorated and placement is simply in chronological order of time of death.

History

The Catacombs were first constructed around AV 1100, when the first few inhabitants began to experience deaths. They decided to create a place where the dead could be put to rest, and finally settled on the idea of placing them in underground catacombs, which would save space in the cavern and allow for simpler expansions. The Catacombs are expanded on a rolling basis, based on which tunnels or crypts need expansion or construction.

Founding Date

AV 1100

Type

Catacomb