Halls of Reflection

General

Type
Demiplane
Ruler(s)
Velameestra Windrunner
Languages
Common, Thalassian, Quietish
Location
Status
Active

Those who have been welcomed shall find succor here... but be warned, this is also my hunting ground.

The Halls of Reflection were an expansive demiplane conjured and maintained by Velameestra Windrunner as her personal reliquary and base of operations for those that followed her modus operandi, such as her Ebon Blade or Lucent Vow. It was a labyrinthine series of halls and chambers that continued to grow in size as she contributed to it, which made it difficult to navigate for those that were not invited guests or otherwise sanctioned denizens of the plane.

The Halls themselves were a haunting combination of ornate architecture and natural features that blended into themselves, and some stairways even appeared to defy conventional gravity, which added to the confusion of navigating the labyrinth for those that were unfamiliar. It was hard to tell if the demiplane was a singular building or opened into an open space, as the ceilings of the corridors varied between open cosmic expanses of auroras and ornate stonework.

Climate of the Halls of Reflection

The winding Halls of Reflection were, at a baseline, a cool and dark place. The ambient temperature of the demiplane was not frigid, but neither was it warm. There was no sunlight in the realm, but nor was it pitch black, as openings to the sky revealed a flickering aurora that shed a natural, cool light over the region. It was also a place of silence. The absence of wind, weather, or a changing climate created an atmosphere of stillness where voices and footsteps could carry for ages.

While there was order to the demiplane, regions within it forwent expected physics. Stairways may have twisted sideways, yet those that tread upon them did not fall. Open, misty air, when stepped upon, could become solid and luminescent, and a passage lost to mists may have become unattainable if someone were to backtrack. The ease of navigating the Halls was reflective of a core rule to the existence of the vampyr that shaped it: if you were welcome, you could pass without issue, but an unwelcome invader would be faced with every opposition as the plane's mistress turned the halls into her hunting grounds.

Zones Within the Halls of Reflection

The Raven Circle

A large circular chamber that served as both an audience chamber and the baseline access point to the demiplane's expansive maze of corridors. It was here that the hearthstones of the Ebon Blade and Lucent Vow connected to, as well as any permanent portals that existed on the material plane led. The chamber was watched over by a statue of a massive skull-headed raven that shadowed a balcony that a speaker could stand upon, and at the center of the chamber was a table that was capable of projecting illusions to highlight topics that were being discussed.

Sepulcher of Rebirth

The Sepulcher of Rebirth was located near the heart of the Halls of Reflection, and was a large, open chamber whose walls were made up of thick ice framed by ornate arches that resembled doorways. Frigid, glowing water could be seen behind the ice in these doorways, and behind some of them, bodies existed in a state of dormant preservation. One of them was the body of Velameestra herself. The room served as a storage chamber for the clones Velameestra had created as insurance against true death, for herself, her loved ones, and other individuals of import, and these bodies existed in a state of frozen stasis until a soul inhabited them.

When the presence of a newly arrived soul was sensed, the ice in the arches melted to release the newly occupied body.

The Gossamer Memory

The Gossamer Memory consisted of an ornate circular room whose walls were lined with display cases of various items and mementos that ranged in commonality. The ceiling of the room appeared to open into a cosmic sky of stars, but one devoid of anything but the translucent flicker of thin, ethereal strands. The center of the room contained a platform in the floor, when stepped upon, transferred individuals into a space above so that the gossamer threads could be be accessed and those that entered are surrounded by an eternity of open space. The threads themselves were strands of preserved memories, safely sequestered in the demiplane as a gallery of legacy and emotion: many of them were the memories of those who had passed, the deeds they want remembered preserved in an eternal legacy.