Ancient Secrets: Planetary Alignment

Eons ago, the Temple of Ru sat atop the end of a long rocky pier that was cut from the landscape by philospher stonecutters. The roofless, pentagonal temple sat peering into the night sky, with five sets of staircases (three steps each) that faced each other and met in mid-air.

Inlaid in the first step of each stair, rests brick with an ancient inscription of glyphs for each season. Four of the five stairs still have their glyph bricks. Today, the temple is long fallen, but the three steps for each season remain.

There are five solstices in the Benuvian calendar that take place at the crossroads of the seasons:

• Veral - growth season (although little grows easily on Benu)
• Aesat - high season
• Aumut - falling away
• Borea - season of death
• Indeko- twillight before rebirth

Reckoning of Ru: Astral Alignment

A solstice on Benu is anything but ordinary. On these holy days, the constant stars in the sky that make up the Circlet of Nioro (Warrior Huntress)--align along one of five different paths. Beginning at noon, a priestess of Ru (Five-headed Celestine Godess) would speak an incantation--saying aloud the season inscribed on the aligned stair--and a doorway to another world would open.

Five different stairs. Five different solstices. Five different conjunctions. Five different seasons. Five different portals to outer realms.

Intrepid scholars excavating the site have identified three destinations, based on centuries of research and self endangerment during solstice times.

• Veral - Kurust (although little grows easily on Benu)
• Aesat - Raathnor
• Aumut - Trigor ("third" in Benuvian tongue)
• Borea - Quadrat ("fourth" in Benuvian tongue
• Indeko- Lagol

Three stairs still seem to function, while the other two lie dormant. They've been named numerically for now. It's unknown why they no longer activate. It's possible the destinations were destroyed or migrated to another plane by some cosmic force.

Different Days, Different Worlds

There's a rumor, that more worlds appear on other holidays too, when different constellations are in alignment. But since those occurances happen with even greater rarity, it's unknown where those portals may lead.

In recent times, few are brave enough to ascend the Stair of Ru, and those who do are never again seen. A low, briny lake now covers the area surrounding the stair, and it's been said that an ancient codex of all the possible portals may lie hidden below the surface. Just one of many lost secrets of the Temple of Ru.