BEL
NAIRE
The village of Bel Naire, located east of the
Northern River
Lighthouse
near the
Dwarven Mines
in the
Valley of
the Sparrows, east of the
Northern River with a road running south to
East Shanbar,
is home of an
ancient temple. This grand building was huge stained-glass windows,
decorated with arched columns which stand in front of the temple
itself. In the temple's basement, a secret underground passageway leads
into the passes and ravines of Dwarven Mountains (which otherwise do not form a connection between the Valley and the
Shrine of the Six Muses).
Since Before Entharion (
BE),
this historic temple has
been continuously
occupied by an unusually high priestess called a
Holy Woman, although various holy monks also attended to various religious rites.
Following the collapse of magic in 966 GUE, a vibrant and bizarre cult
sprung up around these eternal high priestesses.
Since
the
Great Diffusion of
1247, the scattered specks of evil magic
settled and were absorbed into the soil and every living thing.
The plants and animals in the valley flourished and people began to
resettle there. Monks and others from all over
Zork
ventured to visit
the Ancient Sacred Circle at Bel Naire.
At this time, Bel Naire grew and
became almost as popular as
East
and West Shanbar.
The village was touted as one of the first to sport a new idea: condos.
The idea appealed to many people and the town quickly became a hot spot
for trade and local government. The makers of the city built the
village around the temple. The holy men of the temple begged that a
town not be built so near their temple, but progress waits for no one.
As is such, the village came to be and the holy men resented the town
and its residence with a rather strange paranoia, dissecting the
temple from the rest of the village with a newly constructed wall and
gate reinforced with spiked bars.
A sign was erected at the entrance with its famous slogan: "Welcome to Bel Naire, the city that never sleeps!"
Surrounded
with a city-wall, Bel Naire was divided into four sections: the
northwest quadrant was residential, the southwest was commerical, the
southwest was the warehouse district, and the northeast was the
governmental. Some buildings of mention included the
Medieval Arcade
(open 24-hours for playing archaic arcade games), the city hall,
Medieval Lawnmowers, Inc., a general store, and a town library (tall
standing with two large columns adding support to the front of the
double-doored building).
Since that time, the village fell to the evil that was infused within the scattered specks of evil magic. For in the
1620s,
Feebo unearthed the
Cluster. Embaressed by
this discovery, he
took to drinking heavily and carelessly died while taking a joyride in
a mining cart. The remains of the cart, as well as a few parts of
Feebo’s wardrobe, were enshrined in the Temple of Bel Narie alongside
the Cluster, which was placed upon a pedestal.
The display of
the Cluster at the Temple of Bel Narie gained particular interest from
Canuk, who had been living
since the Great Diffusion. Fascinated by the
cluster, he visited the museum regularly. In a weakened state (from the
exertions to dispel all evil), the exposure to the Cluster had a
strange effect on him: he became mesmerized, controlled. The Cluster
seemed to reach out to him and hypnotize him. He became possessed by
the evil energy of the Cluster. But only part of his personality became
possessed. The other part of Canuk had no idea of this dual
personality. Now obsessed with the object, he had to obtain it. He did.
After building a replica cluster, he infiltrated the museum one night
and swapped the fake for the real one. The
East Shanbar Times
reported
(1635-12-14) that the Holy Woman suspected that the Cluster had been
replaced with a fake cluster. She expressed concern and asked for an
inquiry.
IT&L, Inc.
was contracted for investigations.
In the 1640s,
with the curse of
Morphius
infesting the Valley of the Sparrows, the
powerful evil magical gradually relocated much of Bel Naire village to
the underground. The portions that remained above ground were turned
into a literal ghost town in a matter of months. The mayor was turned
to stone by Morphius' vultures and put on display in the city as a
statue, while the entire population was infected with a disease that
“zombietized” them. Since then, they spent their time hiding from the
light, only emerging from the shadows when there was a new victim to
infect with the same disease they had. For once the unsuspecting
visitor delved far enough into the village's interior, they would
suddenly emerge, forming entrapping blockades, quickly inducting the
individual into their zombie society.
But
the holy men of the temple were not affected at all by this disease and
speculation about their origins was a commonly discussed topic in other
towns that still existed. The gate which had once been constructed to
keep out the common populace, was now employed as a barricade against
the zombies, which frequently found themselves impaled upon its spikes.
Regardless, the
Ancient Sacred Circle was no longer visited and its grounds quickly
fell into ruin. From then on the natives referred to it as the Zombie
City.
Once Morphius was defeated and the curse was revoked by the
Second
Great Diffusion in 1647 GUE, only the naked foundations of four or five buildings remained. But this did not prevent its restoration.
Following the Second Great Diffusion, many remnants who still worshipped
Eru, The One, throughout all Zork, gathered together at this temple.
SOURCE(S): Return to
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