Aurelian Necropolis
Beckon the souls of the victorious and defeated onto the glorious fields of Aur-arel; for there they shall know eternal peace and bask in paradise. Their vehicles of this world shall be treated and prepared for their journey to the fields, forever held in the protection of Her immortal grace.
— Tablet inscription of Aurelian funerary rites, Late First Era
Aurelian Necropolises are immense underground complexes that house the dead of the Aurelian Empire from the First and Second Eras. To date, there are eight known necropolises across southern Aurelia that are subjects of great archaeological and magical interest.
Characteristics[edit | edit source]
There are eight discovered necropolises across Aurelia, although historical accounts attest to at least twelve. Those that have been discovered are half-submerged in sand or have had a majority of their external structures worn away by time, although it appears that the underground complexes still have their structural integrity intact even five millennia after the end of the Aurelian Empire. Whilst the entrances of these necropolises have also been discovered, the means to open these stone doors are yet to be deciphered.
Some records of variable truth take vague accounts of the number of dead interred into the necropolises. Modern estimates suggest that there are between 600,000 to 2,000,000 interred within each of the necropolises, which has lead many to assume that these underground complexes are as large or larger than some of the cities on the surface of Telamon. The above ground of the necropolises entail a number of mortuary temples where the funerary rites of the Aurelians were undertaken, which is reminiscent of the funerary practices of modern civilisations in eastern Aurelia. Necropolises were built into the valleys of mountains that were in the locale of quarries, which were used to carve the sarcophagi of Aurelian dead. A number of unfinished sarcophagi exist in museums across the world.
It is believed by many mages across Telamon that the key to understanding the nature of these necropolises is to decipher the heirophant language used to sanctify these bodies and seal their doors shut. These magics are as strong in the present day as they were in ancient times, much to the interest of those who study them. Unfinished sarcophagi entail similar logographic sigils protecting the bodies of the dead. However, the primary interest is in opening the doors that seal these underground complexes shut; the means to open these were of safely guarded knowledge even during the times of the Aurelian Empire, and have been lost over time.
