Shadow Temple

"Lose your way, lose your life."

- Common Cult of Shadow Saying

The Shadow Temple is an enormous structure on the surface of Arcanix that was built by the Cult of Shadow to serve as their headquarters. The temple was initially constructed by the first members of the cult in a much more modest form, but as the Cult of Shadow grew, so too did the size of the Shadow Temple. In fact the temple has always been in a state of constant construction from the start, with additional wings being added as needed.

After the first Labor Lords were built, the massive droids helped to speed up the construction of the temple, but the progress never seems to be fast enough to accommodate all of the cult members. This is done on purpose so as to create an antagonistic atmosphere between the cult members, forcing them to be aggressive to survive.

Moreover, the new wings are constantly being added without apparent thought as to how they'll affect the flow of the rest of the temple, but this is also done deliberately. As the temple has grown, the new additions have made the structure increasingly complex and labyrinthine inside. Learning to navigate inside the Shadow Temple has become something of a test for cult members and it's often said that those who get lost are rarely seen again.

The Shadow Temple had the distinction of being the only structure visible on the surface of Arcanix, but this changed after the Schrai built their hive. The two structures currently rival each other for size.

=Layout= The Shadow Temple is a massive building that contains living quarters, classrooms, arenas, archives, laboratories, landing bays, and all of the other various facilities required therein. Only the core of the temple, home to the oldest parts, resemble any kind of order. The rest of the temple is built around the original structure in a circular fashion.

This deliberate maze-like layout not only forces cult members to learn how to navigate it to survive, but it also helps to stymie possible spies before they're caught by the Shadow Keepers. While some parts of the temple are more distinct than others, the rooms are often highly uniform and any kind of decorated carvings static and repetitive. There's nothing in the way of directories or a map inside of the temple to guide someone to their destination. Asking for help is often a good way to end up dead since it's considered a sign of weakness by the cult.

Furthermore, the redundant layers upon layers approach gives the temple a kind resiliency not seen in other building designs. Essentially all of the really important rooms are at the heart of the temple, and each new layer is built with a strong exterior wall to protect it from the elements of Arcanix before they are in turn built over with the next layer. These mundane rooms, filled with living quarters, classrooms, mess halls, training rooms and the like form a kind of ablative armor for the temple. Even if a section of the temple is damaged in an attack, it is likely that it will do little to cripple the cult’s operations since the chances of it making it through all those rooms to something important is minimal.

Notable Areas
The Shadow Temple isn't without its important features. There are certain sections that differ from the uniform layers that dominate most of the structure, especially the closer one gets to the center.