Coral Castle
Important Site
This is a historical place important to seaborn lore
Now nothing more than a burned-out ruin stubbornly clinging to the cliffs along south-western Cenril’s shoreline, the Coral Castle was aeons ago the primary center for the worship of Selene, Goddess of the Sea, and a major stronghold of the ancient Mermish folk. It was a magnificent under-sea structure, a labyrinthine palace of deep halls and towering spires, all hewn from an archaic bank of stark white coral, here and there threaded with crimson, azure and golden hues. Its walls were carved with intricate reliefs depicting the exploits of Mermish heroes and gods, and legendary battles waged against monsters of the deep.
Beyond its magically-guarded walls lay a carefully cultivated live-coral maze garden, hailed as one of the wonders of ancient Lithrydel, its amazingly vibrant twists and turns were traditionally guarded by a fierce sea-gorgon, who would swiftly turn any unwelcome intruder into stone. The garden was thus also famed for its ‘statuary’, the large array of petrified figures only adding to the garden’s many marvels.
Hailed as the very pinnacle of Mermish architecture and culture in its day, it came to ruin first via the corruption of merfolk who were swayed from their devotion to Selene by the crafty demi-deity Coreliant, who came to be called the Little God of Lies. Under Coreliant’s spell, the community turned fanatical and cruel, putting many of their own people to death when they refused to abandon their worship of Selene. For five generations this corruption continued to flourish, until the last living priest of Selene was forced to flee the site, on which he went to the krakens to appeal for their aid.
A swift and bloody war of rebellion was waged on the Coreliant cultists. Empowered by the Blessing of Selene – embodied by some mysterious artefact – a pair of krakens, priest and warrior, smashed the castle and all its occupants to pulp and rubble. The tale of this battle is mostly lost to the mists of time, but it’s said the krakens forced the remnants of the structure out of the sea by causing the oceanic bedrock below it to rise. Still visible on the beach to this day is a magical sand dollar-design, once a protective ward emblazoned on the sea-bed courtyard of the castle, that even in this present age retains a little of its former power.
In the millennia since this event, the castle has been rebuilt and ruined again many times over. Marooned on dry land and forgotten by the Mermish tribes as aeons came and went, it is nevertheless remembered in legend, and regarded by the most ancient and pious of Seaborn beings as the pearl of the southern seas and an important seat of Selene-worship – no matter how lost and defiled. The only undersea remnant of the Castle’s former glory is a mazey reef of wild coral I the waters just beyond the ruin’s beach – the site of the former gardens, reverted long ago to an oceanic wilderness.