Conventical of Seran
| Conventical of Seran | |
|---|---|
| Owner | Canton of Inquisition |
| Dominance | Eastern Dominance |
| World | Scadrial |
| Universe | Cosmere |
The Conventical of Seran is a fortress of the Canton of Inquisition on Scadrial. It is where new Inquisitors were made, and Kwaan's inscription is kept there.
Geography
The Conventical of Seran lies far south of Luthadel in the Eastern Dominance[1], relatively close to the River Seran and its lakes North Seran and South Seran.[2]
![[2]](#cite_note-Final_Empire.png-2){kind=link}
It is built in a large crater-like depression in the land. This valley has steep rocky slopes, is about three hundred feet deep and is almost too wide to look at the other side with the bare eye. The crater is surrounded by gently sloping hills, and no roads lead to it. All these reasons make the Conventical of Seran hard to defend, but even harder to find in the first place.[1]
Architecture
Exterior
The Conventical's walls are built from dark stone and are flat, broad and impressive. It has steel plates bolted to some of the outside sections of the building, covered by some rust, moss and ash. Its massive gate doors are also made of steel. The whole building doesn't have any windows, and has an ominous look.[1]
Interior
Inside, it is almost completely dark, as the fortress has no exterior windows. The interior walls and columns also have steel sheets bolted to them, and unlike the plates on the outside, don't have any stains and are buffed to create patterns and shapes on the walls. The floor is made of large reflecting square steel tiles. The rooms are high, large and hardly furnished, the doorways don't have doors, and the hewn out of stone stairs have high steps.[1]
In general the whole interior is dark, square-shaped, covered by steel plates and without decoration, except for carvings in the steel.[1]
The ground floor doesn't have a clear purpose, it only serves as entry. On the upper floor(s) are the Inquisitors' quarters. The basement contains the room where new Inquisitors are made. Even lower is the cave-like room where Kwaan carved his inscription in a large steel plate.[1]
History
During the Final Empire
The Lord Ruler built this place as a Hemalurgy laboratory. During the one thousand years of his reign, he made lots of experiments in hope of creating new Hemalurgic constructs. Due to the nature of Hemalurgy, many died in the process. But all the attempts turned out to be failure, as the Lord Ruler was unable to create anything on top of the three he already knew: Koloss, Kandra and Inquisitor.[3]
After the Collapse
After the Lord Ruler's death, the Inquisitors and high obligators of the Canton of Inquisition retreat to the Conventical of Seran.[4] For some reason all of them abandon the building a couple of months before Ruin's release from the Well of Ascension, killing a lot of their servants and taking everything useful upon their departure.[1]
When Marsh discovers that the Conventical is abandoned, he goes there to investigate it together with Sazed. Marsh climbs down the crater in which the Conventical was situated using a cable which was formerly used to transport people up and down in a cage, but Sazed uses his Feruchemical iron to lower his weight and fall down easefully. The two of them need to work together to open the building's massive steel doors, Marsh using Allomantic pewter and Sazed his Feruchemical pewter.[1]
Once inside Sazed starts archiving what he sees in his coppermind, while Marsh attempts to find something specific (although undefined) in the Inquisitor's quarters, but concludes that the Inquisitors must have taken it with them upon their departure. Sazed finds his way down to the room that holds Kwaan's inscription, and makes a quick rubprint copy with charcoal as Marsh insists on leaving soon.[1]
Two weeks after Ruin's release from the Well of Ascension Sazed returns to the Conventical, alone. When he compares his copy from Kwaan's inscription with the original he notices that his copy doesn't match the text carved in steel, as expected.[5][note 1]
Trivia
- Brandon is planning to write more from Marsh's viewpoint in the future and reveal what Marsh hoped to find in the Conventical.[6]
- The prologue of The Hero of Ages possibly takes place in the Conventical of Seran.[7]
Notes
- Footnotes
- ↑ Ruin manipulated Sazed's copy of the inscription so that Vin would give up the Well of Ascension's power, leading to Ruin's release.[5]