The Sevenlands are built on ruins, and few are stranger than the Steele of the Founder. Rising from the plains like a field of silver teeth, these monoliths mark one of the oldest sites tied to Indalvian, the figure who shaped the Conclave and codified the study of magic. But what makes the Steele truly unsettling isn’t its age or even the power woven into the stones — it’s the secrecy surrounding those who study it.
The Secret Scholars
Lilliane’s confession in The Old Man of the Temple pulls the veil back just enough to glimpse this hidden world. She is part of the Cabal of the Epitaph, a quiet order of scholars who dedicate themselves to Indalvian’s legacy. To outsiders, they’re little more than eccentric archivists chasing dead languages and cracked tablets. In truth, the Cabal guards knowledge too dangerous for the Conclave’s public halls. They know the Steele whispers to those who wait long enough in its shadow, and they know Indalvian’s writings are far from the sanitized doctrines handed down to students.
The Steele of the Founder
The Steele itself is not a single monument but a field of towering silver stones, each etched with inscriptions that shift and breathe with the turning of the sun. Some passages can only be read at dawn, when the light catches the carvings at a slant. Others reveal themselves by shadow at twilight. It is said that no one has ever translated the full body of the text, because the Steele does not give itself wholly to any single reader. It forces you to return again and again, piecing together fragments across seasons and years.
The Founder’s Warning
The Conclave’s official histories claim the Steele records the founding of their order, Indalvian’s vision for magic and law. But the Cabal of the Epitaph whispers of stranger things. They speak of prophecies written into the stones, of warnings against the misuse of a great weapon, of Indalvian himself railing against the gods he once revered. The Founder’s epitaph, they say, is not a celebration of victory but a lament, a carved warning that the Conclave itself has long ignored.
The Steele Endures
The Steele of the Founder remains, silent and immovable on the plains, waiting for light and shadow to reveal its voice. And the Cabal of the Epitaph waits with it, guardians of a truth the Conclave would rather remain buried.