Hóllow (HAW-low)

Its purpose was for the Véndal's Nímari to teach Wáni their zíno. Divines wanted to Véndal to be the symbol for the wilds. Wáni was to show how melody zíno and the beasts are important to the wilds.

Overall Structure: Ring‑shaped complex around a sunken central courtyard. Most spaces are rectangular or gently rounded rectangles; corridors often curve like roots.

Main Hall / Sanctuary:

  Large, high‑vaulted rectangular hall (about 30–35 m by 18–20 m, 12–14 m high).  

  Ceiling: Pale azure stone with dark, root‑like ribs and blue‑white crystal veins; some sections collapsed, letting in light and weather.  

  Walls: Smooth pale stone, darker root supports, and crystal inlays. Decor mixes Wáni circles and clean bands with Nímari leaves, arches, and vine‑reliefs. Faded banners still hang.  

  Floor: Cool blue‑gray stone slabs with sigil‑circles and cracked crystal inlays that once carried melodies energy.

Side Chambers & Study Rooms:

 Smaller rectangular or oval rooms (6–10 m by 4–6 m).  

  Ceilings: Lower, gently vaulted with finer root‑ribs.  

  Walls: Pale stone with niches, shelves, and mixed geometric/organic carvings; some faint murals of joint Nímari–Wáni teaching.  

  Floors: Flat stone with carved sigil‑circles, low platforms, and patches of dampness or moss in lower levels.

Corridors:  

  Main halls 2.5–3 m wide, secondary ones narrower. Straight Wáni segments blend into Nímari curves.  

  Ceilings/Walls: Root‑ribs overhead, tall slit‑windows for narrow light beams, alternating bare stretches and carved leaves/notations.  

  Floors: Worn, slightly concave, with cracks showing crystal or dark cavities below.

Subterranean Root‑Halls:  

  Low, rounded tunnels (2–3 m wide, 2–2.5 m high) with occasional round or oval chambers.  

  Ceiling/Walls: Dominated by dark root‑ribs and damp, cool stone, rich in glowing crystal veins.  

  Floors: Uneven, with ridges, puddles, moss, and carved ritual circles where ley‑lines converge.

Courtyards & Exterior:  

  Central sunken courtyard about 25–30 m across, irregularly oval, plus smaller 10–15 m courtyards.  

  Ground: Cracked flagstones overgrown with weeds and star‑flowers, broken carved plant basins.  

  Outer Walls: Read as a ring of leaning, fused stone trunks—like a circle of petrified trees fallen into the valley.

Color & Material Palette:  

  Pale azure and blue‑gray stone for ceilings and floors.  

  Dark, root‑like structural ribs.  

  Blue‑white crystalline inlays for faint, starry glow.  

  Mixed geometric (Wáni) and natural (Nímari) carvings throughout.

Entries

Main Entrance: A wide, cracked stairway descending into a sunken courtyard. A once‑grand arch bearing Nímari and Wáni script, split cleanly down the middle. No intact doors remain; the main hall stands open to wind and weather.

Secondary Side Entrances:  Narrow corridors branching from the outer ring to be choked with rubble. One side entry retains a heavy stone door clinging to a single hinge, shrieking across the floor when moved.

Subterranean Access: A concealed stair beneath a shattered stone basin leads into the root‑halls below. Natural sinkholes in the surrounding ground open into forgotten service tunnels. They are flooded while the others are filled with drifting zíno mist.

Windows and Gaps  

 Tall, slit‑like windows without glass admit pale shafts of light and gusts of wind.  Collapsed walls and ceilings have created irregular openings that serve as dangerous exits.

Security of Entries: Mundane locks have long since failed or rotted away.  Some thresholds are still edged with faint, tingling wards that cause headaches, mild nausea, or disorientation when crossed.

Sight: Cracked and stagging pale stone walls veined with darker root supports.Faintly glowing crystal inlays that shimmer at dusk and dawn. Pale spirits are turning a page, tracing a sigil, or offering a hand then vanishes.  A cracked ring of crystals and star flowers zíno rotating in the air.

Sound: Unnatural quiet voices and clothed footsteps sound muffled. A low, bone‑deep hum in certain rooms that is more felt than heard.  Kin hears their own thoughts whispered back in a different tone or accent.

Smell: Dry stone and old dust with a faint metallic tang like rain on ostro. Lower halls smell of damp moss and faded incense. Very rarely, a breath of unfamiliar flowers with no visible source.

Feel: The air is cool to cold becoming clammy in different areas. A constant, subtle sense of being watched—not with hostility, but with quiet curiosity.  Touching carved runes or monoliths sends pins‑and‑needles tingled into the fingers and up into the skull.

Lighting: Natural light filters through broken ceilings and open windows by day. Crystals with wisps will emit a soft, sourceless glow.  The main hall is dimly lit from a Shádu and Vétar zíno borned tree.

The ones kin will glance upon when entering the Hóllow are not ones are lively.

Spirits: Pale translucent fragments of former kin. A guide bending over an invisible student, two students bickering silently, a child running past, and lyna with a zoan roaming.

Tinted Beasts: Pale souls of lyna, vexra, zoans, and loxies. They will follow kin, freezing randomly, and mimicking single words or sounds.

Staying Kin: Lone scholars camp in the side rooms fraying at the edges. A quiet, secretive group of Nímari and Wáni descendants who visit periodically to perform remembrance rites.

The various furnishings within the ruins are mixed of broken and intact.

Main Chambers: Broken benches with sigils in the floor.  Low stone platforms with cracked bowls, crystal stands, and scorched flora. Abandoned tools: blunt knives, bone or metal weapons, tuning forks still produce thin, clear tones.

Study Rooms and Archives: Collapsed shelving, scattered stone tablets, codices, and scroll‑tubes. Many texts are ruined by time; others remain legible, often using blended Nímari–Wáni notation.  A few memories‑crystals flicker with spoken lessons when handled.

Living Quarters:  Simple stone bed‑niches, remnants of rotted bedding, and carved chests.  Personal items: carved charms, cracked mirrors, ocarina, paired pendants left together on shelves.

Many kin will think valuables is honoring the past there is a few who seek out treasure.

A kin had a list when peparing to the ruins:

ZínoTexts: Teachings about combining Nímari with Wáni zínos together. Notes on the Shrouded Cavern structure and safeguards.

Shards: Small melodies fragments: Allow brief wild energies flow on Línasha through Véndel's Nimari. Occasionally flash with visions of the Hollow kin’s perspective.

Clultural Relics: Jointly crafted sculptures and jewelry blending hard geometry with organic curves. Paired medallions, one Nímari and one Wáni, that resonate faintly when brought together.

Any ruins will have hazards and traps to protect them from what is known.

Lingering Wards: Old defensive ones will still trigger intermittently. Sudden silence by cutting off all sound to anyone.  Bursts of force shove kins away from protected rooms. Illusory doors, walls, or guides will lead explorers astray.

Physical Dangers: Unstable ceilings and loose stone blocks. Cracked floors spanning hidden drops into lower halls or water‑filled pits. Slick surfaces in damp underground tunnels.

Peace‑Oath Monoliths: Tall stones were raised at each major entrance. They were inscribed with no blood to be spilled within or no spell cast in anger.

It was a fusion of Nímari and Wáni aesthetics. Their materials used were azure stone that catches and reflects starlight. Dark, root‑shaped structural ribs guided by the wilds. Inlaid veins of soft blue‑white crystals once carried melodies energies.

Their style was mixed with the wild and melodies. Wáni: straight lines, circles, clean, uncluttered walls; tall, narrow windows. Nímari: curved corridors, archways like living roots, and shaped doorways like unfolding leaves.

Doorframes ornaments engraved with Wáni circles and Nímari leaves. The walls now hung with a tattered pair of faded colored banners. Courtyards have broken shallow, carved stone plant basins. From afar, the ruin looks like a hollow fallen ring of stone trees.

Their defenses were a mix of Vétar and Shádu zíno. Peace‑Wards are zíno that dull aggression to make weapons feel heavy. Remnants still function: in some rooms, attempts at violence cause dizziness, sudden fatigue, or blurred vision. Mirror melodies shields linger as haunting melody has been stopping people in their tracks. Stone twisted faceless statues will rouse when kin enters. The statues will block doors, clumsily guide visitors, or gently restrain them.

The ruins’ founding history is about 900 years ago. Divines wanted to have Nímari teach the Wáni. Nímari agreed to have Wani teach them Shádu zíno. They found a neutral site in a valley that had good zíno for them both. Hollow construction began with the Divines agreeing to the site.

The Hollow was a shared sanctuary for Nímari and Wáni. There were mixed classes of Nímari and Wáni students trained together and spellcraft. The site became a living emblem of peace and cooperation.

520 years ago there was a shifting change in the air. Elders feared distance, rumor, and fear would erode trust. They in secret created a Shrouded Cavern to protect their combined zíno. Mysteriously their journals, scrolls, artifacts, and clothing have vanished. 

Hollow’s Turning happened about 449 years ago. A star portal opened for Elders to lead guides, students, elders, and Forcers away. They used their zíno on the Hollow’s land to bring it alive. A web of snarly roots spreading over the Hollow’ crackled stones. No one from the ancient order was ever found again in the Hollow. A Nmari’s legend says the Hollow’s kin ascended into the wilds. Wáni simply vanished to take their tales with them. The true history of the Hollow is now sealed by the Divines. The Hollow passed from living memory into myth to draw only the brave, rogues, zíno born.

Kin visits are the Nimari and lost Wani who are drawn back.They wish to study the lost Nímari and Wáni zíno techniques. Foolish rogues chasing rumors of zíno relics. Zínos who dream of the Hollow before ever seeing it. What they seek is the truth of why the ancient order left, surviving hybrid spell texts and artifacts. There are shattered scrolls, memories gifts, lynra or zoan spirit beasts. The kin will stay in a  small, rough camp a safe distance away. Hardened guides and a handful of aging scholars run the camp. Forcers roam between the ruins and camp for kin safety.