Southstone Divine Wards

Dotting the Southstone Mountain Range are a number of monoliths, placed there in Torvahl's past when Southstone was built as a settlement. Similar to the walls of Southstone itself, these monuments are enchanted with layers of overlapping magical protection against Necromancy.   The magic used to create these monuments is, like that of Southstone's walls, a lost magic, performed by Clerics and Mages in a time long forgotten to the history of the city. Research and prayer has been performed over the years with the goal of discerning the nature of these monuments, but as far as can be surmised they are in nearly equal parts the result of a merging between Divine, Natural, and Arcane magic. This makes the primary difficulty in dissecting their constructionthe fact that the fields of expertise required are especially broad.   While discovering the method to replicating these monuments remains illusive, their overall purpose is fairly certain: They suppress the Undead.   The monuments are placed in various locations throughout the Southstone Mountains, and a magical leyline network seems to connect each monument to each other, and to Southstone City itself. It's still unknown what the exact purpose of the leylines is, but there are several prevalent theories:   1) They might function as a general suppressing effect upon the Necromantic corruption that suffuses the area   2) Others theorize that it functions as an Undead barrier or containment field. However, proponents of this theory disagree on what the network's purpose is.   3) Lastly, some believe that the fact the leylines connect to Southstone is the primary purpose, most assuming it has something to do with Southstone's anti-Undead presence.   Research expeditions are sometimes pursued by the Southstone Inquisitorium, but have diminished in frequency significantly over time, as these expeditions offer no immediate benefits and resources are used sparingly. It's been many years since the Inquisitorium has sought to glean more information from the monuments, as it's generally assumed there's nothing new they can learn without dedicating significant manpower to the research.