On it’s own, this observation is hardly newsworthy — a monolith in a locale known for its monoliths isn’t exactly something to write home about. 

But the recency of its appearance is unsettling, given the area hasn’t seen an update since before the collapse of the Vermillion Empire. The towers and minarets of countless forgotten cities are a bleak illustration of just how long it’s been since anyone attempted any kind of major construction project round these parts.

Quite where this particular edifice originates from is difficult to say. My cursory examinations gave no hint of anything especially malicious, though that doesn’t necessarily rule out any bedevilment. I’ve been wrong before.

The Valley (known in a different lifetime as Mennupher, one of the holy sites of ancient Meridia and the historic capital of Zephra before it was supplanted by Zancastle) has always been a hotbed for arcane coalescence, so it’s not unreasonable to suspect that this may be nothing more than a petrified magic deposit.

Then again, it could be a sign that the Zephran government is seeking to truly double down on it’s manifesto promise to reinstate the old capital. The presence of this monolith would indicate that a certain devilishness is being employed to bring this plan to fruition. 

Precisely what, I couldn’t venture to say without doing some more digging (both figuratively and metaphorically — the column runs far deeper than I anticipated when packing my equipment), though if magic obelisks are involved this reversion may turn out to be worryingly literal. I don’t know about you, but I’d rather not endure another Chaos.

All that being said, given some of the… detritus in the area, my inclination is that this obelisk is actually more of a monument to carelessness than it is to nefariousness.

I happen to know that the Valley was the ‘secret’ location of this cycle’s Wake of Witches & Warlocks, an annual vigil that is really just a violent orgy of corruption and hatred (though they do tend to put on rather excellent buffets… not that I’ve been to one).

If this third interpretation is true, it would appear someone tried to summon a minor deity without the requisite skillset. It’s hard to say without further investigation, though I’d hazard a guess that whatever they did end up conjuring rendered them incapable of being able to dismantle the apparatus after the fact, if you catch my meaning.

Schedule permitting I’ll return to make more extensive enquiries, though given the accounting deadline is the end of this month that feels like something of a fleeting dream.

Sometimes I wish I’d vacated this mortal plane when I was supposed to.