The Phrontistery of Shadow Way had long been a revered and enigmatic institution, a grand fortress that was whispered about as the cradle of Shadow Magic. For centuries, its looming spires and formidable walls stood as a testament to ancient architectural mastery, carved from the very bones of the world. It lay hidden in the distant and shadowed lands of Hauth, its origins steeped in both mystery and power.

During the 4th century MA, a powerful necromancer named Unwart, who was as feared as he was respected, founded this school. Unwart was a master of the dark arts, and his shadow magic seeped into the very stones of the structure he began in 434 MA. After his death, his son, Unwart II, completed the construction, honoring his father’s legacy by raising the fortress to its full, fearsome grandeur.

Location

The Phrontistery had been nestled deep within the treacherous Onix Mountain range, in the remote northwest of Hauth. Its formidable silhouette rose from the heart of jagged, dark crags, where the Steel River carved a path of gleaming silver through the blackened rock. Here, in the shadow of mountains that seemed to scrape the very heavens, the fortress stood as an homage to the mastery of both stone and sorcery, its hidden halls known only to the bravest of souls who dared to approach.

The mountains themselves loomed like guardians, their sheer, slate-grey cliffs reaching skyward, with winds howling through their jagged peaks. Below, the land was littered with colossal boulders, their surfaces sharp and unforgiving. Between them, chasms yawned like the mouths of ancient beasts, plunging hundreds of feet into the abyss. The only passage into the fortress was a narrow stone bridge that arched over the rushing Steel River, leading travelers down a winding path between jagged rocks toward the main gates. Few who crossed that bridge ever returned, and those who did spoke of the darkness that clung to the very air, as if the fortress itself breathed the essence of shadow.

Description

The Phrontistery was a colossal structure of gothic design, built from dark, weathered stone hewn from the surrounding mountains. It sat upon a towering slab of ancient sedimentary rock, thrust upward from the earth’s core in forgotten ages. Its towering walls rose high into the sky, crowned with spires that seemed to reach into the blackened clouds above.

The fortress itself seemed as though it had been birthed from the very mountains, a part of the craggy landscape around it. At ground level, sharp boulders jutted out from the terrain like the bones of long-dead giants, while deep ravines, black as night, crisscrossed the land in all directions.

At its heart was the Main Hall, a cavernous chamber whose vaulted ceiling soared 80 feet above the stone floor. The echoes of footsteps could linger here for what seemed like hours, swallowed by the darkness that always seemed to cling to the air.

Sky Pleas

Beyond the Phrontistery’s walls, hovering high above the ground, were the mysterious Sky Pleas—two floating islands of earth that drifted among the clouds. Atop each pleas was a tower with smaller structures at their bases. These levitating masses hovered hundreds of feet in the air, about 500 feet away from the main fortress, positioned to the northwest. To those traveling toward the Phrontistery, the Sky Pleas appeared as shadowy figures in the sky, suspended in eternal watchfulness over the darkened landscape below.

Few knew what purpose these floating islands served, throughout its existence they were heavily guarded by Unwart’s lineage and guardianship, and only a chosen few were granted passage to them. Rumors whispered among the villagers of Hauth spoke of strange and ancient magic that kept them aloft. The brave—or foolish—who dared to approach the islands by flight claimed to have glimpsed the faint outline of a structure upon one of the pleas, surrounded by a garden of black roses. What lay within the towering structures, few could say, few ever ventured close enough to find out and many had never returned to speak of it.