A History of Fortress Istalonis

This is an in-setting written work. It is written from a particular perspective and may or may not be factually accurate.

A History of Fortress Istalonis

By an unknown Machaian scholar

A brief history of Fortress Istalonis, a once-thriving minotaur settlement in the Sentinel Peaks of Hellea

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Fortress Istalonis, in the shadow of the Sentinel Peaks, was the greatest work of the most worthy minotaur masons, an artistic marvel unrivaled by any, even the most renowned of the southern temples and palaces. A mountain was removed for the space to build it and yet more were demolished in search of only the most perfect of stone - if it was necessary to quarry hundreds upon hundreds of tons to find a block of pure white marble large enough for a single brick, then it was done, and done a thousandfold and more. From every direction came the minotaurs, from the great city of Stoneshelter and the most remote villages past the Galevo, to labor towards this great castle, their combined Khalkean efforts summoning forth walls, palaces, and battlements all decorated with reliefs and statuary, and above them all the highest tower from which to survey the brilliant fortress of white. Years and decades and centuries and the fortress was complete. The minotaurs departed and returned home, except for those chosen by the fortress itself, who remained as its protectors.

For hundreds of years Fortress Istalonis stood strong. Armies besieged it again and again, those of the giants and the city-states alike, while the minotaurs within continued uninterrupted their long debates on philosophy, theology, and the sciences, enclosed and secure within their armor of marble. And should the stone become scratched, for more was never the case, the masons simply repaired it as new. Every adversary Fortress Istalonis survived, until the arrival of the hero-god conqueror and the largest army yet seen, collected from all peoples and all realms and all city-states across Hellea. As he marshaled his legions of siege engines and his war-mages and his flying mounts, the minotaurs of Istalonis faced a choice, as they knew this would be one foe against which their fortifications would struggle. Rather than see their work, their pride, the finest of their people, suffer damage from which it could not be repaired, they surrendered, and in the hero-god marched.

Soon the young emperor continued his march west, where not long after he met his fate, and the fate of his empire with it. It is much presumed that the minotaurs never returned, their community broken, and yet they did, as less than ten years later the kyrioi were sending forth messengers proclaiming their triumphant return to Fortress Istalonis.

Today it lies in ruins.