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Why would anyone stay in Whitewall to be trapped there by the Lunar Army....
This never made much sense to me. I always felt there was a deeper reason for Broyan and Kallyr holding out at Whitewall. The solution I came up with was related to the new Reaching Moon super temple in Sambari Vale.
The player characters had discovered a Star Disk that was on its way south, carried by a Wyvern Rider. On investigation they learnt that it was used in the setting out of the new temple grounds. Through deduction and investigation they discovered that Orlanth’s Ring would have to be absent from the sky to complete the ceremony, as Orlanth’s ring, of all the celestial objects was not represented on the Star Disk. It is my contention that Orlanth’s Ring cannot be seen within the Glowline. The consecration of a Reaching Moon Temple is the culmination of a massive Heroquest that effectively removes/ suppresses Orlanth from the Air. An anomalous side effect of this is the seeming absence of Orlanth’s ring from the sky.
The puzzle the players couldn’t crack was why would they build a temple so far south? It is a narrator’s secret that is revealed in Orlanth is Dead. The new temple is a super temple, and will cover all of Sartar and beyond.
Minaryth learns that in order to consecrate a Reaching Moon temple, all of the Orlanth major temples have to be closed. Tatius the Bright had made sure that Jorkandros would personally oversee the closure of the Whitewall temple, which Lunar spies had reported to be the last remaining Great Temple to Orlanth. The expeditionary force had driven the defenders into Whitewall. High King Broyan decided that he would leave Whitewall and continue the resistance. Preparations were underway and Minaryth had been informed via Orngerin that help would be needed amongst the tribes to house the fleeing thanes and warriors of the Volsaxi and the rebellion.
Minaryth was disturbed, and had the Chosen One Heroband take a message requesting Kallyr try and hold Whitewall because of the Reaching Moon project. He said that work could not begin until the Whitewall Temple was closed, and then it would take a number of years to complete the project after that. In the meantime he would try and find a solution.
The arrival of the Chosen Ones heralded the appearance of a strange meteorological occurrence above the city. Over the period of about a day massive clouds rolled in. One, a massive super cell storm cloud settled over the city. The Godyr of the Orlanthi felt the presence of their god such as they had never known.
It is my contention that the Orlanthi would have had a hard time holding onto the city without some potent magic to counter the Lunar magicians. I concluded that an unexpected side effect of the experimental Heroquesting needed to create the new Temple of the Reaching Moon was the appearance of Orlanth above Whitewall. A natural extension of this is the Fimbulwinter that follows the fall of Whitewall. Unfortunately for Tatius, it made the Orlanthi a much harder nut to crack (Magic x 1.5 when in the shadow of the 'Orlanth Cloud'), which lead to what might be seen as the unnecessarily large build up of troops and magicians by the end of the siege in 1621. This magical-technology was then developed by Argrath to attempt to create Temples of the Reaching Storm.