The Gaetes

It is believed that the Gaetes, at some time far in the distant past, were used to travel long distances, even across the breath of the Mortal Lands. Today, though, they stand solitary and silent, save for the occasional tourist or explorer visiting out of a sort of obligatory pilgrimage.

Each Gaete is built in a wide, flat space, or at least it was wide and flat when the Gaete was first built. Some are now buried in overgrowth, while others stand on windswept plains overlooking cliffs. None of them seem to work, all identical in construction yet each unique in the shape of the materials used.   The Gaetes are old, old enough that they are not adorned by graceful carvings or elegant construction. They are rather plain, nothing more than large rocks harphazardly stacked together in the rough fashion of a doorway. What is exquisitely adorned is the ceramic floor that sits under each gate: Wide, circular, and still brilliant in color if the soil that has protected it from the elements over the centuries is pulled away. Comparisions made between each Gaete over time reveal that each has a unique pattern in its tiling, but so far it is inconclusive if this is anything more than local flavoring or cultural markings.     Each Gaete has a series of roughly carved runes in their 'doorposts', but they do not match any known rune in the archives of Poartlind University. It's believed that these runes are what gave the Gaete its power, now long since ebbed away by the flow of time. A few of these runes match the symbols in the tile flooring, but so far no one has been able to translate them.

The Gaetes seem to predate any written record from the history of the Mortal Lands, save those of the Memoria who passed long before the Aegis kingdom rose to power. Historians speculate that the Gaetes were built in this unrecorded time period, however nothing conclusive has been discovered yet. There are records of the Aegis kingdom using them, however such records are few and far between, and do not note how the Gaetes themselves functioned. It seems that with the fall of Ageia  the method of using the Gaetes was lost, and they fell to ruin.   While they have been longstanding and were never really 'lost', the Gaetes certainly were abandoned until the revival of the 1800s when the call of adventure suddenly seized the world. Researchers and explorers both flocked to the Gaetes, eager to be the first to discover and, more importantly, publish a paper on its secrets. However, little was learned that was not already known. The Gaetes were forgotten again after the Night of Falling Crowns, and have remained so since.

There is one Gaete in the world that remains a popular tourist attraction, even if no one is certain why. It lies in the heart of Shimshar, one of the few draws to the small mountain areas of an otherwise coastal country. Visitors are invited to walk between the rocky pillars and imagine that, in that step, they had indeed stepped across the world. There is also a small gift shoppe at the bottom of the hill it stands on, reminding visitors to perhaps visit again, bring a few friends.    Most of the currently known Gaetes lay abandoned or forgotten in various corners of the world. One researcher reports that a Gaete that had otherwise been untouched for a century looked like it had been recently visited; dirt had been carefully brushed away from the tiles on the ceramic plaza, and the Gaete itself felt warm to the touch despite being in the shade of several trees. there was still the taste of thunder in the air, though the area had not seen a storm in weeks.