A fortress-monastery built directly over the point where the light leyline surfaces, located in the high Widebarrow Mountains on the border between Dern and Thorum. The original structure dates to the late Second Eon, though it has been rebuilt, expanded, and partially destroyed multiple times across millennia.
Architecture
The Palace is constructed from white granite quarried from peaks further south, but centuries of leyline exposure have transformed the stone. It no longer merely reflects light—it accumulates it. The walls glow softly at night, brightest in the hours after sunset, dimming toward dawn as the stored radiance bleeds away. During the day, looking directly at the Palace from certain angles causes temporary blindness.
The central tower—the Beacon—rises 300 feet above the shore of Lake Splendor. Its peak is visible from both Dern's capital Dodi and Thorum's highland settlements, serving as a literal landmark for mountain navigation.
The Order of the Aureate Eye
The Palace is held by the Order of the Aureate Eye, a religious order dedicated to Kunus (the elemental plane of Light). They are not priests in the conventional sense—more like scholars who worship through study. The Order believes that light is the universe's memory: every photon has witnessed something, and with sufficient understanding, that witnessing can be read.
The Order numbers roughly 200 members: monks, scribes, and a smaller cadre of "Luminars" who have undergone leyline exposure rituals that permanently alter their vision. Luminars can see magical auras, read by starlight alone, and allegedly perceive truth in ways others cannot—but they are also slowly going blind to ordinary sight. Most Luminars are functionally blind to anything not magically illuminated by their fortieth year.
Political Status
The Palace claims neutrality between Dern and Thorum, and both mountain states grudgingly respect this. The Order provides services too valuable to alienate: they maintain the Beacon (critical for mountain travel), arbitrate disputes using their "truth-sight," and—most importantly—they guard the leyline.
Light leylines are less dangerous than fire or void, but uncontrolled surges can still blind entire valleys. The Order dampens fluctuations, channeling excess energy into their architecture. When they fail, Lake Splendor boils with radiance for days and travelers for miles around see persistent afterimages.
The Vault of Illumination
Deep beneath the Palace, carved into the mountain below lake level, the Order maintains a vault of artifacts too dangerous to expose to natural light. These include mirrors that show the past, crystals that store years of continuous vision, and a single lantern that allegedly holds the last light of the Third Moon—captured the moment it was destroyed in the Ezz Rift. The Order denies this last item exists.
Tensions
Dern-Thorum Rivalry: Both states would love to control the Palace. Its neutrality is enforced partly by the Order's usefulness and partly by mutual suspicion—neither state will let the other seize it. Recently, Thorum has been "donating" more recruits to the Order, slowly tilting its internal politics northward.
The Luminars' Burden: Older Luminars, the ones going blind, have begun reporting disturbing visions. They claim to see something vast approaching from the east—something that casts no shadow because it consumes all light reaching it. The Order's leadership dismisses this as leyline madness, but younger members are worried.