THE STORY OF THE SPIRE
In the unthinkable depths of time, the mysterious Vault Builders carved vast homes in the subterranean recesses of the world. They left their fingerprints in many places in the Darklands beneath Golarion, delving colossal cavern-worlds and sculpting titanic magical constructs that strengthened these vaults against collapse, supplied them with air and water, and filled them with whatever specimens and artifacts the Vault Builders saw fit to preserve. Most of the Vault Builders’ works were entirely buried miles below the surface—but not the Emerald Spire.
Why the Vault Builders created the Spire or when they abandoned it, no one can say. Like many other strange wonders in the world’s depths, the Emerald Spire was forged with mighty magic, served its purpose for untold centuries, and in time was forgotten by its makers. What remains today is the titanic splinter of strange green crystal embedded in the earth. Only part of its uppermost end pierces the surface, rising a few dozen feet above the ground.
The Coming of the Azlanti
Sometime around 10,000 years ago, an Azlanti wizard-prince - whose name has been lost to the ravages of time - was discovered plotting against the royal family and forced to flee into exile across the sea in the untamed continent of Avistan. He and his followers chose a remote woodland for their home in exile. Not only was the Echo Wood thousands of miles from Azlanti justice; it was also home to the mysterious Emerald Spire, which he had discovered after hearing tales of the fantastic crystal from natives he subjugated in his exile.
The exiled prince was fascinated by the arcane power slumbering in the Spire. Among other unusual properties, the substance of the Emerald Spire proved physically nigh indestructible but magically malleable and capable of serving as an arcane battery for powering long-lasting spells or creating constructs. Most importantly, the device served as a powerful focus for planar energy, tapping the subtle magical currents miles beneath the world’s surface to create potent resonances with every known plane of existence.
He realized that the Spire held secrets to vast power — perhaps power enough to overthrow the enemies who had forced him to flee Azlant. Below ground, they sculpted strange dungeons to access different points along the Emerald Spire and built laboratories to experiment with the Spire’s planar properties.
However, he and his followers didn’t escape Azlanti justice forever. A few decades after the evil archmage fled his homeland, the Azlanti authorities successfully divined his location and launched a powerful attack to eradicate the vile cultists. The attackers wiped his palace off the crown of Brokenhelm Hill (the modern site of Thornkeep) and shattered the upper reaches of the Emerald Spire. The Azlanti warriors raided his secret dungeons and hidden vaults, slaying the wizard in his lair.
Since Then
Humans came to the region, but the primitive tribes of the Echo Wood and the early settlers of the River Kingdoms avoided the Spire, spooked by the eerie otherness of the place and stories of the various monsters from other worlds that frequently plagued it. The goblins of Zog, which occupied the Echo Wood roughly 500 years ago, used the Emerald Spire as a creative form of execution, driving those sentenced to death into the dungeon to meet grisly ends in the monster-infested depths.
After Zog was defeated by the neighboring realms, human settlers slowly moved back into the northwest corner of the River Kingdoms. Towns such as Thornkeep, Southwood, and Mosswater were founded near the Emerald Spire. More people and more commerce meant that the news of the Spire’s existence began to spread. New parties of adventurers came to the area to try their luck in the Spire’s dungeons. At the same time, the deeper levels of the Emerald Spire attracted the attention of new waves of subterranean dwellers. Bands of derros, morlocks, troglodytes, and stranger creatures infiltrated the Spire’s lower reaches from the Darklands, establishing lairs and performing horrid experiments.
