The desert keeps many secrets.

It does not age like most things; the desert is eternal, everlasting. Each grain of sand has a memory of what has come before, what is, and what will be. Some say (the vagabonds and tribesmen and rogues that have made the desert their life) that it will whisper to you on bright, clear nights when the stars look like the eyes of gods. 

Some say (the vagabonds and tribesmen and rogues that have made the desert their life) that the desert gives up the truths only when (or if) it wants to, and those truths are never full. Some truths the desert holds on for millennia, or forever, and never relinquishes. They say it waits and bides its time, and that the longest days are when the sun comes up and goes down and it barely gets dark, those are the days when time stops. Yes, they say, time in the desert isn’t the same as it is elsewhere. One day can be a year; a week is a decade; a month is an eternity. Solterra has always been the country of Solis; but there are those who have not forgotten Tempus and his role in the creation of the world. 

Have you ever heard sand sing?

It does. The dunes begin to resonate from within in a feat close to magic. 

And the sands outside of the Solterra citadel have begun to ring with such music; a singing, ringing sound, a crescendo pitch that rises, rises, rises.

It is a rumbling, constant sound, nearly like the hum of a thousand-thousand bees. The occurrence, which echoes through the streets of the Solterran capitol, begins to spread rumours. It begins to remind Solterrans:

When Zolin had reigned, the desert used to scream at night.

It is easy to forget those memories; the way the wind would gust a certain way, and the screams would reach the windows of the capitol and wake children sleeping in their beds… Why, a whole generation has been left to wonder. Why did the sands used to scream at night?

And why is it they are now singing? 

On the third day of singing sands, it stops. And then: 

Something shakes beneath Solterra. A great tremor, like an earthquake. There is a terrible cracking, and the screams of citizens assert the city is falling!

The city is not falling.

It opens. A great pit in the center of the capitol, where a fountain falls down, down, down and then crashes with a waterfall of sand. Once there, it echoes with fierce resonance. For an ephemeral moment, there is silence. 

But it does not take long for Solterrans to ask what is this? A soldier fetches a lantern to brandish at the edge of the dark pit. 

He is aghast at what he discovers.

Beneath the city, a skull grins back.
-- -- -- -- 

DETAILS: 

An earthquake has caused an opening within the Solterra capitol that reveals ancient catacombs. 

The catacombs are open for exploration for the remainder of the IC year. The catacombs will be closed at the end of Winter 505. Members are encouraged to be as creative as they like in discovering items within the catacombs. 

ICly, exploration is discouraged due to the risk associated. Historically, the catacombs have existed since the initial building of Solterra. Most recently, the catacombs were utilised by Zolin during his reign for an assortment of unsavoury pastimes, mainly the imprisonment and torture of his enemies. 

Currently, Solterran scholars are attempting to identify a number of skeletons and mummified corpses. Those who believed their families lost during Zolin’s reign may find closure. However, the extent of the catacombs is much deeper, stretching back to the beginning of the monarchy in 1430 (if not earlier). Your characters, if they are scholars, are more than welcome to entertain this prompt. 

There are rumours of underground slave trading, fighting pits, and lost tribes. The catacombs themselves connect to a series of underground caves that stretch far beyond the citadel, into the surrounding desert. Some passageways have no seeming end; others emerge randomly in the open desert, by the sea, or within Elatus canyon. There is no saying what you might discover, upon venturing in to the various openings now available. 

Additionally, the earthquake that opened the catacombs has revealed exactly why they were closed to the public for so long. Not only are Zolin’s dead sins resurfacing, but the lost warrior-group, the Arete. Solterrans may be aghast to discover the almost legendary warriors of lost myth as they stumble blindly from where they were entombed over a decade previously, and begin to make sense of what has happened to Solterra. 

Currently, completed threads regarding the Catacomb Prompt will reward characters 100 signos apiece. This is subject to change as the prompt develops in the future IC seasons. Mark threads clearly in the title with [Catacombs] or [C - Event].