The Refuge
The Refuge is the name given to a self-sustaining, quasi-utopian colony created by the combined efforts of the Copper Tortoise Conclave and the Iron Tortoise Conclave during the Mage Wars. That The Refuge existed is not a matter of debate. Too many primary sources indicate it was a real place to argue against it. However, exactly what, and where, it was located has never been confirmed. It is thought to be somewhere on Aren. Primary sources for the Refuge disagree on what the place was like, which led to a long-standing belief it was never actually built. Most accounts however agree on two things: it was a paradise, and it was exceptionally well-defended by both natural barriers and subterfuge.
Major Accepted Historical Accounts
There are several surviving descriptions of The Refuge written down by people who either visited or lived there for some time.
The Peterson Account
Probably the best-preserved comes from Galle Peterson, an alchemist who lived at the Refuge as a boy and trained there as a young man. That he came and left several times is seen as an indication that accessing The Refuge was not a one-way process as described in other accounts. His surviving tale, as told to archivists in the early Golden Age is as follows:
"I came to The Refuge for the first time at the age of six. I had been born in the city of Purothf* which I remember only as a dark, dismal place. My father worked as a gatherer for the alchemist Shul Borrison, dissapearing into the countryside for days at a time. My mother, sister, and I, were left to squat in the dingy room we rented. I remember only a single window covered by a blanket, my mother moving about in the darkness as we could not afford candles by day. My sister was raped that day, and my father begged his employer to be sent to The Refuge."
"Shull took us to a small room in the back of his workshop where he cast a clay vessel on the floor. My family and I were consumed in a swirling mass of colored smoke. When it subsided, we stood in a place wholly unfamiliar to me. For my whole life I had known only the narrow, dingy streets of Purothf. Now we stood in a forest clearing beside a cliff. Here a water fall like a great shimmering vale stood before us, and out of this walked a man. He gestured to us with a lantern and called for us to follow him. My mother picked me up to carry me through the vale. Inside we found a wet cavern lit by luminous mushrooms. The floor was covered in water and we could see the flowing currents of a river. Our guide warned us to step only where he stepped and we would be safe. My mother put me down and held my hand tight, and we walked. The water came up only to our ankles, even though we could see powerful currents just steps away."
"After a long time, we emerged on a sunlit stone walk in the heart of a fabulous city, filled with smiling people and brightly colored plants. The different cantons were separated by deep canals through which swam enormous turtles. The turtles acts as ferries, carrying people about on their great shells. I remeber little about my first few months in the city, save that I was for the very first time allowed to play outside. I remember the warm air and the sweet, clean taste of the water. There were many children and we had few chores. We spent our days running and climbing and playing. I explored the whole of the city, for besides that walk through the cave I could not hope to complete, I could not go beyond the high ridges that hemmed in the space."
"As I grew older I sought to work as my father had always taught me, but found there was none to be done in this paradise of The Refuge. All the hard labor was done by automatons, golems of ingenious design. We had some chores to do with cooking and cleaning, but little else. The matrons of The Refuge instead ordered that I be educated, as my sister had already begun. As a young child I had never thought I would one day learn to read and to write, or to do my numbers as I can now. We lived in The Refuge fully eight years, though I cannot remember the passage of time. Only the endless, sun-filled days of peace and joy."
"My sister married a man she met at the Refuge and was allowed to stay for all time. When I was fourteen I was told I must either be apprenticed or leave and make my own way. My mother and father decided to return to Purothf to continue working for Shul as payment for our time at the Refuge. Without my sister and I to care for, their lives would be eased some. Because I knew my numbers and my letters, I thought that I could find good work, and so agreed to be sent away to begin my apprenticeship. I was given over to the care of a woman named Paula Ernati in the city of Water's Grasp. A master alchemist in her own right, she had five other apprentices."
"Of my apprenticeship I will say little, other than that it was so much harder than I ever expected, but I devoted myself fully at first in the hope of one day return to The Refuge, and then latter even more so because I had grown to respect Master Ernati. I was made a joruneymen and allowed to strike out on my own. I learned then that Purothf, the only other home I knew besides The Refuge, had been razed and her peoples dispersed to the four winds. I was then allowed to join The Copper Tortoise Conclave and began working my way across Aren as a traveling alchemist. My admittance into the Conclave furthered my endeavors as it allowed me to study with every master I came across and further my powers much beyond simple potion brewing. Twice attempted to conscript me for their armies, but were stopped by my seniors in the Conclave. I had not spoken to my blood family now in twenty and five years, but I had compatriots wherever I went."
"It was finally deep in the hart of Sun's Beacon when one of the old masters took me aside to tell me I was to be made a master myself, I told him over my time at The Refuge. He agreed to send me there for one year and one day if I would promise to help the other masters there, and then return. I was elated to go to the only place I'd ever truly thought of as home, to see my sister again. When I arrived, I was rewarded with an even greater price: my mother and father, after spending twenty more years working for Shul, had been allowed to go there and live forever."
"During my year I worked hard and learned many secrets of The Refuge, which I shall not utter here. Only that so long as the sun shines on it, they shall need nothing from outside. For now I work for the Conclave, but some day I will return and live forever in The Refuge."
The Dyer Account
Carree Dyer, who spent some time at The Refuge, told a very different story:
"My journey to The Refuge went different from most. I got runover by a cart. Seriously. I was standing in line for bread, trying to count how many people were ahead of me, when this alchemist ran me over. Messed me up real bad. I thought for sure he was gonna leave my lying on the cobblestones, but instead he picked me up, put me in his cart. I was in and out of it for a bit, but the next thing I knew I was somewhere else. A sunlit valley, very high peeks all around. I remember being in a room surrounded by people who weren't people. I found out later they were golems. They tended to my wounds and in minutes I was good as new. Or at least as good as I was when I was new."
"I think I only saw, like, four humans the entire time I was there. I didn't get to see much. They barely let me out of my room. I saw a cluster of buildings from my window, fields tilled by golems, gardens full of strange plants. The extra weird part was the sun never really set. Or moved. At one point I was taken down into a cave beneath the large house where I had been recovering. I don't think the alchemists trusted me. Then again, I was fully ready to wander off and explore."
"I lived
