Feast of Aeons

The Feat of Aeons is the largest Necromancy Temple ever discovered. Situated high on a mountain plateau, it was sighted only once by a reconnaissance aircraft flown by the Gudersnipe Foundation. The famous "Aeons Torn" photograph snapped by the pilot was, for some time, believed to be the only picture in existence.

Discovery

During the mid Fourth Age, amid fears of a future Kamian Attack, the GSGS was asked to update its cartographical maps of the region around Arindell, in preperation for a possible future ground war in the region.

Flight Plan

Because of the size of the region being covered and the relative unimportance of the mission(a ground attack by Kamians against Arindell was believed to be a very, very, very unlikely scenario), the Foundation chose to dispatch super-high-altitute aircraft for the job.

The craft chosen for the mission was a rocket-propelled spaceplane with no operational ceiling(it was certified as a spacecraft, though lacked the engines required for true space flight) and a maxmimum atmospheric speed of MACH 12. The mission profile, however, had the aircraft covering six thousand miles of the High Mountains, running west to east from the Sword Coast, then turning where the High Mountains reach an unexplored and unnamed range. This flight plan went 1000 miles further than the mapped portions of the High Mountains, with the added space required for the craft to decelerate from MACH 6.

The profile called for the aircraft to cut all engines and decelerate for 1000 miles, or until it had dropped below the speed of sound. The ship was then to execute a low-speed turn before making it's return trip. The initial profile called for the main flight to occur at 140,000ft altitude, dropping down to 80,000, during the deceleration stage.

After completing the turn, the ship would then accelerate again for a second pass over the opposite side of the range, again decelerate, and finally land on a carrier off the Sword Coast. Entire flight time would be a little under three hours.

The purpose for this plan was to allow the entire region to be photographed on a single clear day, using a single flyover. This was as opposed to dozens or even hundreds of flyovers taking weeks or months.

Derivation

Early in the flight, the aircraft, piloted by Lieutenant Commander Robert("Bob") Emanual encountered unexpected turbulence, and was forced to climb to 160,000 feet. He further encountered engine trouble on the descent stage, and flew an additional 200 miles, dropping down to 40,000 feet before making the turn.

He was able to recalibrate the engines and returned home at a lower altitude, with Higher later deciding that a single pass would suffice.

Actual Photograph

The Feast of Aeons complex was never actually flown over(as was frequently believed). Rather, while making the turn for the return-leg of the trip, Bob spotted it through cloud cover and took several pictures with his personal camera. He estimated his distance from the site at less than 60 miles, but cannot confirm the exact altitude at which the pictures were taken(he believes it was around 39,500ft).

Bob actually took as many pictures as he could before being forced to return his attentions to flying the plane. However, only one image was of significant quality, the rest being blurry, or showing most of the site obscured by clouds. Only the best picture was ever released, thus leading to the assumption that only one picture was ever taken.