The Temple of the Exploding Head

A fair portion of Book V: “The Temple of the Exploding Head” deals with locating the legendary Temple itself. The place could be literally anywhere on Kana, and, throughout history it has remained rather anonymous. It has defied the few attempts made over the years to uncover it.

Not much is known regarding the Pre-History of Kana (pronounced: kay-na) prior to the arrival of the Elders at the beginning of the EX Time Epoch. Kana was found to be a bountiful world while the nearby star Codis was ideal to support the 25 Elders themselves. Kana was rather depleted of life, with only the Monama peoples living to the south. There were hints of a pre-cursor civilization scattered about the planet, but no serious effort was made to investigate as the Seven Tribes spread out over the planet and claimed it theirs.

The first mention in Elder lore of the Temple of the Exploding head was in the writings of the berserker Remnath hero Atrajak of Want. Atrajak had fallen in love with an Anuian Monama princess, Tiverlan of Nebulon. Through his dealings with the Monamas, Atrajak discovered Kana was under the eye of a mysterious group of beings who could come and go at will and were hidden sight and sound. The Monamas knew all about them, and when they accepted him as their Sar-Gra-Ma, they told him all they knew. These beings whom Atrajak called The Kestral Oligarchy appeared to be quite hostile and he went on a long series of campaigns called the Hidden Wars where the Kestrals were driven away for a time. However, given their ability to step out of thin air, the Kestrals always returned. Tiverlan of Nebulon told Atrajak about a temple hidden deep in the ground where the Kestrals worshipped a terrible Horned God, and that it was the temple where they gained much of their power over Kana. After the death of his wife, Atrajak sought this temple but was unable to locate it. Eventually, broken and raving mad, he himself was killed when he stormed the Sisterhood stronghold of Twilight 4.

The Temple is a plague and a curse upon Kana and has caused the Elders living near it no end of misery, however nobody, not the old heroes or the scholars or heads of the Science Ministry or even the wise Sisterhood of Light themselves ever suspected its existence. The Sisters never bothered much with Pre-Elder or Non-Elder lore.

They had warning, though. All the signs were there and the symptoms were a matter of public record. The occasional scribe wrote of “Bad Dreams” and a pervasive “Taint”, but nobody ever made the connection that the cause of this taint was an actual place hidden from sight.

(Ren Speaks–Though I make a big deal about the “Hidden Location” of the Temple, I pretty much say exactly where it is in one of the previous League of Elder books. There’s really nothing hidden or left to chance about it, it’s there in plain text. If you can tell me what part of what book “spills the beans” I’ll send you the entire LoE series, signed and remarked by the artist Carol Phillips. Done Deal, totally free.)

Bowl Naked
RG

copyright 2011, Ren Garcia and Carol Phillips