Excerpt from ‘The history of Coerthas, from refuge to Holy See’ by Archon Niniri Niri.
The previous cleanse of the Stone Vigil at the hands of the Warrior of Light and their allies proved sufficient to reclaim their airship, but the reconquest did not succeed in reclaiming the Vigil itself. The Dravanians simply moved back in. House Durendaire, the noted house of astrologians and warriors in Ishgard, resolved to reclaim the Vigil themselves. The venerable family was cowed by the presence of heretics and spies in their ranks, uncovered previously by outsiders to Ishgard, adding insult to injury. Lord Drillemont, one of Durendaire’s foremost knights and one of the men responsible for helping to bring the infiltrators to justice, led an assault on the Vigil with a contingent of warriors and managed to breach its outer defenses. The dragons of the Horde were mighty foes however, and managed to force Drillemont and his men into a stalemate. Drillemont called upon the Warrior of Light in order to assist him in this conflict.
The Staging Point
The warriors of Durendaire set up a small camp manned by a number of knights, the area reportedly ringing with prayers to Halone by the time the Warrior of Light arrived there. Much was similar to the team’s first journey here, tattered banners and significant structural damage all about the fortress. Stacked tables and stools as well as cabinets of sundries emphasized the still life left here by the sudden decimation of the Vigil.
The Barbican
Decorated with the Ishgardian national flag and possessed of four reinforced gates standing at the cardinal directions, each also decorated with the Ishgardian coat of arms, the Barbican was clearly intended as a testament to the majesty and power of Ishgard. This is not surprising, as a barbican is a common term for a key component of the outer defenses of a fortification, typically a tower. In this case, it was a fortified and easily reinforced courtyard barring entry to the Vigil’s inner keep.
The Minor Hall
The name of this area implied it might once have been a secondary dining room or muster hall for the Vigil. Unfortunately by the time the team arrived at the hall it had almost entirely collapsed upon itself, with many walls missing and much of the room’s original intent and markers hidden by decay. A number of wooden platforms lined a wall in the room, presumably used for storage.
The Walkways
The Vigil was, first and foremost, a watchtower. This is evidenced by the windowed walkways that make up the majority of the structure, allowing for a view across Coerthas around the Vigil. These walkways are in poor repair, but seen to have connected to a number of auxiliary rooms used in the functioning of the fortress. Ishgard itself can seen from the windows, as well as a shattered stone curtain wall that surrounded the Vigil, presumably to prevent assault from terrestrial-bound dragons as well as the Coerthan heretics that served the Dravanian Horde. It was unclear whether the wall was broken by the Horde or the Calamity, or both. The corpses of Durendaire armsmen littered the ground here, as did a number of cannons.
The Strongroom
The strongroom in the Vigil was constructed by Ishgard in order to store the airships built for them by Garlond Ironworks to take the battle to the Dravanians in the sky prior to the Calamity. Twin cannons framed the room, presumably for defense purposes, although between the Calamity and the Horde’s attack they hadn’t even been moved from their resting positions. Rumor says that the famed Enterprise, personal ship of Cid Garlond and ferrier of the legendary Scions of the Seventh Dawn, was stored here until relatively recently.
The Main Storage Vault
An open air area apparently used to store valuable goods, it seems likely that the areas locked behind the large gates at each side of the Vault were the storage areas as opposed to the actual square itself. The corridors leading up to the vault was framed by smaller rooms, varying from small armories’ filled with weaponry to bedrooms and what appear to be stores for furniture.
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