Garden of Sanctuary

The [Garden of Sanctuary] is an Inheritance Skill. It summons a door that leads to a secure and magical garden.

Garden of Sanctuary, by Enuryn (commissioned by Pirateaba)

Skill Origin

The Skill was created by the Harpy Empress Sheta of Iltanus.

Skill Effects and Capabilities

The Skill has a Level 30 prerequisite to obtain it. Every owner starts with the same [Garden] but can change it to suit their needs, from the layout to the weather and even the lighting and sky.

Door Summoning and Entrance

The entrance to the garden is movable and access can be limited to those chosen by the User with the limitation that any who do not desire to harm the User may also enter. [Druids] may request entrance independent of the Skill-Holder's will, as they may enter any place of nature so long as they obey the rules. It is possible, albeit difficult, to pick the lock to a garden. The feat is easier to perform by someone who the Skill owner whould have likely admitted inside already.

The Garden can only be entered through a door, but can be exited through the skybox as well, leaving the person on the building's roof. The ceiling lets sunlight and rain from outside through.

The size of the door can be changed from that of a regular Human size to a tiny Fraerling size. The door can also be opened from the ground.

The Garden is warded against ghosts from entering, even if the ghost belongs to the current owner. For some reason Goblin ghosts are not impeded from entering or being summoned within.

Skills like [No Sanctuary, No Respite. From Dawn Till Dusk, You Were Hunted] can prevent someone from entering inside the garden.

Sanctuary

The Garden is a sacred place, bound by powerful laws. Even an army would fail to break in. Violence is prevented within the Garden, either by restraining the use of weapons, destructive magic and aggressive actions, or by making violent acts weak so they do not cause harm. The Garden will also prevent malign magics from entering and remove malevolent influences from the occupants, and it protects the dreams from intrusion as well, requiring more than the Skill Bearer's blessing to enter their dreams. There is no restriction against throwing something out of the Garden to harm someone outside. Violence will no longer be prohibited if the door to the garden is broken. The Sanctuary effect does not extend to the related [Pavilion of Secrets] Skill.

Sacred Hill and Statues

A large hill running up against the dome’s side. At first only the User and those who they trust can see it, but it can become visible to all for a moment. if someone or something draws the eye to it, revealing it. The inactive Gardens of former owners no longer have a sacred hill or statues.

On top of it, the Statues of all the deceased people that the current User had ever met, cared, and had no hostile feelings for, appear on it. Those who can or are allowed to enter the garden can see the Statues of those who they know as well, but they only appear only if the User had met them.

They mostly appear when someone thought of them, and the Statues are so lifelike that but for color they could have turn and greeted you. The statues also change each time someone climbed the hill, as depended on the person, they were always different, like being in different poses, or sitting on a wooden, worn bench or by a table.

The Garden is able to call upon the dead.

See this page, for an ongoing list of the statue's appearances.

Magical Fog

A moving Magical Fog with a similar effect of a lesser [Gardener]’s Skill, that travels around the garden to give water to the required plants, while avoiding those that do not need it.

Effects with other Skills

When used with [Aspect of the Wandering Inn], the Owner can briefly summon statues from hill, which will speak to them. Invoking the [Pavilion of Secrets] will have a keyhole for the Key of Insight appear on the Owner's chest. Turning it transports the User to the void corridor to the Pavilion, and returns them to where they were afterwards. The User cannot take other with them, and objects they carry will disappear at the destination and reappear upon return.

Erin's Garden Layout

The Magical Garden is within a dome large enough to hold a small hill in one section, with a hole opening in the dome roof, showing the sky above where the door can be summoned. The garden has multiple climates like marshlands, arid, tropical, temperate. There are plants from every part of the world.

The standard Garden is a copy of Sheta's own, which was a place to remind her of all the places she had been.

Hill

See Sacred Hill above

Meadow

A meadow filled with flowers in the middle section that is large enough to play in. Not baseball, but enough to throw a ball as far as one could.

Pond

A pond of clear water that ran up against the wall. The pond isn’t being fed by anything as it is formed from the rainwater that comes in from the hole opening in the dome roof. At the base of the pond there is only smooth stones and a bit of sand.

Originally it had no fish in it, but Numbtongue would later on put some in it so that they could do some fishing.

Other

There are faerie rings of mushroom in the loamy area. The Frost Faeries use them.

Other Gardens

Dolost's Garden

The Garden is taller than Liscor's walls and filled with snow, and inhabited by Snow Golems. Giant golems had formed against the original purpose of the garden. There are traces of soot, metal, and stone in the snow, indicating the former owner's Dullahan origins.

Its original door is made of metal with an austere pattern engraved and frosted over, and looks like it was meant to go on the outside of a building. There is a keep buried within. The keep is spacious enough for War Walkers to navigate and has three or four floor. On the third floor is a library, though an open window has resulted in most of books inside to be frozen or ruined. The second floor has a memorial of carved heads illuminated by everburning candles, as well as a carving spot furnished with a pillow.

It has since been returned to Invictel by Erin during the Winter Solstice.

Drathian Garden

The Garden seems to have stayed as the previous Owner had wished. It is filled with a warm spring breeze. The hill was replaced by a picturesque landscape, with a Cherry Blossom grove and a bridge of red-lacquered wood. The pond was moved and had more water added around the garden edges, in which Koi fish live. There are neat pathways with sculptures planted alongside and a bench. It contains an archery range. One corner still has the original rocky ground of the standard Garden. Its original door was made of red-lacquered wood, with Drathian script on it and a stylized pink rose.

Storm Garden

Designated as the most dangerous garden, its door is oval-shaped with an handle in the centre. It has a vast underground, and used to be a sword graveyard, with enchanted swords planted in the ground around a semi-circular base, charged by being struck by lightning. The catalyst of the storm was a crystalline tree on the hill which glowed from the lightning held within.

Because of the endless rain in the garden over countless years, it is now a flat muddy destroyed plain filled with sinkholes, as it was completely worn down but the silt and dirt had nowhere to go. The hill remains due to being supported by the tree's crystallized roots, some of which are now exposed. Most of the swords are now thin rusted metal spikes jutting from the ground and acting as lightning rods, with only the most enchanted swords still intact. The only plant life left inside is a layer of moss on the wooden walls.

Collos' Garden

The door to Collos' garden is made of Sandstone. Inside is a dome-chamber 40 feet across, illuminated by light of no clear origin. It functions as a training room, able to spawn opponents based on Pomle's martial artists from his time to spar against. It exits out from a rock wall into a copy of Pomle. There is a partially-collapsed hut which Collos used as living space and kept his journal in. It was the last Garden prior to Erin's.

It has since been returned to Pomle by Erin during the Winter Solstice.

Cormelex's Garden

Cormelex's garden had been broken into and destroyed. It was a circular domed room with five pillars. The door, floor, walls, tapestry and statues of Lucifen have hall been broken. It is infested with cockroaches and centipedes, and filthy with mold and dirt. There is a broken pentagram runework in the center. There is a broken mural on the far wall, recreated by living and dead arthropods clinging to it, depicting a dancing devil with every pose choreographed, as instructions on how to make an Infernal Pact.

A replacement door has been placed on the entrance.

Drowned Garden

Its door is a heavy square hatch, and it looks like an ancient ship hold submerged in saltwater. There is an entire ecosystem inside containing kelp, bright coral, various fish, shrimp, sand sharks and a sandbar. Cleaner fish have prevented the water from fouling. It may have been looted by previous holders of the Key of Reprieve, as gems have been pried off the walls, and of the owner's possessions, only a map was left.

It has since been returned to the ocean depths by Erin during the Winter Solstice.

Garden of Wistram

A blank, white room owned by a [Mage] of Wistram, with nothing in it besides spent wands, and a quill and paper. All terrain in the room had been converted to elemental creation. There is also a door to a secret room, in which the remains of the original owner were located.

Erin used this to turn this Garden into a warm, sunny beach. The earth it created disappeared, so sand had to be brought in from outside. She also converted the secret room into a copy of her home of Grand Rapids, Michigan, with the fish ladder landmark.

Additions and modifications were made to the beach. The entire beach is on a plateau on four huge pillars of water, on twenty feet of flowing water. There is a 40 feet high cliff, like a pillar in the center that goes to the top of the garden, to dive into a pool, which has a whirlpool to drain into the water below. There is an estuary, with a fast current sweeping down the beachfront. There is a bar, and sand walls dividing parts of the beach for privacy. While the beach was around, patrons were allowed to purchase private area to build villas in.

During the Winter Solstice, Erin was able to use the Garden to conjure firestorms and giant boulders to eliminate the Draugr summoned by Kasigna.

It has since been returned to Wistram by Erin during the Winter Solstice.

Hiding Garden

The garden of someone who didn't want to be found. Their remains were still inside. It is a dark garden with water and stone pathways. In this room, strings of light descend from the ceiling towards the visitors representing everyone who is interested in and monitoring them.

Erin can use this Garden to disconnect scrying spells.

Unexplored and Partially Explored Gardens

• Padded, gilded Door with a Griffin claw handle. Filled with upholstery.
• Garuda Garden. It is a large, tall garden and its door is glass. It is windy, has a clear blue sky, and the ground is hard packed dirt. There are tough plants with cotton balls. There are areas high up, concealed along the edges of the dome.
• Aleieta Reinhart's study. It has a simple sturdy door with elegant wood paneling, which looks like it belongs in a mansion. There is a nameplate that says “Aleiete Reinhart -- Personal Study. Does not open for you." with the Reinhart crest in gold underneath it. The handle is trapped to shock those who touch it.
• Drake Fort Garden. The entire garden has been converted into a fortress. The grass has grown wild with tall weeds. Salazsar still possesses blueprints of the key to this garden.

Lost Gardens

• Dolost's Garden
• Collos' Garden
• Drowned Garden
• Garden of Wistram

Key of Reprieve

Sanctuary provides. Secrets empower. Fate illuminates.

But remember:

Sanctuary can never shelter enough. Secrets grow vast unspoken. And Fate mocks us all. But I was glad of it. May my key help you protect what matters.”

-Sheta's message

If the Skill owner's authority is recognized, they will be granted the Key of Reprieve. It is a rusted key made of a glittering, blue, amber-like material with a handle shaped like a shortened Harpy feather and teeth that resemble twined grass and plants. Bound to the owner, it will return to them if stolen and can change sizes to fit any lock.

The key grants access to the gardens of previous owners. While the previous Gardens do not prevent violence, the current Skill-Holder will not be attacked by anything within. The Skill-holder still has the authority to modify the environment within the gardens, and can affect them with their Skills, such as repairing them with [Partial Reconstruction]. The owner of the key may also end the sanctuary, permanently removing the gardens from the Skill, which will appear in the original owner's home.

The key can open the original door of the [Garden of Sanctuary], which is ten feet tall, twice as wide as a normal door, made out of ancient marble with a frame of grey stone, and has a handle of faded metal, slightly scratched by harpy talons. There are wings carved across the marble, sigils of the ancient Harpy language, and an engraving of the Garden with an image of Sheta resting on the hilltop. It leads to an empty void with all the doors to the other Gardens.

At the end is a door to the [Pavilion of Secrets]. It is paler than chalk and smoother than glass, with a lock on the center that the Key of Reprieve does not fit. After Secrets, the next part of Sheta's legacy is the [Palace of Fates].

Pavilion of Secrets

The [Pavilion of Secrets] has a Level 50 prerequisite and requires the authority of the Garden owner to be recognized. When obtaining the [Pavilion of Secrets], the owner is granted the Key of Insight to access it. This feather-shaped key is more angular and glints like the inverse of light.

Appearance

The Pavilion's appearance is personalized for the Owner, rather than modified by them like the Gardens.

Erin's Pavilion

The Pavilion is floating in a void with no real physics. There are no lights but the occupants can see perfectly, and it is airless but the occupants can breathe normally. The building proper is a white rounded octagonal wooden structure with eight sets of stairs to the entrances, big enough to fit about two hundred people, or a dozen comfortably. It is windowless with thin support beams holding up a rounded roof, and grass grows around the beams. There are benches inside, and an empty chess board.

There are other doors at the entrences, one leading to a copy of the current Pavilion where its effects can be used and the others presumably leading to the other Owners' Pavilions.

Skill Effects and Capabilities

Anything true or real that's said or shown within the Garden will be remembered by both parties, trading secrets. There are degrees of truths, as lesser truths and secrets will be remembered as daydreams rather than vividly.

Upon entering a door in the Pavilion, the Owner will be faced by a copy of themselves created by the Pavilion who will explain how the Skill works and facilitate meetings. The copy will use a deck of divination cards to make it less personal.

The Owner is able to summon anyone, including the dead or someone nonspecific, to the Pavilion. Doing so will create a copy of the individual, who will have awareness of the real person and what they are doing and feeling, immediatly know how the Pavilion works, and intuitively know what they will remember. Conversely, the actual individual will be ignorant of the copy's existance. The copies can also change how they look, and images can be created in the Pavilion.

The Skill was damaged when the ghosts in Kasignel were eaten, and cannot summon them anymore. Empress Sheta left a message in the form of a memory for future Owners of the Pavilion.

One of the powers of the [Pavilion of Secrets] is the ability to know about information censured by the Grand Design, similar to a Rulebreaker.

The Pavilion is self-repairing, and nothing can be physically taken from it.

Flora

List of plants that are currently found in the garden.

Normal Plants

Erin's Garden:

• Every color of flower, except black
• Acacia Tree
• Theobroma Cacao / Cacao Tree

Drathian Garden:

• Cherry Blossoms
• Hyacinth (Underwater)
• Lilies (Underwater)

Collos' Garden:

• Palm Trees
• Agave

Magical Plants

Erin's Garden:

• Sage’s Grass
• Faerie Flowers

Fauna

List of normal and magical animals that are currently found in the garden.

Erin's Garden:

• Fortress Beavers (Left)

Dolost's Garden

• Snow Golems

Drathian Garden:

• Koi Fish

Drowned Garden:

• Sand Sharks
• Cleaner fish

Cormelex's Garden:

• Cockroaches
• Centipedes

Notable Owners

Pavilion Owners:

• Sheta - Skill Creator
• Aleieta Reinhart
• Cormelex
• Erin Solstice - Current Owner

Owners Without Authority:

• Dolost the Adamantine
• Collos

Trivia

• While the definition of sanctuary means a safe place, it also means a sacred place.
• The door has iron bands along it, which may impede the Faeries from opening the door or entering. Erin wonders if the iron is there because of her, or the Skill. After all, while Erin loved the Faeries, they were dangerous too.
• Saliss stated that if he had owned this Skill, he would have turned the garden into an alchemical garden, while speculating that if Tottenval had owned it, he would have turned the garden into a farm to feed people.
• Mrsha was the first person to discover how to enter Erin's [Garden].
• There have been less than forty people who owned the [Garden of Sanctuary] Skill.
• Erin buried the owner of the Hiding Garden in the Drathian Garden.