Engrada

Engrada is one of the major cities in Ravenguard, and one of the three locations in the Northern region strongly associated with the Zaergenzeral Cult. It lies near the southernmost border of the region, in the center of an artificial lake created within the Iyrim River. Engrada's Eolin-fal overseer is Zenzegron, and as such contains the highest concentration of Cult members that follow his form of leadership.

Engrada's most notable feature is that it is made up of multiple small artificial islands, connected by bridges and an extensive railway system. Additionally, Engrada is home to the Windrazor Spire. The artificial lake that Engrada is built in—Lake Engrada—was created for the sole purpose of building the city within it. The reason for this was so that Zenzegron could use waterways to move around the settlement, rather than have to drag his body over solid ground.

Windrazor Spire

The Windrazor Spire is the tallest structure on all of Chirua; nothing natural or artificial even comes close to the Spire's height. It is a solid black cylindrical structure divided into dozens of sections, with a red snake-like decoration spiraling upward on the exterior walls, complete with a texture that resembles scales. The base has many branches digging into the ground and is connected to innumerable cables to better support the Spire and its incredible height. Between the gaps of the red decoration's path are countless flat, red triangular pieces, similar to corbels that aren't supporting anything. The construction of the decorations make it possible to climb up the Spire's exterior, but is highly discouraged to do so as it is not the intended purpose and the tower's movement is unpredictable.

Inside the Windrazor Spire is a massive spiral staircase along the wall, mirroring the red decoration on the exterior. Suspiciously adequate lighting comes from unknown sources, as there are no windows or visible light sources of any kind. Looking directly up toward the Spire's ceiling reveals nothing but darkness, and doesn't clear until reaching the very top of the staircase. The staircase also goes downward below the ground floor.

Unlike above ground, there is no light below the ground floor, and external sources must be brought in to see the steps. While there is a known upper limit to the Windrazor Spire and has been reached by normal people many times, the same cannot be said for the lower half. Brave explorers have volunteered to jump down the center of the staircase for quicker results compared to normally walking down the steps, but all tether lengths used haven't been long enough to reach the bottom. Even after attempting to use drones, the only notable discoveries made of the bottom half of the Windrazor Spire so far are its seemingly endless staircase, and the increasing silence the further one goes down.

The overall appearance, height, and bottomless staircase are the main characteristics that come up when asking any random citizen about it, but the Windrazor Spire has one more odd thing to its name. As mentioned, the black tower is made up of many equally sized sections, and some of those sections have been observed to individually rotate around their vertical axis, from a minimum quarter-turn to a full 360 degrees at one time. The rotation of the Spire's segment creates a mechanical sound not unlike heavy construction machinery that all creatures near Lake Engrada can hear. Visitors that happen to be exploring the interior of the Spire as part of it rotates also hear the sound, but not as loudly as those who are standing outside the tower. No part of the interior has been observed to move during these events, suggesting that the Spire's exterior is a disconnected mechanical shell.

As of now, there has yet to be an explanation as to why only a few cylindrical sections of the Spire move and others don't, why they rotate in the first place, or how a building like that can exist at that size without collapsing. Reports of rotations had been rare in the past, happening to a different section once every decade or so seemingly at random, but there has been a sudden increase in one particular section of the Spire doing so multiple times in a short period, only leading to more questions.

Currently, there is no confirmed origin of the Windrazor Spire. Redwater ministers insist that Lord Ravenienne did not create the structure himself. Zenzegron has stated that the existence of the Spire was the inspiration to build Engrada where it now is, therefore claiming that neither he nor the other Eolin-fal are responsible for it.