L'Arc Chantante

L'Arc Chantante is an ancient cathedral of incredible size. The cathedral is dedicated to the goddess Arcundus and is the largest building in the Monastery of the Arches.

The massive interior chamber where service is performed is estimated to be around 800 feet tall, and 1300 feet long, and 500 feet wide at its widest. Unlike Christian cathedrals, the footprint of L'Arc Chantante is shaped like a half ellipse, the walls angling inwards towards the Eastern wall, giving the impression that the room is about twice as far away from the entrance than it actually is.

L'Arc Chantante is located on the opposite side of the river from the town of Ybbrinth. To get there from the town, you must cross a small foot bridge, walk up a steep hill with a switchback path and irregularly placed battlements, and cross a 800 ft long field, where you'll find the cathedral nestled between two towering 240 foot tall cliffs, angled away from each other. The entrance to the building sits on the Western side.

Innumerable windows are built into the walls of the cathedral, at many different heights and in many different shapes. The enormous steel doors are each around 300 feet tall and 100 feet wide, but they swing open on perfectly balanced and nearly frictionless hinges, making the task time and effort consuming but possible for nearly anyone, as long as the door isn't locked open or closed.

On the inside, the light from each window is directed to the roof, where it is scattered across the entirety of the main interior chamber. Head spinning-ly tall towers lead out to countless balconies hanging from the ceiling on steel cables or wooden beams.

Along with the main cathedral itself, several dozen buildings have been erected along the field leading up to the main cathedral. Some are bunk rooms for visitors or staff. Some are service buildings or storage facilities.

Countless additions have been constructed over and over again across the many years the cathedral has stood, adding to the structure in complex ways. As a result, the building is made from many different materials. The earliest construction seems to be mostly wood and daub, establishing what's believed to be the core original structure. The size of the original structure, however, defies immediate explanation. Wooden beams and daub are not normally capable of such heights. Magic is, of course, the natural first guess.

Despite its seemingly impractical size, the building is still used in regular religious service and, according to legend, has never stopped offering service. Despite the fact that the building is dedicated to Arcundus, the clergy of the cathedral at this time are multidenominational in faith and offer services in the name of many of the good-aligned members of the Pantheon of the Ancients. On the summer solstice, the cathedral hosts thousands of devotees to Arcundus, as part of the Sunspark Festival.