Amalomeire

The Amalomeire is the headquarters of the religious hierarchy of the city of Amalo.

Appears in
The Witness for the Dead

The Grief of Stones

Description
The Amal'othala governs the Amalomeire. Although it is treated like a palace, it does not or cannot keep servants, which annoys the Amal'othala. The Amal'othala makes use of carriages, particularly when recalling certain prelates to the Amalomeire. The Amalomeire has specific colors for its livery/flags. There is contention between Orchenis Clunethar's government and the Amalomeire, given Prince Orchenis believes the Amalomeire is often incompetent.

The Amalomeire is in the south of the city, "carved into the living rock of Osreian's Spur." Visitors climb "endless switchbacks, damp with the nearness of the Zhomaikora" to reach the top of the cliff that forms the entrance and roof to the Amalomeire. The turns are marked by copper-roofed turrets, and at least one spot has a bench. The Amalomeire is seemingly unique for palaces and prelaces in that it has no trees or flowers. There is usually a canon or two waiting at the top to receive and direct visitors. Inside, a dim, spiraling staircase leads down into a millennia old warren, covered in worn stone, though some places have "elaborate stone lattices, carved to look like vines or lace.”

The Amal'othala has a private chapel/othasmeire there. There are numerous audience rooms, one of which includes "a lavishly carved secretary-desk that had been inset into the rock wall", which the Amal'othala once used to meet with Thara Celehar. There are also small waiting rooms carved out of rock, at least sometimes containing chairs for waiting.

There is also a chapel to Ulis, "dark and quiet and deep" within the place. “The chapel was itself a relic of a much older tradition in the worship of Ulis, in which one had to earn the honor of worshiping Ulis in a sacred space; the chapel could only be reached by descending a long, dark shaft, a natural chimney made into a ladder by means of handholds and footholds carved out of the rock.” The chapel had tall lanterns that burned “steadily in their sconces, carved elaborately with night creatures like bats and cougars.” There is no altar: the space itself is considered an altar.

Trivia

 * The Amalomeire paid Thara's stipend while he was a Witness for the Dead in Amalo.