Overview
Zarephon is a city on the Malverand Intergalactic Empire's Valrindor, near northeastern Malverand. It belongs to an essence-poor, technologically advanced world and occupies the same broad source-site position as the heart of the Plains of Eternity on Valrindor.
Across the void, the Oracle city at Zarephon occupies the matching source site on the other Valrindor. The lakebed breach joins the two Zarephon sites. Zarephon's central mountain contains a cave, a deep lake, and a breach through the void to the other Valrindor. The breach draws essence toward it, gives the empire a protected research site, and becomes the crossing point for Eira, Kaelion, and Xarion after the failed source closure.
City and Cave
Zarephon is encircled by mountains with one opening. It has wide streets, trees, park spaces, murals, colorful artwork, silver-toned glasslike buildings, iron arcs, towers, and domes. Residents wear bright robes and practice water magic near the city's river.
The mountain opening leads into the cave of prayers, where local magic users seek blessings and imperial researchers monitor the lake. The cave has natural stone paths, a small river, mounted lights, fences, automatic access points, thick cables, sensors, consoles, holograms, and repeller-coated machinery extending into the water. Essence is sparse in the city. The lake and breach hold denser essence.
At the lakebed, a small tear in reality sits surrounded by dense white particles. The tear is a timerift, with essence moving toward it from above and making the lake a nexus for the world's fading essence.
Magic Users and Imperial Control
Zarephon houses most of the empire's magic users. Its local mages can perform recognizable magic, including water magic. Their essence handling has limited strength and precision. After Amos recovers the capsule-bound essence of Thalena and the others, magic users from across the empire are brought in to test whether they can manipulate the capsules; Xavian, Carson, Aldrin, and Killian all fail and return to Zarephon.
The city is under imperial authority. Amos uses his clearance to enter the cave facility, where imperial rank governs access. Researchers such as Cyrus and Tyson operate the lake site. Isandro, Rafe, Eamon, Mike, Luke, and imperial officers respond after Thalena enlarges the rift and the empire has to stabilize the lake machinery and core machinery. During high-risk emergency work, the city can be cleared and guarded by brown-jacketed officers with green guns.
Breach History
Amos later takes Thalena to Zarephon, and she descends through the mountain lake to inspect the lakebed tear. After returning to the surface, she feeds a controlled stream of essence into the protected machinery around the lake, and the machinery sends messages through the breach.
When Thalena's essence-made body breaks apart in Maraveth, Amos tracks the flow of her essence toward Zarephon's rift. The empire has long protected the rift. Eamon travels to Zarephon after the rift expands, Rafe cuts off primary feeds to the city, and researchers in Maraveth and Zarephon stabilize the enlarged breach.
After the rift expansion, Zarephon becomes the empire's route to the other Valrindor. Rafe and Mike send a black, low-essence defensive machine through the breach as their first contact test. Eira, Kaelion, and Xarion later emerge through the same breach with enough essence to threaten imperial machines and with information about the breach, the capsules, and the empire's fight against the Spiral Mandate. Eira plans to inspect the breach before leaving. The empire keeps it open during the Spiral Mandate attack on Proxion because it depends on that route.