Background: Colossi

Sources

I met a traveller from a southern land
Who said: "Two vast and trunkless legs of stone
Stand in the desert. Near them, on the sand,
Half sunk, a shattered visage lies, whose frown,
And wrinkled lip, and sneer of cold command,
Serve well the words on which the stone feet stand.
'My name is Phatep, king of kings:
This mighty city shows wonders of my hand.'
Nothing beside remains. Round the decay
Of that colossal wreck, boundless and bare
The lone and level sands stretch far away.
Parzeval Schalle

9th of Blühenzeit, 962 A.S.
Entering the necropolis, we passed an avenue of colossal statues
that might have stepped out of Schalle’s poem. There are few
works of sculpture that could have rivalled their size or grandeur when
they were intact. Even in ruins, they towered over our party to the
height of the largest guild houses on the Geldstrasse.
Grunstein, as always, is convinced that these colossi were animated by
the magic of the Naptaan priests. He claims they were used as labour
to construct the pyramids of the pharaohs, quite ignoring the historical
evidence that the Naptaan empire used flesh and blood giants for this
very purpose.
In fact, we have found several immense burial pits on the outskirts of
the necropolis that can only have been dug for such creatures. I tried to
convince the men to excavate them, but even Gunther was reluctant
to do so, finding excuses about his men being “tired” and “thirsty”.
The Society is really going to have to start hiring a better class of servant.