The Fourth Iron Mountain is one of the temple shrines built by a race of Super-Ancient Beings for use in the Trial of the Mountains.
History[]
Early History[]
At a currently unknown point in Earth's history, a race of Super-Ancient Beings constructed the fourth of their Iron Mountains beneath a small hill in what would later become Jerusalem, Israel. Here, anyone who could complete the Fall as part of the Trial of the Mountains would receive a "burning key" that would qualify for entrance into the Supreme Labyrinth.
After the Super-Ancients were gone, the Four Legendary Kingdoms learned about the tasks left behind by the Super-Ancient Beings, among them the Trial of the Mountains, with the locations of all five iron mountains, and the three Secret Cities, kept on a bronze-like globe.
At a point after the 11th century BC, when the Old City of Jerusalem was founded, the fourth mountain was discovered at the top of the Temple Mount by the city's inhabitants. Worshipping the iron mountain as a holy place, they constructed a shrine around the Hall of the Falling Temple, the Dome of the Rock, which even as it was torn down and rebuilt over the millennia helped to keep the mountain hidden.
In 37 AD, the mad Roman emperor Caligula ordered that the "bronze" globe, along with the obelisk it was mounted on, be relocated from the Siwa Oasis to Rome. The priests of the Cult of Amon-Ra were outraged and decided to deface the globe to keep its knowledge from the mad emperor, but were only able to file off the locations of two of the iron mountains before they were caught. As a result, the locations of both the fourth and fifth mountains, which to their knowledge had never been found, were lost to the members of the Four Kingdoms and their closest advisors. For the next couple of millennia, missions to determine the exact locations of the iron mountains, particularly the two lost mountains, were undertaken by various parties.
Some time in the years soon afterward, the ley line known as the Sword of St Michael, a straight line of churches dedicated to he archangel Michael that stretched across Europe, was discovered by Laurent of the Levant to reveal the location of the fourth mountain at the point of the metaphorical blade's handle.
In the 16th century, during Francis Xavier's journey into Asia to confirm the location of the third mountain, the missionary discovered Laurent's clues to the fourth mountain's position, which he and the Jesuit Ignatius suspected was in western Europe due to their mistaken belief that the ley line sword point down instead of up. Before he died, Xavier sent his journal containing his notes back to the Church in Rome, but because his mission had been a secretive one and the Pope who had sent him on it had since died without telling anyone, the journal was locked away inside Vault IX of the Vatican Secret Archives without ever being read, leaving the fourth's mountain's position still a mystery.
The Two Lost Mountains[]
In the final days before the Omega Event was due to occur, Sphinx, Dion DeSaxe and High Brother Ezekiel each undertook the Fall in order to gain passage into the Supreme Labyrinth, and in the course of the conflicts to secure their chances of success in the maze, the first three iron mountains and their Falling Temples were destroyed, leaving the only chance for others to earn a burning key lay in finding one of the two lost mountains.
Having somehow learned where the fourth mountain was located, General Garthon Rastor and his troops headed to Jerusalem, taking advantage of the sleep-struck city caused by Sphinx's use of a Siren bell, in order to reach the Temple Mount and begin tearing open the Dome of the Rock to expose the iron mountain within while also having operatives at the Zapadny Cosmodrome in Libya expose the moon pedestal needed to activate the mountain.
At the same time that this begun, having read Xavier's journal in the Vatican Secret Archives, Lynda Fadel reported to Jack West Jr's team what she had learned about the clues to the fourth mountain's locations. As they looked over a map with the ley line of the sword of St Michael imposed over it, Jack figured out the way this metaphorical blade should point, figuring out that the fourth mountain was potentially in Jerusalem. But as Rufus pointed out, news coverage showed Rastor's forces already in the Israeli city and served as their final piece of evidence.
As the time for the fourth mountain's alignment with the moon pedestal arrived, Rastor successfully performed the Fall himself and was branded with the burning key needed to enter the Supreme Labyrinth. Once the Falling Temple was raised back up, Rastor had his men secure it in place with heavy steel beams to keep it in place while the winching chains were destroyed, and then had Mae Merriweather crucified to the bottom of the Falling Temple.
Jack arrived at the Temple Mount with only a few minutes left before the lunar alignment with Jerusalem ended, only for Rastor's people to re-cover the moon pedestal. Suspicious of the absence of Rastor and his men and noting the state of the Falling Temple's suspension, Jack was soon informed of his mother's predicament by Rastor via a radio. Knowing that Jack couldn't save her in time, Mae implored her son leave her, and Rastor remotely set off explosives to destroy the beams holding up the Falling Temple, sending it plummeting into the shaft. After it crashed into the stone base at the bottom, killing Mae instantly, the distraught Jack left the fourth mountain in a daze to rendezvous with his allies.
The One Impossible Labyrinth[]
After the Omega Event was averted, the world learned of the ancient trials, leading archaeologists and historians to head to the ancient sites such as the fourth iron mountain to study them. Though it became a popular tourist destination as a result, the iron mountain was recognised by the world being as crucial and in need of preservation so that it could be used for future runs of the trials and Omega Events.
Attributes[]
Purpose[]
Like the other four mountains, the fourth iron mountain contains a massive underground Temple-Shrine that is a center-piece of the Trial of the Mountains, where claimants to the ultimate throne in the Supreme Labyrinth can prove their worth by performing a Fall during an alignment event with the moon.
Description[]
The Falling Temple of the fourth mountain is 16 stories tall and eight wide, and constructed in a top-like diamond shape, built perfectly balanced so as to not tip during the Fall and cause damage to itself against the shaft. This Falling Temple is also positioned directly above a 3.8 kilometers-deep shaft.
After Rastor completed his Fall, he had modern-day steel beams used to keep the Falling Temple in place on the surface so that he could send it crashing at his leisure.
Trivia[]
- In the epilogue of The One Impossible Labyrinth, it is suggested that the four remaining iron mountains were needed to be kept secured for use in future runs of the trials, even though the fourth Falling Temple was destroyed during the course of The Two Lost Mountains.