The Vatican Globe is a bronze-like orb which resembles the Earth in the days of the super-ancients, and which depicts the locations of the Secret Cities and iron mountains.
History[]
Early History[]
Though unconfirmed, the bronze-like orb that would later be referred to as the Vatican Globe was most likely made by the Super-Ancient Beings, since it was key to two of their trials.
As the Super-Ancients were devising the Trial of the Cities and the Trial of the Mountains, they crafted the orb out of a metal not found on Earth, on which was displayed the locations of the Three Secret Cities and the five iron mountains.
Eventually, the Super-Ancients would pass on some of their knowledge to the group of humans that would become known as the Four Legendary Kingdoms; among the things they shared was the globe, and its importance in the final two trials for humanity. The globe would soon be passed on to the Cult of Amon-Ra, who mounted it on an obelisk at Siwa.
In 37 AD, the globe was ordered by the Roman emperor Caligula to 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 of the iron mountains' location from the mad emperor. Because the metal the globe was made out of was strong, the priests were only able to file off the locations of two of the iron mountains before they were caught and executed by Caligula's men. With that, the globe was soon taken, along with the obelisk it surmounted, to Rome, where it was placed in St. Peter's Square.
In 1585, Pope Sixtus V ordered the globe be removed from the top of the obelisk and replaced with a brass forgery, with the Catholic Church hiding the actual globe within Vault XXII of the Vatican Secret Archives. Over the next few centuries, only the highest-ranked members of the Church were allowed to study the globe up close, attempting to determine the locations of the second and iron mountain, while some members of the Four Kingdoms and other affiliates who visited the Archives did get to see the globe from afar.
The Three Secret Cities[]
While in a London safehouse discussing the locations for the Secret Cities, Jack West Jr and his team were informed by Iolanthe Compton-Jones about the Vatican Globe, with the excommunicated royal recalling how she had once caught a fleeting glimpse of it and noting how it displayed the locations of the Cities and iron mountains.
The Two Lost Mountains[]
A few weeks after Hardin "Sphinx" Lancaster enacted a coup d'état against the Four Kingdoms and acquired the Siren bells from Moscow, he ordered the Catholic Church hand over the globe, so as to aid him in confirming the locations of the iron mountains beside the first one, and to prevent any rivals from viewing it to discover the locations for themselves.
When Sphinx and Cardinal Ricardo Mendoza landed in St Peter's Square, the Pope granted them the globe, along with their documents on the Orphean bell. Once the globe had been handed over, Sphinx and Mendoza donned protective earphones before having a Siren bell rung in the middle of the city, as another measure to keep anyone in the Church from revealing the globe's secrets to anyone else.
Not long after, as Jack's team was discussing the Trial of the Mountains, Sister Lynda Fadel noted that she had heard from a nun who had seen the globe the location of the first mountain at Mont Saint-Michel. After Iolanthe reminded them that she had already mentioned the globe to them before, Hades elaborated further before confirming Jack's suspicion that Sphinx had likely silenced Rome as part of keeping anyone who had seen the globe quiet.
After Jack and Iolanthe arrived at Mont Saint-Michel and were met by Bertie de Montreuil, the old Jesuit explained to them how the globe had come to be defaced and confirmed that two of the iron mountains' locations had been lost as a result.
Attributes[]
Though the Vatican Globe appears to be forged from bronze, like many other creations of the Super-Ancient Beings, it is in fact actually constructed out of an unknown metal alloy that it not found on Earth. While it possesses no special properties, the Globe was made to display the locations of the Secret Cities and iron mountains, although the locations of the final two iron mountains were filed off, a task that was accomplished with extreme difficulty due to the toughness of the metal the globe it forged from.
Trivia[]
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