Griselle
Years ago, the Mound of Griselle was once the greatest city the world had ever witnessed. It was a colossal hub for trade in the old world, connecting to all settlements by both river and road, and serving as a mid-point to all cities. It was the axis on which the rest of the world turned, and as such became profanely prosperous.
As Griselle rose in power, it experienced a renaissance of magical knowledge that brought with it great numbers of people. With the steady influx of money and potential patrons, sorcerers began to flock to the city in ever-increasing numbers primarily in search of one thing - the secret to crafting Golems.
The art of the Golem was held and pioneered by a man who was known as Toth Bhreacher. Bhreacher was a genius in his time, crafting all manner of construct far beyond the talents of even the master tinkerers from a very young age. He had a drive, or more rather a lust, for the arcane that most found both encouraging and unsettling. Toth devoted nearly all of his time to the creation of what he deemed "The Perfect Golem" a construct that would: never deteriorate, could hold enough magical energy to cover a towns-worth of citizens, and would always follow orders without question.
Golems are known today to be very fickle creations, if a sorcerer errs on even a single element or dictation, a golem will undoubtedly go against the wishes of its master at some point in its very long life. These errors rarely manifest at the time of creation, but instead years and years into the future a crack of free thought and will begins to take over the Golem. In the experience of many sorcerers, this free-thought is almost certainly going to be "destroy that which bound me," much to the surprise of the unsuspecting spell-caster. The inherently ravenous nature of the Golem led the whole of Aurelian to pursue the creation of automaton constructs that had less free-will and problem-solving ability, but were far easier to manage (and had a much lower chance of disemboweling you in your sleep). The rise of Griselle rested on the fame of Toth and his incredible constructs, and ironically the demise of the whole city fell on his greatest failure.
In his search for the perfect Golem, Toth was bound to make mistakes. He often would purchase the help of sorcerers to give him access to a larger pool of magical power than his own body could handle. Through his studies, Toth discovered the secret to crafting his perfect Golem and began the arduous process of its construction. He slaved away in solitude for months and meticulously machined every piece of his magnum-opus with the utmost care and precision. Until one day - it was complete. As he looked upon his creation, he saw a Golem: rune-etched along the body with glowing blue symbols wrapping its chassis and appendages, a golden body flecked with radiant metal that glinted brilliantly even in the faintest slivers of light, a glowing core that seemed to breathe in a mysterious and organic cadence, and an aura of magical containment that seemed to pull magical energies from the very air around you. The Golem was named Teleios and was considered the marvel of Griselle. For a time, Teleios successfully drew all of the magical energies from the entire city into itself, negating the need for Automatons altogether and utilized the excess to give energy to the infrastructure of the city. With Teleios energizing the city, Griselle became unmatched in power throughout all of Aurelian. The citizens of Griselle reveled in their influence, and even larger groups of emigrants flocked to the city like moths to a flame.
While no one quite knows what happened to Griselle after the creation of Teleios, there is a first-hand account of the event.
"I was on the road from Tylera to Griselle as I had been hundreds of times before, when I saw the greatest travesty of our time. I saw hovering over Griselle the brightest light I had ever seen in my life, so bright that I had to avert my eyes briefly even from a distance of multiple miles. From Griselle, a growl shuddered the ground beneath my feet, terrifying our pack animals and cracking the very stone beneath our feet. Then, stone began to ring the walls of the city until it formed a dome around the entire city, encasing it forever within a tomb of rock."
From that day onwards, Griselle has been entombed within an impenetrable stone fortress, locking away thousands of lives to a fate of screaming, confusion, and darkness. While no one is sure of the exact role of Teleios and Toth in the destruction of the city, rumors abound of how Teleios, in anger and frustration, destroyed the entire city it was built to preserve; and some recount that Toth was disgusted by the opulence of Griselle and sought its destruction all along. While these rumors can not be proven, Toth is considered a curse upon Aurelian and a man responsible for the destruction of an incredible wonder of the world.
Curiously, even with years of digging, no one has been able to breach the stone enclosure.