Hall of the Throne

The Hall of the Throne is the most ancient and sacred building at the Place of the Tombs of Atuan, a vast, ruinous structure that dominates the hilltop above the other temples. Its walls are patched and its dome is crumbling, giving it a tawny, desert-worn appearance that blends with the barren landscape. Inside, the hall is a cavernous space with double rows of thick columns, a collapsed roof in places that lets in unsteady shafts of sunlight, and a floor of cracked marble pavement where weeds and frost have forced their way through the joints. The air is still and cold, and the silence is broken only by the slow beat of a drum during processions. The hall is the site of the most solemn and terrifying ritual of the Kargad Empire: the Remaking of the Priestess, where a young girl is symbolically "eaten" by the Nameless Ones and becomes the Eaten One, Arha, the living vessel of the ancient powers.

Architecture and Atmosphere

The Hall of the Throne is described as "tawny and ruinous as the desert itself," with patched walls and a flattish, crumbling dome. Its interior is vast, with double rows of immense columns that rise into the dusk under the ceiling. The roof has partially collapsed, allowing sunlight to slant through the gaps, illuminating the frost outlined on dead weeds that have pushed up through the marble pavement. The hall is windowless, lit only by torches carried by black-clad girls and the shafts of daylight that break through the ruined sections. The throne itself is a huge, black structure with a dull glimmer of precious stones or gold on its arms and back, and it is not of human dimensions; a man sitting in it would be dwarfed. The three highest steps before the throne have never been climbed by mortal feet and are thick with dust, hiding the red-veined marble beneath. The hall is a place of profound cold and silence, where the only sounds are the slow drumbeat and the shuffling of feet during ceremonies.

The Ritual of Remaking

The Hall of the Throne is the central stage for the ritual that transforms a child into the Priestess of the Tombs. During this ceremony, the child, dressed in a white shift and barefoot, climbs four of the seven broad steps of red-veined marble. On the middle step, she kneels and fits her head into a hollowed block of wood. A masked figure in white wool swings a five-foot steel sword over her neck, but a black-clad figure darts out to stay his hand at the last moment, a symbolic sacrifice. A priestess then pours a bowl of liquid onto the steps, leaving a dark stain. The child is then clothed in a black robe and hood, and the priestesses chant, "O let the Nameless Ones behold the girl given to them... Let her be eaten!" The response from the other voices is, "She is eaten! She is eaten!" This ritual marks the child's death as a named individual and her rebirth as the nameless servant of the Old Powers.

The Throne and the Nameless Ones

The throne at the heart of the hall is not a seat for any human ruler. It is a massive, black structure, curtained on each side by webs of darkness that drop from the gloom of the roof, making it unclear whether they are curtains or denser shadows. The throne is empty; nothing sits in it but shadows. The jewels inset in its huge clawed arms and back are glazed with dust, and cobwebs and whitish stains of owl droppings mar the carven back. The three highest steps, which have never been climbed, are covered in a slant of grey soil, the accumulated dust of centuries. This throne is the focal point for the worship of the Nameless Ones, the ancient, pre-human powers who rule before the world of men came to be. The hall itself is the threshold between the world of the living and the domain of these unnamed, terrible entities.

Narrative Significance

The Hall of the Throne serves as the primary setting for the most critical event in the life of the Priestess of the Tombs, the ritual that defines her existence. It is a space of absolute power and dread, where the authority of the Godking and the Twin Gods is secondary to the older, darker forces of the Nameless Ones. The hall's ruined, ancient state reflects the age and decay of the powers it houses, and its impenetrable, cold atmosphere creates a sense of cosmic horror. It is a place where the boundary between the human and the inhuman, the living and the dead, is ritually dissolved. The hall is also a point of contrast with the newer, more ornate temples of the Godking and the God-Brothers, emphasizing the hierarchy of sacred power at the Place of the Tombs. The Eaten One, Arha, is the only person who can enter the hall's inner sanctum, and her role is to serve the Nameless Ones, a duty that isolates her from all other human contact and defines her entire existence.