Endura

The city of Endura—also known as "The Island of the Enduring Heart", as it was home to a live beating heart in the center of the island—was a floating artificial island in the Mid-Atlantic Ocean, home to the World Scythe Council of Grandslayers and the Supreme Blade.

Description

Endura was built solely by mankind, without any help from the Thunderhead, in order to demonstrate the pride and ability of humanity. Some of the tech was pioneered by the Thunderhead, but built and maintained by people. Endura is located in the Atlantic, southeast of the Sargasso sea and halfway between Africa and the Americas. The nearest land mass is Bermuda - more than a thousand miles away. Large fans combined with hundreds of ballast tanks underwater keep the island floating, and change two feet in elevation, twice every day to simulate the tides. The bodies of a thousand workers laid the groundwork for the island's very bottom, which attracted thousands of fish to flock towards the island. Fish and other marine life are controlled by nanites on demand and by almost anyone with a view of them.

The Thunderhead has no cameras on the island - a result of the Seperation of Scythe and State, it can only see the island by buoy cams, twenty miles away.

Endura was in the shape of the scythedom's symbol - an eye between two long curved blades. It has a circular and only four kilometres in diameter which forms part of the eye - presumably the iris. The area where the Grandslayers and Supreme Blades hold council was a floating island within the island, connected to the main one with three bridges, only one allowing access to the island. There were seven towers that surrounded this council, each for the seven Grandslayers from each continent. Most of the island (that wasn't gardens or lagoons), was made of crystal and bright white materials. The island also included many gleaming spires and expansive gardens with lush and exotic plants and a resort for scythes on vacation. No ordanairy civilians were allowed on Endura, however it was open to Scythes and their guests. Nobody is permitted to be gleaned on Endura. The island featured extensive docks and beaches full of pleasure craft as well as one airport and numerous helipads. The island was also seen to contain the body of many former presidents to show the passing of time.

The founder's tower is the tallest in the entire city, and set apart on its own hill. It was home to the museum of the Scythedom, the Vault of Relics and Futures and the Enduring Heart itself. The Enduring heart was a human heart from the Age of Mortality and had been kept beating through technological devices. The vault of Relics and Futures was home to the robes of the 13 founding scythes and aproximately 400,000 scythe ring gems (and is where Citra and Rowan were locked away).

History

Endura was built in the early days of the Scythedom.

In the Year of the Raptor, Scythe Rand and Scythe Goddard hacked the system that keeps the island up with the help of several engineers and programmers (all gleaned afterward for secrecy), causing the entire island to have technical problems for several months, manifesting in the form of elevators becoming out of order and other inconveniences. Following Scythe Goddard's loss of the inquest relating to his High Blade candidacy, he escalates the glitches, forcing the ballast tank underneath the Grandslayer council to stay open. This causes it to sink several meters, putting an intense strain on the bridges. The engineers responsible for controlling the ballast tanks are befuddled, and upon finding that they cannot close it again, they sink the island by a meter to give the scythes a chance to evacuate the mini-island. However, the hacks make the island sink further, forcing the entire island to flood.

Meanwhile, the surrounding wildlife (controlled by nanites and intended as decoration) swirled around the island in a spiral. The sharks and other predators manage to jump into the council of the Grandslayers, devouring those who fall into the floodwaters. Goddard pretends to rescue them by helicopter only to drop them into the sharks' waiting mouths. Grandslayer Xenocrates, the only remaining Grandslayer, self-gleans by drowning, rather than give Goddard the satisfaction of being devoured.

Everyone on the island (excluding Rowan, Citra, Scythe Rand, and Scythe Goddard and the few in planes who manage to escape), along with the Grandslayers and Supreme Blade, are killed either by sharks, drowned, or gleaned in a mercy mass-gleaning initiated by Scythe Curie. After the mass-gleaning, all the scythes self-glean.

Approximately 1,600 scythes and relatives were dead at the site of the massacre.

Trivia

• Neal Shusterman clarified that the scythe communication system is separate from the Thunderhead, which had no sensors or means of communication within Endura. Because of this, information depended on the Scythedom’s less reliable system, and Goddard deliberately cut off outgoing communication to preserve his plan.