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 to show pride in humanity. Some of the tech was pioneered by the Thunderhead, but it was built and kept up by humans. Large fans, as well as hundreds of ballast tanks underwater, keep the island floating and go up and down by two feet twice every day to simulate the tides.
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.
It was also home to the robes of the 13 founding scythes and the scythe ring gems.
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.[1]