Location from The Poppy War by R.F. Kuang
The stone prison — where shamans too powerful to kill and too dangerous to free are sealed alive in rock, cut off from their gods, preserved in a living death that the Empire calls necessary and Rin calls monstrous.
The Chuluu Korikh is the Trifecta's solution to the problem of shamanic power — a system of stone prisons that seals dangerous shamans away from the world and from the Pantheon gods they channel. The sealed shamans are alive but suspended, unable to access their power or their gods, preserved indefinitely in a state that is arguably worse than execution. Daji created and maintains the system as part of her centuries-long management of shamanic power. Her argument: uncontrolled shamans destroy civilizations, and the Korikh is the lesser evil. Rin's counter-argument: imprisoning people alive for having the wrong kind of power is itself a form of genocide. Both are right. Neither can resolve the contradiction. Rin releases shamans from the Korikh during the war, gaining powerful but mentally shattered allies. This act is both tactically necessary and morally complex — the released shamans are damaged in ways that imprisonment would be, and their reintroduction into the world creates new dangers.
A system of stone monoliths in a remote, desolate location — massive standing stones arranged in patterns that function as both prison and seal. The stones hum with contained energy. Inside, shamans are encased alive — aware but unable to move, channel, or die. The atmosphere is oppressive: the weight of contained power pushing against rock that was designed to hold it forever. The landscape around the Korikh is barren, as though the concentration of sealed shamanic energy has drained the life from the surrounding area.
Also known as: Chuluu Korikh, The Stone Prison, The Korikh