The Isle of Arch

Ancient tales tell of an island off the coast of West Africa that was, at some point in time, home to a old Muslim hermit. Tales say that this nameless hermit was so pious in his devotions, so zealous in his faith, that the ruins that shared the island with him took on some measure of power.
These ruins are of unknown origin, leftovers from some forgotten progenitor race. Their dimensions are of a conglomerate of arches, tall arches, short ones, slender ones, bulky ones. All made of clay and a peculiar red stone. These arches covered the isle from side to side, for the isle was of mostly rock and sand, raised in the middle and lower on its slopes down towards the waters around. Tales say that the very rock of the isle shone bright in the midday sun, and the surrounding waters were clear as clear crystal, like a curtain of blue glass, made this way by the zeal and pious peace of the hermit.
Ages later, when explorers landed upon the isle, they found peculiar carvings in the arches denoting the virtues of a good man: Compassion, Peace, Piety, Zeal, Wisdom and so forth. It is said that those who ventured underneath the arches would become unto the virtue of that arch...for a time. The most legendary of the arches was the arch that was labeled FAITH.
The faithful that passed under this arch were given feelings of peace and theophany. The faithless however, disappeared utterly and without trace. It is said that the only way to truly instill faith in the faithless would be to show them firsthand the glories of Allah, and such they would be taken to look upon his holy form in Heaven.

Now, it is said by beggars in the cities of old that there existed an antithesis to the faith and piety that bespeckled the nameless hermits arches. As alaways in such thing, there existed an opposite to the virtuous arches, hidden underground beneath the isle, reachable by a tunnel only those lacking in virtue could perceive.
It is said that in the arches in this lightless realm of vaulted halls and caves there lay those emotions no pious man should desire to harbor: Anger, Suffering, Desire, Chaos, Evil.
Legendary among this dark realm was the arch of FAITHLESSNESS. It is said that the only way to break the faith of the faithful, the only way to instill an eternal hopelessness, would be lock away those with faith who passed under the arch. They would be locked away, it is said by less reputable beggars, in a magical prison of hopelessness and eternal despair.