Tor Ysbryd Garreg
by Wm Jay Carter III, 6/19/15
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| Tor Ysbryd Garreg |
Nation: Bóreans
Condition: Lush, Holy
Weather: Sprinkles
Color: Redwood
Keyword: Gargantuan
For the last hour of your journey all other conifers have given way to trees as tall as castles—the mighty redwoods. Through the bare lower trunks you see a dim glow the color of lapis gracing the silhouettes of the underbrush; you know you’re close. Finally, as you clear the treeline your full view is overwhelmed by gargantuan hunks of stone piled haphazardly upon one another. Tor Ysbryd Garreg towers above you, above even the tops of the redwood trees.
For the last hour of your journey all other conifers have given way to trees as tall as castles—the mighty redwoods. Through the bare lower trunks you see a dim glow the color of lapis gracing the silhouettes of the underbrush; you know you’re close. Finally, as you clear the treeline your full view is overwhelmed by gargantuan hunks of stone piled haphazardly upon one another. Tor Ysbryd Garreg towers above you, above even the tops of the redwood trees.
The company of bórean exemplars has already arrived, attesting to the efficiency of their tunnels. The avatar of stone steps forward, reciting the final plea of the ritual. You pause just inside the treeline to sit and watch the ceremony. The rain sprinkles your face, the spongy moss yields under your hands, and for a moment you let the sanctity of the place ease the tension in your body. Then, the avatar’s recitation reaches a crescendo, the lapis glow intensifies, and the forest floor begins to tremble…
Actually a slumbering Stone Spirit, Tor Ysbryd Garreg has long been regarded not only as a sacred place among the bóreans, but also the chief deity of their worship. Prophecies told and retold since before the Cataclysm tell of a day when Ysbryd Garreg will awaken at last and open the path to the World Under All. Some say the Stone Spirit is sleeping on the entrance to the under-world, while others claim that the path does not yet exist and Ysbryd Garreg will carve it himself. Only a few bóreans think the World Under All is actually Athanasia’s moon, and that all the bóreans are simply upside-down.
Out of respect for the bórean religion villagers from local human settlements take yearly pilgrimages to the tor, offering carts of rare minerals or well-crafted mining tools. Returning to the tor year after year to find the offerings gone confirms the faith of the faithful, although the unspoken truth is that the bóreans use the offerings to either improve or fund the maintenance of the tor and the subterranean temple beneath it. Human parents traditionally tell their children that Ysbryd Garreg eats the minerals and uses the mining tools to pick his teeth, but the children tend to learn the truth or figure it out for themselves as they grow older.
Out of respect for the bórean religion villagers from local human settlements take yearly pilgrimages to the tor, offering carts of rare minerals or well-crafted mining tools. Returning to the tor year after year to find the offerings gone confirms the faith of the faithful, although the unspoken truth is that the bóreans use the offerings to either improve or fund the maintenance of the tor and the subterranean temple beneath it. Human parents traditionally tell their children that Ysbryd Garreg eats the minerals and uses the mining tools to pick his teeth, but the children tend to learn the truth or figure it out for themselves as they grow older.
While fenrir often lurk in the woods near the tor, they exercise a healthy respect for the power even they can feel emanating from the place. Some brave fenrir visit the place as a part of their coming-of-age trials, and occasionally an outcast “lone wolf” fenris takes refuge there on their way to find new territory, but otherwise they give the tor a wide berth. It is said that the fenris zoanthrope Einar (“Lone Warrior”) was cursed at Tor Ysbryd Garreg, and he returns there every full moon to regain his hybrid form and hatred of humanity.
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