Recent History of Eredoth

Recent History of Eredoth

   Eredoth was founded approximately 250 years ago under the guidance of the expatriate Syrgian king Gareden Voranius. Garedan had made a power play against the throne, to seize control before his elder brother Garast took rightful ownership of it, and he failed. He was given the chance for exile instead of death, and so he took the opportunity to leave Syrgia, migrating west with a fleet of ships carrying his family and loyalist followers. They eventually found their way across the expanse of the Glittering ocean and into the channels that led to the Grey Sea, where they settled what appeared to be a vast wilderness of deep forest and high mountains, occupied only by a barbarous local people called the emac. He called the land Eredoth, which means “far land” in the Syrgian language.

   The emac were initially friendly, but as the Syrgian expatriates soon discovered they were not so receptive to exploitation, and a series of local conflicts arose during the initial colonization. The first thirty years of Eredish expansion was a bloody affair, but the superior arms, armor and tactics of the Eredoth soldiers prevailed.

   In the following two centuries, the population of the emac broke into two distinct groups, consisting of those who accepted the occupation of the foreigners, and those who rebelled. The independent emac continue to dwell in nomadic forest and mountain tribes throughout the region, and have come to carefully guard their territories against the foreigners, who occupy mostly the lowland and forest regions along the coast. In contrast, a number of emac tribes eventually integrated with Eredoth’s new culture and rulership, and became clients of the kingdom. These emac are called “iquiri’san” by their independent bretheren, a word which means “willing slaves” in the emac language.

   After two and half centuries Eredoth has become its own power. The people speak Eredish, a dialect closely related to Syrgian but sufficiently removed in time that it now requires some study to properly interpret. Syrgians “rediscovered” Eredoth about a century ago, and infrequent trade has ensued ever since.

   Although Eredoth came from Syrgian culture, it also lost much of it with the transition to this new land. One of the first changes was in religion. The Syrgians are notoriously non-religious, even atheistic by Chirak standards, and eschew all forms of faith and religion when possible. The Eredish where of similar bent until they arrived in the new land, where they discovered that the local emac worshipped something they called the Divine Wind, a force of nature that was a willful manifestation of something they called the “World Spirit.” The World Spirit would choose from among the deserving and humble, granting them the gift to do good things. They said this was important, because the land was suffused with evil spirits who crept out of the Outer Darkness, spilling like pools of shadow into the world  to corrupt men. They called these shadows the Yagoth.

   It did not take long for the Eredish to believe in the emac’s religion, as actual manifestations of the Divine Wind took more than one colonist over the years, changing them into something that the newfound theologians called “spirit saints,” roughly translated from the emac term for them, the iniar’quiam. Just as impressive but more disturbing were the first Eredish to succumb to the corrupting fleshwarping touch of the Yagoth. Over time, the men and women who devoted themselves to understanding, following and eventually worshipping the spirit saints founded the Church of the World Spirit. To be chosen by the Divine Wind, sent from the World Spirit, was considered the greatest of honors. The adoption of this local belief was at least partially responsible for the integration and acculturation—on both sides—of Eredish and emac alike.

   Today Eredoth is divided into three chief lands. The northlands, along the coast of the northern Frostmounts are held by King Seviron of Calladania, the collected northern duchies, which reflects the united northlands. In the south there are two kings, including King Emerad of Duchies of Ghaellan, and King Sarnaris of Saagerast. Though the land is presently divided between three kings, they all regard themselves as part of Eredoth proper. The current division derives from the War of Winter Blossoms, so named for the fact that it started during the middle of winter thirty years ago, an unusual time for conflict to arise, and pressed on for two decades until the major powers sued for peace, then divided the lands three ways, with a treaty that asserted that all of Eredoth would unite in times of need against foreign powers. The ever-present threat of the Xiang-Kotonos, Nindragom, the giants of the Frostmounts and other threats insure that this treaty is taken seriously.

Player's Knowledge of the Relic Kingdoms

Player’s Overview of the Region

Eredoth is a northern empire, embedded in a thousand miles of rocky coast. They are a relic empire, descendants of expatriates from long ago who colonized the region and fought back against the barbarianst of the Frostmounts. The people of Eredoth are divided, in that there is no stable king. In southern Eredoth two major powers vie for control: the kings of Ghaellan and Saagarest. Saagarest is centered on an island in the Grey Sea roughly the size of England, along the coast dominated by the duchies of Ghaellan. You are all starting in the city of Ghaellan, where self-appointed king Emerad rules. Finally, Eredoth's religion is based on the worship of something called the Vestiges and the Spirits.  The Spirits are saint-like figures that are believed to be granted godlike power by the enigmatic Divine Wind, a manifestation of the lost Ancient Divinities of old that was said to have been worshipped by the ancient colonists of Eredoth, and the reason for which they were exiled and forced to colonize this distant land. The Vestiges are described as the ancient Spirits of the Earth, immortals which perished eons ago and of which only the power of the Divine Wind still exists. Vestiges might be seen as undead gods. Eredoth also has a beliefer (fear) of demons, calling them the fiends of Yagoth.

Nidragom is located to the south of Eredoth, and it is best described as a land of madmen and wild barbarians. They are fiercely warlike, tribal, and disorganized, but by virtue of their own ferocity and dedication to something they call the Mania (which is worshipped both as a philosphy and a god) they are a formidable force of berserkers and killers. When Eredoth's polities are not warring amongst themselves, they recruit from Nindragom for mercenaries.

Easter of both lands is the Xiang-Kotonos, an eastern empire of warriors and godless men who revere the blade before all. The Xiang-Kotonos are made less threatening only by virtue of the thousand miles of desert tundra between their kingdoms and the region of Nindragom and Eredoth, but an occasional warlord will brave the barren lands to seek out battle with the western powers.

South in the deep high mountains of the east is Laiwan, a remote kingdom of mountain dwellers who are the gateway of trade between the westerlands and the distant east. They are small in number but safe by virtue of their isolated mountainous homeland. They are mysterious and mystical people, said to worship the Sun itself, although they have a complicated pantheon of Demon Gods that they feel dictate the trials and tribulations of their daily lives.

Across the Grey Sea from Eredoth is the largest mountain range in the known world, the immense Anantes mountains, The people of this region are called the Capac, and are divided into two cultural groups: the lowland Capaci of Narasco, who subsist on trade and the sea to survive in the harsh, dry deserts along the slopes of the great mountains that touch the Grey Sea, and in the immense highland regions of the Anantes Mountains is the mysterious and very ancient culture of the Astananku, said to be ancient magicians and nearly immortal descendants of a lost race of old. No one knows much of who the Astananku worship, although the lowland Capaci strongly favor the water goddess whom they call Mataki, and her counterpart, the storm god Hukil.

Finally, there are known to be other, more distant lands which the Eredothian sailors sometimes trade, far beyond the dominion of the Grey Sea. Westward beyond the Anantes Mountains the Capaci people speak of a terrible empire of evil, dominated by demon worship and sacrifice. South of Nindragom is a vast, trackless desert waste from which occasional merchant caravans emerge, claiming to come from the distant kingdom of Dragos across the desert.

Elves in the region of Eredoth are known as the Asharion tribes of the frostmounts, a cunning and secretive race that lives in nomadic tribal groups. They are often at odds with their dark elf counterparts beneath the frozen glaciers and deep in the mountain caves of the region, who are called the Kaddan. The Kaddan worship the vestige Zaramast; in the elvish mythology, it is said that the Kaddan were normal elves who stumbled upon the burial ground of the ancient vestige thousands of years ago, and his dark tendrils corrupted their flesh and spirit, turning them into what they are today.

There are haflings all along the coast of the Grey Sea, and there are several enclaves of stout dwarves in the Frostmounts and Anantes mountains. As with all other lands, gnomes and goblins exist, though the goblins are seen as pests of the Arescu Forest and the lowland, warmer Iargan forests of the south, while the gnomes gravitate toward cities and towns of other races.

Dragonborn are extremely rare, but tieflings are extremely common, especially among the Nindragom, who prize the blood-induced madness of some tiefling warriors, and often rely upon rituals of the mysterious Demon Gods to call upon the Mania and allow them a bonding with infernal beings to create such offspring.

 

Minotaurs are known in this land, but they are found chiefly in wandering tribes in the southern deserts and eastern tundra. Orcs are present, as ever, existing primarily in a vast network of caverns Gazad Mountains of Eredoth, though many orcish tribes can be found in the Frostmounts and Anantes mountains as well.

Lost History of the Relic Kingdoms

The Undiscovered Lost History of the Relic Kingdoms and the First Gods

   No mortal knows the secrets of the Yagoth. Their legacy extends back to a time when the Relic Empire was young, and the first gods were born into existence. The people of this lost time sought the first great power over their realm, forging a crystal of such power that it contained within it the energy of creation and all existence. This power was too great for any one mortal to contain, and so twelve candidates were chosen, twelve mortals who were tasking with caring for a piece of the stone, while the final, thirteenth stone was place at the edge of the stars themselves, to serve as the binding force of creation, the conduit through which their twelve lesser stones drew all power.

   In this ancient time, a time before human men existed, there was great and lasting peace as the prehumans of this era could mold existence as they saw fit, granting immortality to their kin and peace to all. It was not until they experimented with the creation of lesser slave races that things changed. Humanity, elves and others were created to serve the gods and their divine kindred. The first men were no more than mindless slaves, but over time the designs of the gods grew more complex, and soon the divine race saw men as complex playthings. They enjoyed the games and conflicts that seemed to come naturally to these lesser beings. They toyed with them.

   These first humans and elves and others grew tired after untold centuries of slavery, and by way of events long lost to time they rebelled. They overthrew their masters, rose up in arms, and in revolt succeeded in slaying the gods. How this was properly accomplished was not entirely known to any save for the Yagoth.

   The Yagoth were an entire race of beings, who existed in the supreme darkness at the edge of the star system. They had lived in eternal darkness for untold eons, and predated all other creatures in existence, dwelling in their ancient cities upon the Thirteenth Planet of the star system. That was, until the Heart of the Crystal, the source of the first twelve Zodiac Stones, was set upon their world by the twelve young gods, who in their hubris saw fit to exterminate the Yagoth as vermin, so repulsive did they find the creatures, that they drove them from their planet and into the darkness between the stars.

   The Yagoth sought revenge. They plotted for eons, until they at last saw the gods make an error, for as the gods created life, the Yagoth learned quickly that they could possess and manipulate the lesser mortals, and they sowed the seeds of discontent amongst the slaves. They drove the creations of the gods to rise up, and through dark gifts in the form of the God Slayer weapons they granted them the power necessary to slay the first gods. The Yagoth granted this power to the mortals in exchange for the promise that the humans and elves would in turn seek out the Heart of the Crystal and take it far away, that the Yagoth could once more dwell on their dark world.

   The first humans who rose up and destroyed the gods were quick to seize the Zodiac Stones. They flung the god-slayer weapons then into a pit that led to the center of the earth, that there was no temptation to use them, though one long-forgotten avatar is said to have kept a single weapon hidden away. They then turned on the Yagoth, for the men who the Yagoth had thought so easily manipulated were clever and cunning, and with the power of the Zodiac Stones they could not be touched by the Yagoth. They cast out the demons, and swore to never let them return.

   Thus it was that the first in a long lineage of young gods came to pass. Men learned that they could never contain the power of the Zodiac Stones for as long as their forebears, for the immortal Nakal/Klippath were unique in this ability. Though none today remember it, no god has lift more than twenty thousand years before eventually dying; it was inevitable that the Zodiac Stones would require successors.

   Of the original gods, only the vestiges remain, and of those, only seven are known to manifest as forgotten shades, and possibly two which still seem to exist as mysterious forces (the Mania and the Divine Wind).

   And of the Yagoth? They dwell at the edge of existence, waiting for those curious moments when a hapless mage or scholar of Eredoth, Capac or Nimdragom finds one of the ancient summoning mirrors that allows them to manifest in the world of Chirak, that they might seek a time and place where opportunity will allow them to do the most harm to the descendants of those who killed their world and betrayed them, driving them out into the endless void of space. They have an undending hunger, and are immortal, impossibly old beings with an intense desire for revenge.

Spirits, Demons and Vestiges of Eredoth

Known Spirit Saints of the Relic Kingdoms:

Sethrys, the Winter Queen, Lady of Monsters: This powerful woman has manifested a control over ice and cold in her domain, and now resides deep in the heart of the Frostmounts, ruling giants and other monstrous kin. She is a terrifying being, neither saintly nor spiritual, and seeks to conquer Eredoth one day, though her timetable of action is a mystery. She has been in existence for eighty years now, and it has been fifty years since she led an army of monsters northward to the capitol of Calladania in the Northern Duchies where she waged war for five years until the spirit-saint Augusteros rallied the soldiers of the land to drive her back.

   Of those who doubt her “sainthood,” one need only talk to the giants, ogres, and other kin who call her such; she is regarded as a powerful force among the giantkin for unifying them into a kingdom of their own.

Augusteros, The Sword Saint: Augusteros is still known to walk the land, for as has been pointed out, if he had passed on then no memory of him would remain; he is considered the patron saint of soldiers, and bards have many stories to tell of his manifestation in times of need. He has been known of for more than a century now.

Killias, the Water Bringer: Killias was a young woman, touched by the Divine Wind while at sea, who changed to the form of a mermaid. She is now considered patron saint of sailors and of safe voyages in the Grey Sea. It is said that she considers herself a servant of Mataki.

Tarn, the Hunter: A rough old coot, Tarn was a ranger of the southern province and servant to king Emerad’s grandfather. He was fatally wounded in his old age while hunting, but the Divine Wind did not let him perish. He has not been seen in many years now, though on rare occasions in the woods some hunters claim to encounter him, continuing the hunt, and some starving families find game brought to their door by amysterious man they are certain is Tarn.

Miurnes, the Birth Giver: This patron saint of women and childbirth is said herself to have had a difficult birth and was about to die when the Divine Wind touched her, saving mother and child. Her daughter grew up to be the legendary sorceress Caedra, who dwells in her tower on the Isle of Saagarest. Miurnes appears at times to those women in need, acting as a mysterious midwife who assists in a difficult childbirth and then disappears after a child is born.

The Complication of the Yagoth and the Demon Gods of the West

   The people of Eredoth do not just have saints to benefit from, for they also have very old demons that haunt their land. These beings are called the Yagoth, and there is no consensus as to where they come from. Common belief holds that the Yagoth are actually possessed beings inhabited by the spirits of the lost Klippath of the Relic Empire, twisted and shaped into monsters in body and soul by these ancient spirits, hungry for living flesh. A more heretical notion is that the Divine Wind itself creates them, and that it is not a benevolent force, but a natural force which must balance good and evil, and so for every spirit saint there must be a Yagoth. No one is sure what is true about these beings, other than their insatiable lust for cruelty and death. Only a very few witches and warlocks know that there are ancient obsidian mirrors that can be found in the Relic Empire ruins, capable of summoning the Yagoth, and that mortals are alarmingly susceptible to possession and transmogrification by these demons.

   Yagoth are believed (rather terrifyingly) to be entirely unrelated to the so called Demon Gods of the west; most Eredish theologians believe, strongly, that the Demon Gods are malevolent apparitions that have confused the western empire of Xoxtocharit into believing that they are infernal beings of godlike power, for the notion that there may be a hundred or more evil gods in the world is almost too much for them to contemplate. Nindragom, not known for its scholars and theologians, nonetheless has a cult of battle clerics that pride themelves on their dedication to slaying the western cultists and mastering these demons, for they feel that the Xoxtocharit demons are merely another manifestation of the Mania, changing mortals into demons.

   In truth, the Xoxtocharit have created a complicated hierarchy of belief and worship centered on the so called “servants of the betrayers,” which is a euphemism for the greatest servants and generals of the Betrayer Gods from the era of the Apocalypse, a period of time about which they know a great deal more than most scholars in the easterlands are aware of. Indeed, the memories of the apocalypse have all but been erased in the dominion of the Relic Empires, for reasons that are not at all obvious.

The Seven Known Vestiges

   Of the many names and figures identified in the ancient script of the Relic Empire, only seven names have been determined to have divine significance, and as such these seven are believed to be the ancient gods of the lost Nakal/Klippath. Dubbed “vestiges” the first manifestation of a known vestige was caused by the tribe of elves once called the Ulithirians, and now called the Kaddam, which means “Shadows” in the Relic Script, they say. These elves followed the darkness of the endless passages of caverns in the Frostmounts until discovering an ancient city of the Relic Empire, still intact yet submerged in the mountains and somehow protected by a vast dome from the crushing rock above. Within this city was an ancient tomb to the dead god called Zaramast. The elves disturbed the vestige of Zaramast, and with its last power it changed them forever, altering the elves into the shadowy creatures of darkness that they now are. The elves were suffused with arcane knowledge from the shadow god, and have sought to appease and feed the vestige power through sacrifice, to learn more of its ancient secrets.

   What follows is a summary of the known vestiges. All of the following have hidden cults throughout Eredoth, Capac and Nindragom, and some are openly worshipped among the Iargan barbarians. No one, not even their cultists, doubt that these are mere shadows of dead gods, whose power and lust for existence was so great that long after their power is gone, their bodies, slain and their souls either destroyed or reborn, these whispery shades of desire continue to exist.

Vestige Name                   Aspect                                          Manifestation

Narinath                           vestige of knowledge and secrets      an ancient scholar

Malin’ithaer                      vestige of machines                         an infernal contraption

Zaramast                          vestige of hate and darkness             a vile dark elf killer in the darkness

Skael                                vestige of deceit and trickery            a sly rogue

Emiridon                          vestige of the cosmos                       an enveloping darkness or wind

Nisultyr                            vestige of creation                            a burning point of light

Meremeth                         vestige of life                                  a shadowy woman

Yazda Grahath                  vestige of monstrosities                    a brutal shifting beast

   The vestiges are well and truly dead, but the lingering essence of each shade is so powerful that they continue to influence the living a hundred thousand years later. Each of the above aspects can be invoked by those who know the secrets to communing with the vestiges, and extracting lost secrets and rituals from them. It is said, for example, that many orc sorcerers have learned to commune with Yazda Grahath, and from her have learned the secret of creating terrible birthing pools, out of which hideous monsters emerge. In northern Calladia, the powerful Sect of the Burning Sky have learned to commune with Emiridon, and in turn have drawn on this vestige to learn arcane secrets of the cosmos.

   The vestiges are almost insanely dangerous. They can sustain moments of existence by stealing the life and souls of those who they are contacted by; failure to properly contain or ward against a summoned vestige can rapidly prove fatal, though luckily a vestige can only sustain itself from stealing the lives of the living, and then gaining only a few minutes of existence when it does so. Even the more benevolent vestiges find it almost impossible to resist the theft of others’ souls, though they may warn those around them when they are about to do harm.

  Vestiges can manifest naturally adjacent to ancient ruins, especially in ruins that once contained great temples of worship to the old gods. On very rare occasion some seers and oracles can act to channel the dead minds of these beings, a more indirect (and sometimes safer) way of communing with them, though only those born with this unique gift can do so.

Next: Lost History

Eredoth and the Relic Kingdoms

This week: a return to Chirak proper, with details on the Relic Kingdoms of the far northeastern lands, east even of Xoxtocharit! This region of the campaign was first visited using 4E rules, but a return trip with Pathfinder is planned for the near future.

The Ancient History of Eredoth and the Relic Kingdoms

   Eredoth is a land influenced by very old forces. Evidence of ancient ruins can be found throughout the ancient twin mountain ranges of the Anantes and the Frostmounts, but to most who dwell in this land the ruins are nothing more than a curious relic, a remnant of a lost age that may predate even the cataclysm that destroyed the old world. In fact, though few suspect it, these ruins are a hint of an even more ancient cataclysm, one which transpired eons before the event that very nearly destroyed the world twenty six hundred years ago. Though none suspect it, these ruins are relics from an era that even predates the concept of the gods of the Zodiac Stones.

   The mystery of these ancients was already lost knowledge to the Occultic, Inadasir and Mythric Empires that were at the height of power during the Last Age, and so what little knowledge existed of this time was not passed down. Scholars in both Eredoth and Copan within the ancient city of Astananku have had more opportunities to study these ruins and relics than any ancient long-dead scholar of the Lost Age, in fact, for though they do not know it, their twin mountain ranges were forged in the turmoil of the Last War, thrust forth by the machinations of the betrayer gods as the stresses of the elemental chaos very nearly tore the world apart. Entire mountain ranges thrust up from the boiling depths of the earth, rupturing forth and dragging with them the ancient ruins of this lost age, exposing entire cities to the surface for the first time in a hundred thousand years.

   Scholars who have studied these ruins call them the Nakal in Capac, meaning “Lost Ancestors,” while the scholars of Eredoth use the term “Klippath” which roughly means the “Impurities” or “evil spirits,” and stems from the Old Eredish word for Betrayer (specifically “The Betrayer” not just any betrayer).

   Studies in both lands have led to some rather interesting differing interpretations of the originators of these ancient ruins. The Capac see the Nakal as an ancient race of prehumans who may have accidentally seeded the world with humanity and its other races. They feel that the first ancient gods were born of the union between the Nakal and the humans they created, and that to contain the terrible power of divinity within these mortals they gifted them with twelve sacred primordial stones, hewn from one great rock, which in turn served to house these first hybrid spirits.

   In contrast, the scholars of Eredoth recognized that these ancient prehuman entities were malevolent, or at the very least may have created humanity as playthings. The scholar Nara’Pusin feels that there is evidence that the first men attained free will against the desire of their creators, and that they rose up in rebellion against the ancient Klippath, destroying their creators and seizing control of the twelve divine stones of power for themselves.

   Of interesting noteworthiness is the manifestation in this land of the so-called Vestiges and the spirit saints. How these two beings relate to the rest is unknown, but both exhibit very old power, and appear to be capable of terrible and good acts alike.

   The spirit-saints are seemingly created by a force given the appellation of the Divine Wind, mortals who are gifted temporarily with great power that eventually consumes their physical forms. These saints appear for a short while wandering the land and doing great deeds before eventually fading into mystery, and at last being extinguished by the primal force of this Divine Wind. It is so called because those few times it has been seen to manifest and a description has been recorded, the manifestation always appears in the form of a great gale or storm. Some have noted the similarity of this force to the worship of the two gods of Capac, Mataki and Hukil, who also manifest in like manner.

   These spirit-saints change when touched, and attain supernatural senses and powers, but they rarely live more than two or three centuries before a transmogrification, in which their empowered soul sheds their physical body like an unwanted husk; such times when this has happened have led to a shedding of greatly destructive energy, as the dissipating soul irradiates all around it. No one knows what happens to the soul of a manifesting spirit-saint afterwards; all contact and even memory of them is lost, save for written records.

   South of Eredoth in Nindragom there is a similar phenomenon, called the Mania by its followers. The Mania is a literal manifestation of crazed, maddening energy that both grants and takes life where it appears. Those who have witnessed a manifestation of the Mania say it is not unlike the same feeling of a manifestation of the Divine Wind, and some speculate it is related or even the same phenomena, merely augmented and manifest in a different manner. In any case, the Mania often changes those it touches, deforming them, imbuing them with infernal traits, or stripping them of all humanity; on rare occasions the Mania has drained the life force of an entire town or community, only to leave the dead to rise again. In Nindragom a cleric of the Mania is known as a Fate Dancer, and they are among a rare few who have managed to reach out, touch the Mania, and retain their mind while stealing some of its power. These Fate Dancers are regarded as powerful individuals, with terrible powers, but they are not revered as divine beings as the spirit saints are in Eredoth.

   In Capac no such unique manifestations plague the land, but  instead they have two distinct deities that they revere, the aforementioned Mataki and Hukil. Mataki is the goddess of the sea, a benevolent undine of great power and wisdom who provides oracular visions to her followers. She is prized as the greatest of beings among the coastal cities of lowland Capac. Her counterpart, Hukil, is a vile god of capricious storms and death, and he is seen as her antithesis in every manner. He is feared by the mountainfolk and lowlanders equally, and some claim he is the Lord of Demons, though no one knows for sure if the western Xoxtocharit worship him among their own dark cults or not. Both are said to be the successors to the gods of the Lost Age, and that each claimed a Stone of Power (what the Capac call the Atzil, meaning the Divine Stones).

   Though it is unknown in this land and abroad, there is a secret about these two gods. They are in fact the demiurges Kalie’yana (Mataki) and Piscrael (Hukil). To date, due primarily to the godless nature of the only western explorers and merchants to come to this land from Syrgia, no one has ever noticed the similarities in the iconography of worship for these two demiurges.

    Aside from all these entities, there is one more source of ancient power in the land, one which is clearly tied to the ancient mystery of the Nakal/Klippath, but precisely how remains uncertain. These beings are almost certainly known to be dead gods, ancient ghostly remnants of whatever deities ruled the ancient relic empires of the Nakal/Klippath. There have been seven such vestiges discovered, and entire cults have risen up around the obsessive practice of communing with these lost gods.

   The vestiges manifest almost as ghostly forces of will, sometimes possessing and altering willing hosts for brief moments of time. It has been observed by some (especially the renowned scholar Nara’Pusin) that this manifestation bears a similarity to what happens to those who are touched by the Divine Wind or the Mania, but usually with fewer consequences for witnesses around the event, and rarely if ever any permanent lasting effects on the host for the process. Nara’Pusin has argued, heretically to some, that the Mania and the Divine Wind might well be free-roaming ghosts of undiscovered vestiges for this reason.

Next: Spirit Saints, Demon Gods, and Vestiges of Eredoth