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"Crann Olcas" There was once a time when the wilderness was pristine & untravelled. The townspeople knew little of the wild. The people of the wilderness were withdrawn & mysterious, unwilling to share their secrets with the cityfolk. That was until a dark wind blew over the kingdoms. The eyes of Muhyul & Lasahn grew dark with anger & pride. The citizens of each country began to arm. The first victim of a blade was not a soldier: it was the outlaying lands of the wilderness. A summit of the wilderness was held at the Great Tree. "They've come with machetes. They are cutting a path of war." A plethora of noise erupted from the meeting. It was evident immediately resolution would not be simple. The mages preached pacifism. The rogues wished for stealth and assassination. The warriors insisted upon bold and immediate action. The arguments grew in passion & volume, until the roar was nearly deafening. Crann Olcas, a Druid of insurmountable power stepped forth into the centre of the room, & lifted a hand to silence the mob. All followed with instant obedience. His low, soft voice slithered around the room like a great serpent, "Do as you each will: this will be solved only by nature herself." He slowly raised his hood & strolled out of the area. Little more was said before the meeting dispersed entirely. A fortnight passed & Olcas had not been seen again. The rogues had been making nightly rounds, & reports of strange movements amoungst the trees were increasing. As dawn rose on the fourteenth day since the meeting, the scouts saw a small troupe of Koguryuan soldiers approach the spot they'd last been lumbering. They learned what the odd activity in the night had been. Another summit, this one a secret in the silence of twilight, was held by the elders of the wild paths. They discussed what the scouts had witnessed. The soldiers had been murdered by moving trees, short as men with branches dark and gnarled. The tree soldiers encrouched ten metres outside the wilderness boundries after the battle. The Elder Druid spoke of an ancient, forbidden incantation that infused trees with the bloodlust of their warmongering general. Crann Olcas had invoked this ability & was planning to use it to take the cities in the name of the wilderness. "It has never been a secret that many of us hold disdain for the townspeople. However, Olcas has broken the first law of nature. All life is sacred. We must stop our corrupted brother before he violates it further." It took the wisdom of the mages, the cunning of the rogue & the might of the warrior to find & capture the renegade. The Druid family gathered around their brother, who was tethered & bound. They had brought him into a large, empty crater of land. As they encircled him, the Druids chanted over and over: Dear brother your oath has been broken Our earthen mother's wrath has awoken You shall do no more harm. You shall cause no more pain. Crann Olcas screamed louder than a banshee. The earth below the shook violently with his anger. As he struggled & resisted the spell being cast against him, his skin began to harden, his bones twist and turn & his screams of rage became those of agony. Crann Olcas had been transformed into that which he corrupted, a tree. His final curse was a storm of seeds that erupted & landed in concentrated spots across the wild. The seeds grew into the short, gnarled trees waiting for orders from their evil general. Knowing there was no stopping the cycle of reproduction: the Druids sealed the concentrated areas into groves where no incantations could be used & cultivated the endless supply of wood. The crater where Crann Olcas cast his last curse was healed by the protection ritual. Since the cleansing, the area known as 'The Sunken Tree' has flourished beautifully with life. The gnarled embodiment of Olcas remains there, unable to violate the laws of nature in his now shiftless form. by Cailleach | |