The Turning of the Wheel of the Goloths
Eyes all across the Basin turned upward near the beginning of Juliary, 322 C.E. as an ominous silver-blue energy flickered across the sky. The bolts of energy met over the Southern Mountains, and the sky seemed to buckle as images from throughout history flashed across the firmament. The images cycled faster as the intensity of the energy increased, culminating in a tremendous crack. The last image to be seen, that of several elfen women running away from a forest under a roiling cloud, flared into brilliant colour before disappearing, and a sense of wrongness settled across the Basin of Life.
Sir Augent Ildaine was the first to arrive, although it wasn’t long before a crowd had gathered at the source of the Gloriana River. There, they found a crackling silver-blue rift and an odd-looking device: the Wheel of the Goloths. While all were puzzling over its meaning and purpose, the five elfen women whose shapes had been writ large across the heavens fell unceremoniously out of the rift in a heap.
After quickly righting herself, self-styled High Seer Helegena Greyshade demanded to know where she was and how she and her fellow Seers of Movran had been brought there. Mostly through her disbelieving protestations and obvious confusion, she revealed that the Seers were members of the Raven Circle charged with interpreting Raven’s prophecies. This small group had been fleeing for their lives.
Upon learning of the destruction of her home hundreds of years previous, her grief quickly turned to ire. At first lashing out in rage at the twisted mockery of what was once her home, she summoned silver birch trees that attacked all those of the Glomdoring. In all the confusion, few noticed as the cries of the harpies in Glomdoring fell unnaturally silent. Meanwhile, members of the Glomdoring fought unflinchingly to defend their forest from the onslaught. As both opinion and the tide of the battle turned against the Seers, they came to believe that the entire scenario was a prophecy from Raven; a test in which they must show their loyalty to the Gloriana through willingness to perish for it. Perish they did.
The temporal rift remained open, however, and the disturbing silver and blue crackling continued. Only upon returning the Seers’ large onyx amulets to the rift did it seal itself.
As the rift closed, silver-blue energy arced into a nearby cave. Anguished cries rang out from within and Jairkak Wyrmglow, a faeling hermit, was discovered inside. Explaining that the temporal damage had destroyed his plants, he nevertheless renewed his efforts towards his life’s work: spreading the Wyrd to the Gloriana River. With a new approach inspired by the temporal activity, and underappreciated assistance from many, including Relaren, Xynthin An’Ryshe and Sidd, Jairkak successfully cultivated an enormous blossom. Growing at the source of the Gloriana, it exuded a wyrden slime that flowed down the river, coating everything. The ramifications of this change in the landscape have yet to be seen, but the trout in the river are already changing.
Thus did the sad tale of the deserting Seers of Movran reach its conclusion. Or did it? The harpies’ cries have returned to the Glomdoring, and the sinister Wheel of the Goloths has settled at the bottom of the Inner Sea. Still, a feeling of unease lingers across the Basin.
