| |
Druids of the Old Faith and the Time of the Quieting
What happened was this. These ancient gods, twenty in number with histories reaching
far back in time, disappeared two years after the beginning of the time known as the
Black Scourge. No one knows why, or at least no one claims to. But when the gods
disappeared terrible things began to happen. Many horrible diseases and sicknesses
began to spread out of control without the benefit of the priests divine healing
arts. This included the infamous "Shaking Sickness" which emerged from the jungles
of the Hanois peninsula but quickly spread throughout all lands south of the Cruth
Mountains. Then strange things began to happen. Powerful earthquakes rumbled in the
earth as the power and influence of the Dark God spread, its evil and powerful presence
straining the very foundations of reality.
For priests who gained their power from gods, the experience
was unpleasant. A sudden emptiness was felt within and they suddenly lost all of their
divine spells and powers. Strangely, Taren has never heard her father name one of
the gods of old in reverence or in his teaching Taren the ways of the Druids. Likewise,
she has never seen him practice druidic magic during any time that she was alive.
The druids of old did not worship The Twenty, deriving their
power from the forces of nature. They were extremely secretive of their ways, even more
so than druids who follow Baeast or Illustree, even more than the secretive and elusive
priests of Shistar. It is known that there remains at least one druidic stronghold left
in the world that is still reachable by men without druidic power, Parn'nae, located in
the forests somewhere west of the United Kingdoms. Other strongholds, such as those
which are thought to be hidden in the Arnorian Arbor Vales are so distant and well
protected by magicks that none but the ancient druids and those given permission may
enter or even find them. Since the disappearance of The Twenty there has been no
recorded contact with any of the druids of the old ways, as if they had vanished
completely; but then, mortal record of these elusive woodsmen has always been hard to
find.
Taren was still too young to realize what was going on
when the Quieting came and the gods disappeared. New gods had appeared by the time
that she was five years of age and soon the existance of the old ones were but a
flitting childhood memory.
|
