The Summit Untarnished

The Summit Untarnished
""Here be dragons.""
Origin	God-From-Stone
Titles	The Unbeholden Reaches, World-Wyrm
Names	Elaya, The Wayward Compass,
Aspects
Date of arrival	The First Dawn(Ancient Times)
Owner(s)	User:a-braid-of-serpents

The Summit Untarnished is a truly ancient Hour, one who has dwelt upon the ancient halls of the Mansus, that humanity knows as the Frontier since the young times that succeded the kindling of the First Glory. A cryptic Hour even among its fellow Wild Gods, the World-Wyrm is often regarded as a god of thresholds, distant lands, and the primal, overwhelming desire to reach them. More recently, as the humans come to understand more and more about the dream-realm that is the Mansus, it has become increasingly asociated with the unknown, half-seen truths or realities, journeys and quixotical pursuits.

In ancient times, the Summit Untarnished was represented in the Elder Fulthark alphabet by the rune Othala.

Description

History

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Appearance

Perhaps, as many scholars of the occult argue, completely on line with the Summit’s nature, the few existing descriptions of the Summit are drapped in allegory and metaphor, and the desciptions tend to lose much in the way of coherence half-way through.

The most common and reliable witness accounts are always narrated as sightings from a distant and privileged viewpoint(such as the ramparts of the Wall): in them, the Summit is always described as a splendid, imposing mountain ridge, standing out against the ambarine Glory-Light, and standing the tallest and the most distant of all, is the eponymous Summit itself. Such a magnificent vista is so wondrous many witnesses have stated it’s tremendously difficult to avert the gaze from the spectacle that is Summit Untarnished.

All attempts to chronicle an approach to the Summit end up losing coherence, and each of these reports invariably contradicts the rest:

One may describe lower reaches of the Summit as a dense, veridian jungle thhriving with life, from where the bases of titanic, stone spire with a vaguely organic appearance rise, while another may claim their journey supposed attempting to traverse a rocky, barren laberynth of stone and sand: and a third may pronounce the first two witnesses as completely wrong and claim it’s a vast of valley of multi-coloured rock, or a fertile basin of criss-crossing rivers and sparkling waterfalls that spring along impossible angles.

There are, however, a few recurring threads that can be salvaged from these wild tales, if one is observant enough: the Summit is always immense in scale, it’s always tremendously difficult to navigate, and nobody l ever leaves it the same person who travelled there.

And there is a single truism all people who have make their lives traversing the Frontier heed, independently of their experiences and worldviews: as dangerous as it is to travel to the Summit most of the time, it’s an utter foolishness to do so while it’s moving.

For in a few rare times, when the Glory-light that illuminates the Frontier shifts, or some unfathomable whim spurs it, the Summit Untarnished begins to move, and it’s full magnificence, habitually hidden to most, comes to full view: mile-long fumes erupt from open jaws, and great eyes, as large and bright as the most beautiful opal, rake their surroundings.

The ponderous movements of such a titanic creature may leave furrows upon the Mansus-stone and topple any nearby constructions, but the true danger of attempting to brave the itinerant Summit lies in the manifold spirits who inhabit it: upon the first shake of the World-Wyrm, they experience frenzy that leads them all around its body, changing and reshaping the surreal landscape the Summit resembles: the outlines of paths are erased, rivers are dried or redirected, and stone spires are toppled to make way for new monoliths. The tremors, sudden landslides and sinkholes created by the labouring spirit guilds make finding a way through the half-changed environment an almost impossible task.

Principles

The distant, unknown lands seen from the deck of a merchant ship, the unexplored, deep caverns and the uncharted island: the Summit Untarnished embodies these things and more, but it also reflects the instinctive desire to seek and search for these wonders that has marked most ages of exploration in the transcurso of the Histories; it’s the dream and the desire for adventure and discovery that beats in the heart of all adventurers, cartographers and naturalist that has ever come aboard a ship bound for distant lands as much as it is the uncharted land itself.

It’s because of it the Summit also holds part of sway over journeys and travels, and the longer and the more difficult these journeys become, the more its influence grows over them: it is beseeched by those who embark themselves on great quests or quixotical ventures, whether literal or metaphorical, to grant them the strenght and skill required to arrive to their destination.

There is another, and much less known facet to the Hour also called the World-Wyrm, and that is its facet as the patron of the lost and homeless: for the ones who have no place to be, the Summit’s blessing grants them a refuge, a shelter from an unkind world in the barely-knownn reaches of the world, until they gain the strenght to carve a place for themselves again.

Worship

Due to it’s ellusive and unusual nature, and the initial confusion and contradicting information that ran free after the initial opening of the Breach, there was some delay until the Summit Untarnished was conclusively identified as full-fledged Hour by the occult institutions in many Histories, instead of a natural phenomenon or landmark connected to the nature of the Frontier.

Even on present times, the Summit Untarnished isn’t as widely revered among Wild Gods’ worshippers as its fellow Hours are, and among these occultist who chose to worship the Summit are divided in two main currents:

Those who worship it ias the Summit Untarnished, the Hour of the unreachable and the distant wonders. These societies are typically formed by artists, poets and romantics who see in the Summit the symbolism of the unspoiled wilderness.

Those who call upon it as the World-Wyrm: these people tend to be initiated further into the ocult mysteries, and are far more proactive than other societies dedicated to this Hour: they are dreamers, idealists and fanatics who often dedicate themselves to quixotic, impossible pursuits.

Cult

Cults of the Wild Gods that take the Summit Untarnished as their main patronare far and in between, and may not have any presence in Histories where the Old Faiths are strongly persecuted. Even if those cults are left to their own device, the nature of their worship leads them to seek isolated, distant regions were they may not have contact with other humans for months at a time.

When they must navigate mainstream society, they typically adopt the fronts of eccentriccartographic societies, environmentalist groups or druidic circles, depending on the nature of the History they have settled in.

Mark

1. Temptation: FNORD:
2. Dedication: FNORD:
3. Ascension: FNORD:
4. Ascension: FNORD:
5. Ascension: FNORD:
6. Ascension: FNORD:
7. Ending: FNORD

The Spirit Guilds

Those daring explorers who manage to make their way towards the reaches of the Summit Untarnished are often cauht off-guard by the dizzying diversity spirits and Mansus-things that make their lair there. Though each kind of entity is visibly different from the one at their side, all of these have offered their allegiance to the Summit, who offers them a refuge from rivals, predators and the attentions of other Hours: in exchange, different groups of spirits, who have been sometimes named “guilds” by scholars of the occult perform tasks important for their patron.

Some of these are so esoterical as to be outside human understanding, but the designs and character of other spirits are much more amiable to humanity, and the wanderlust that infects all things realted to the Summit makes these spirits unusally eager to cross to the Histories: something that makes some of these guilds the favoured summons of occult societies in the Wake.

A Gardener

Gardener

'We have to provide it with plants to prun, or else it grows restless. It has savaged five rosemary pots already. '

8

6

6

Summon one of the Gardeners of the Lower Reaches

The wild, overgrown spirits known as Gardeners prun and cultivate the lush, surreal vegetation that grows at the Summit sides with their sharp claws: if we show a species of plant it doesn’t know, and a strong enough will, we may persuade one to lend its expertise to us. For a time.

Fertile ground and newly-cut grass, these are the scents that herald the Gardener’s arrival: when it appears, its lumbering form half.covered by strange plants, unlike anything we may have seen in the Histories. The Gardener stands with one arm raised mid-swipe, and its great green-gold eyes stare around the room in sedate bewilderment.

4

6

8

A Secret-Eater

Secret-Eater

“Its bright, piercing gaze pauses on each of us at least once, as if it know something we don’t: few can bear to match that gaze for long. Occasionally, it caws its hunger to us.”',

8

8

9

Summon a Secret-Eater of the Guild Of Bones

The Secret-Eaters are the strangest sort of scavenger: in the Mansus, they bite and gnaw and bite at forgotten, unwanted things; the discarded ideas the Hours don’t want in their domain. Over time, they have become partial to a good secret: if we can offer up a juicy enough morsel, and can ward our minds so it doesn’t see us as prey, perhaps one will deign to take care of the things we want gone.

Here it appears, strutting with confidence into the world, its bright eyes looking around with every sign of genuine interest: sharp beaks and even sharper teeth say it was meant to be a predator, but the most striking traits are its feathers, bright red and amber. How can something that feeds upon distasteful things be so colourful?

5

6

6

A Dappled-Hunter

A Dappled-Hunter

'"It stalks around, all sinuous grace and coiled threat.'

Thresher of Thought

10

8

6

Summon a Dappled-Hunter of the Guild Of Jaguars

It’s said there are things lurking in the dark crevasses of the Summit Untarnished, who can eviscerate someone without being seen. If we can offer a bait delightful enough bait, and have the bearings of hunters ourselves, perhaps one may come and join our company, for a time.

It lazily slinks through the crack in the world, it’s form only a vague shape to our eyes, and contemplates us with a surprisingly pensive gaze. The tip of its tail starts to twitch, back and forth. Annoyance, or excitement?

5

6

8

Locations

The Mansus

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The Histories

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Items

Tools

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Ingredients

• Gold-Flecked Moss
  • Aspects: 8 8:

Description: An unusual species of moss that only grows on the most secluded groves, away from the clamor of humanity. It is said, in less than reputable and often-pursued circles, that it only began to grow in the Histories after the Breach.

As a gift: To steep only in pure, boiling mountain water, for a beverage that invigorates, body, mind and soul; To ingest raw, for revelations that shake the pillars of the self.

Influences

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Books

• The Alexander Beastiaries;
  • Description: A volume intended to be a dissertation on the nature of the Summit Untarnished by it’s author, but that’s widely used as a field-guide to the nature and character of the native inhabitants of the Frontier. This copy cover has been visibly scratched and bitten.
  • Start Text: “Alexander” spends the first chapeter building up a theory that states the Hour known as the Summit Untarnished is truly a proto-History “ a seed full of potential visions of the futures to come”, only to contradict himself at the start of the second chapter when he calls the Summit the last renmant of a History of wonders and “things that could not be in any other Histories, and thus was excised by the Hours.”
  • End Text: The following chapters quickly devolve in increasingly detailed descriptions of the different spirits native to the Summit, indicating their disposition, qualities and potential methods to ward them off.
  • Gives: Fascination and Moth Lore(Instensity 6).

Rites

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Relationships

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Secrets

• It is widely known the Summit Untarnished holds many secrets, but a truth much better guarded is that none of its most valuable secrets are its own: The World-Wyrm has been entrusted with many relics and revelations the Wild Gods would rather have forgotten or hidden, and it has served as a relentless guardian ever since.