About Whispertrees

Presumably only few travelers or nature lovers won't have noticed the whispers of the wind in the area of Enderal's Sun Coast. If one pauses for a moment and listens to the chimes of wind, one will catch the feeling of not being alone in the scenery. Superstitious people believe in a legend that the whispering sound, which sound so different from the gloomy breath of the Whisperwood and has its roots in its own tale, of the voice of a path-abiding, young woman, who gave her life at the Sun Coast for the cure of her fellow men.
"Grandfather, grandfather, we are bored, can't you tell us one of your stories again", asked the two little children, as they came excitedly into the house. The grandfather, who sat in front of the lit fireplace, turned around and gave them a smile.
"Gladly, which story do you want to hear today?", he asked and pointed besides him, "Sit down beside me."
"The story about the whispering in the trees at the Sun Coast", said one of the children, while they settled with their grandfather.
"You are talking about the voice of Lariel, aren't you?", he paused for a short moment to gather his thoughts and then continued: "This is a tale, which is already a few centuries old and which my grandfather told me, like I tell it to you now - today we live here at the coast unburdened and secure, but ti wasn't always like that", he furrowed his brow, "once a fatal and unknown sickness ruled here. At first, it only befell the animals and caused them to slowly perish - as if the emerging famine wasn't already bad enough, suddenly also the people in the region fell sick. Apothecary came from the surrounding villages to help the people, but even they weren't able to fight off the sickness.
Then a young woman named Lariel spoke up, one of the few who wasn't stricken with sickness yet: "Let me pray to Malphas, I was path-abiding my whole life, maybe I will be able to bring our lord to a merciful mood, so that he may help us."
Nobody wanted to forbid it, as many had already lost all hope - and so Lariel climbed up a hill, in order to pray there alone in a clearing to Malphas.
Day and night she kneeled there and prayed without cease - she even refused to eat and drink. But there was no sigh from Malphas and every day more people died. However, the woman stayed true to her faith and continued to pray.
After ten daybreaks and nightfalls she eventually died of her thirst.
Then, Malphas had mercy and spoke to the last survivors: "You were to be judged, since you started to forget your path and became pathless, but the sacrifice and faith of the young Lariel made me show you grace. Let her body lie there and come back tomorrow, to this clearing where she prayed to me - there you shall find a small tree and a herb, growing on this tree. Give this herb to your sick, and they shall be healthy again, for that you never again forget your path and my mercy."
The next day the people returned to the clearing and really found a young tree in the same place, where Lariel had kneeled for praying - but no trace of her body. There they realized, that Lariel became the tree.
As they got closer to harvest the herb Malphas spoke about, they heard a bushed whisper, that seemed to come from the tree and was similar to Lariel's voice. The apothecary were able to turn the herb and other ingredients, which had no effect before into a potion to successfully heal the sick. Therefore, they called the tree Lariel and the herb, which grew on it, Whisperweed.
And this is already the end to my tale - and now, of to bed you go, it is quite late", said the grandfather, as he noticed the sun setting behind the horizon. "I can tell you another story tomorrow", he added as he looked into the children's sad faces.
"Hooray", both shouted at the top of their lungs, and ...
This is all I could read out of the old and tattered book, I found at the loiterer. It seems, that it used to be a collection of old legends and tales - if this is the fact, than the validity of this story is to be doubted.
However, fact is: There really was a plague at the Sun Coast several hundreads of years ago, which caused many people to die. It is also fact, that this plague vanished as suddenyl, as it appeared. What remains is the question, what happened to the tree. The soft, windlike whispering cna be heart today, when one waits long enough and listens, everywhere between the trees of the Sun Coast. It can't be linked to one single tree and the clearing with the original tree itself, where the young Lariel sacrificed her life, can't be found anymore.
Even if there were times, where the harvest of the Whisperweed filled wagonloads - today it is very hard to find. Just as fleeting and vagrant as the sound of the whispering itself, moving between the trees, it seems that the mysterious herb grows and decays in our times, so fast, that only selected apothecary and traders are able to harvest it. And the secret to the time and place of the harvest they are keeping under lock and key. But even the adept aren't able to recreate the healing effect from once, from which was once the gift of Malphas' to the suffering people, no matter what ingredients they use.
So you, dear reader, if you are truly interested into the secrets of the herb, you have to search for the Whisperweed yourself, even if you, like so many before you, will most likely only be able ot get wha6t you want for large amounts of coins from the knowledge of insiders.
Category:Enderal: The Shards of Order
Category:Books