The Vale of Ghosts and The Spires of History

Spooks on the moors.

File:Vale.png

## **The Vale of Ghosts**

The Vale of Ghosts is a spirit vacuum. Anyone who tries to traverse the region gets possessed. No one lives here.

## A Tragedy of Kindness

Four and a half centuries ago, the Vale of Ghosts was a Traansadooran colony. A practitioner of spirit magic stumbled across a spirit magic sigilsite, the first confirmed discovery of its kind. Sigilsites can grant a mage immense magical powers when aligned to, and mages of the colony came up with a plan. It had been noticed that there were a lot of ghosts in the region, who would occasionally manifest and wander around the moors. The plan was to gather these lost souls, and bind them into new bodies of stone and clay. Being a disembodied spirit probably wasn’t an enjoyable existence, they thought, and they genuinely wanted to give these people new lives.

Their kindness brought catastrophe. The sigilsite was already passively drawing grey spirits to the region. The attempts to channel the sigil site misfired, and the trickle became a flood. The sigil site sucked thousands of ghosts into the region, and then, and in an unfortunate parody of the original intention, forced those ghosts into the bodies of the colonists. And this kept happening, over and over and over. Traansadoor abandoned the region.

## Do Not Enter

It has been centuries since Traansadoor fled the region, and the sigilsite has not stopped. If you enter the Vale of Ghosts, you might get possessed, and if you travel any sort of distance into it, towards the sigil site, you will get possessed. This is total possession, a ghost from some period in history will gain full control of your body. And then, eventually, that spirit will be forced out and another spirit will replace it. It is especially dangerous for ectochoirs to enter the Valenof Ghosts, as this process can expel one of the spirits that was already there.

Spirits within the Vale are drawn into a constant whirling spiral by the sigilsite, almost like a whirlpool. This great gyre is known as the Spiral of Spirits.

If a possessed individual leaves the Vale, it usually dislodges the possessing spirit. Sometimes it doesn’t, leaving that person as a freshly created Ectochoir.

File:The spires.png

## **The Spires of History**

A mountainous, sparsely-populated region, the Spires of History are defined by their proximity to the Vale of Ghosts sigilsite. The Spiral of Spirits, the great flowing eddy of ghosts, passes over the Spires. Far enough away to avoid the Vale’s possession, the inhabitants instead experience an involuntary commune with these spirits. They spend their lives experiencing fragments of the lives of those who have come before.

## The Melding

Living in the Spires means experiencing the Melding, there is no real way to avoid it unless you are constantly setting up complex wards or alchemical countermeasures. It is a soft, quiet process. You’ll go about your day and then the world will begin to change around you, you’ll find your mind comfortably drifting until at some indeterminate point, you are comfortably living out someone elses memory. This is a deeply involved process, you are as much the other person as yourself, and in the warm haze of the Melding, there is no problem with this. And then, in time, you will step out of the memory and return to your life.

The Spire’s inhabitants do not get a lot done. They are content to spend their days stepping in and out of the lives of others, drinking in the rich diversity and depth of experience. They are a relaxed, tranquil bunch. Anyone who was not has left. They live in a mixture of caves, tents and simple huts. The area is forested and lush, and with a little know-how it’s easy for these small communities to avoid dangers and keep fed. It is also home to a number of unusual herbs and berries, which the Spireites use to enhance or deepen their Melding experiences, sometimes sharing the same memory as a whole group.

## The Cavern of Dreams and Death

Deep within the mountains lies a place of great spiritual potency. The Cavern of Dreams and Death is a deep cave with a pool of crystalline water in the center. The pool is fed by a deep spring. If you drink the waters within the Cavern, you die.

The bodies of those who consume the water are preserved, for an Awakened spirit dwells within the cave. The drinker’s soul leaves their body, and has the opportunity for a rare communion, a direct melding with the spirits within the Spiral of Spirits. And sometimes, and only sometimes, the drinker comes back. One of the dreaming dead opens their eyes and lives again, having experienced a spiritual commune beyond words. There are rumors that this commune can go beyond the grey spirits trapped in the Spiral; a communion with a specific Awakened spirit, or even a Worldspirit.

Most do not come back. The floor of the cavern is littered with the perfectly preserved bodies of the dreaming dead, pilgrims and spiritualists, and most of them will never wake up. Sometimes a body will disappear, and no one knows what happens to them. But woe betide any who disturb the dreaming dead before their time. The spirit of the cavern is an active guardian, one of the first victims of the waters. Surprisingly talkative, it takes many forms, depending on the observer, and often a form that in some way impacts them. It warns of the pool's power, and it is utterly dedicated to preserving its sanctity.