truthflintspark

[truthflintspark]

Truth stepped through the veil between worlds, a fabric that couldn’t be seen until gently applying pressure with his fingertips. To Truth it looked like stepping into a painting, or out from one. It was a world that drew closer and closer until suddenly, one found themselves standing inside of it. A perplexing experience that the young Cleric felt he may never grow used to.

He was back in Silvermoon now, just an hour gone and yet everything had changed. The buildings which he knew to be damaged and cluttered with old rubble were now repaired, clean, and lived in. The streets were no longer desolate or as singularly roamed with by the lone Sin’dorei or two, but rather filled with many blue-skinned elves touring the lanes alongside them.

As strange as everything was, the look on his own face must have been just as; for it garnered several lingering eyes as Truth eased his way through the bustling streets toward the Spire. The whole walk there he wondered whether he had truly made it home or not, if it was possible to have entered some strange alternate version of it instead? It wasn’t the same, and as he approached the Spire he heard a voice calling his name from the fountain.

“Ru’un! Could that really be you?” The voice said, causing Truth to turn and regard him.

The initial image of the young acolyte, his age roughly, drew no recognition from him. There was something familiar about him though, but whatever it was; Truth couldn’t immediately place it.

“Maybe. Do I know you?” Truth asked hesitantly, not wanting to offend or ask, but needing to risk anyway.

“I should hope so, we were in the same class! Say, what ever happened to you? Belore, I thought you had gone off to the Broken Shore, never to be seen again.” Laughed the Acolyte in a persisting tone of embarrassment.

Truth boggled. “Dar’reth?”

Several things hit the Cleric all at once. He knew this Acolyte, or at least another version of him. This version was a full foot taller and just as much older.

“I don’t understand, I was only gone a few hours at most-“ Truth began frantically. Dar’reth stopped him by taking hold of his shoulders and shaking his own head in grim, incredulous alarm.

“Ru’un… That was 10 years ago.”

[truthflintspark]

Redux:

A map I’ve done of the ‘Verdant Dream.’ As a alternate universe of sorts to Azeroth, the geography itself is very reminiscent of it although mirrored. The eastern continent of which the elves call home is very much shaped like Kalimdor, although is much more lush. The western landmass is rended in two, but is very similarly shaped to Kalimdor, albeit frozen in the north and heavily forested in the south.

I made a map of Truth’s mind world.

^^=

[truthflintspark]

The Way Home

On the very edge of the frozen sea is a long forgotten temple. The temple was forged from ice, stone, and lightning by Prince Cerulon himself. As it was one the seat of the planet’s deity, the Sky Elves were naturally drawn to its abundant magical energies. 

Although the technology to travel through the portal here has been destroyed on their side, the portal to return home still remains operational. This one way trip is the only means of returning home for those brave enough to come to this desolate planet in the first place.

[truthflintspark]

Beyond Here lies Nothing

A small look at ‘Cerulean,’ a frozen moon that orbits the Verdant Dream.

It can be accessed via a waygate in the frozen north, and is completely under control of the beastly creatures that call the moon their home. First erected by the Sky Elves of the past, the Forest Elves have no knowledge about this device, as they seldom ever venture from the safety of the trees.

This doesn’t stop the large and horned creatures from traveling south however. Ever since they’ve established a foothold through the gate in the northern tundra, attacks and raids on supplies come nearly every month.

[truthflintspark]

[truthflintspark]

Children of the Stars

Truth had passed through the gardens twice a day, every day for the last few weeks now. He’d been in contact with a Tauren Druid who had been studying the Sin’dorei approach to nature.

She was a member of the Horde to be sure, but greater than that she explained her calling led her to join the Cenarian Circle, and order of Druids based out of Moonglade in northern Kalimdor.

Truth wasn’t very interested in the order or in her study of his peoples’ plants. He was however, interested in speaking to the Kal’dorei Druid she said could arrange a meeting with.

“Fair child, you say you visit the Emerald Dream in your sleeping hours?” She had asked, a tone of disbelief and slight concern. She had a deep yet gentle voice, and Truth was grateful she spoke Thalassian well.

“No, not exactly... it’s hard to explain.” Truth wasn’t sure where to begin, or even if she’d even believe him if he did.

“I dream of a place... It looks like another world, and there are elves... but they are not Sin’dorei— Look, I know this sounds strange.”

She lifted her large furry hand and waggled her three fingers before him, gesturing for him to slow down.

“I cannot speak for what these dreams may mean, but I sense within you a strong tie to nature. That is without doubt.” The Druid said with warmth in her voice.

Truth observed the tents and tables she had set up and exhaled tensely before walking away. If she didn’t return by the end of the week he would stop returning. He knew in the back of his mind though that this was one of his last chances to find some answers.

“The child of the Sun.” Stated a low and soothing voice from behind.

Truth turned and saw both the Tauren and the Kal’dorei standing in the passway into the garden district.

They had come after all.

It was time for some answers.

[truthflintspark]

The Portal of Summer

Behind the church is a gated off area. One that had long ago been the sole reason in the elves choosing this part of the forest as their new home. Few of even the village leaders are permitted here, and fewer still are aware of what lay forgotten there.

It is an ancient device, one that to this day still reverberates with a most old and natural magic. It would look to the unversed elf to appear as two simple pillars of warm stone rising out of the earth. These pillars each held two short surfaces of which recently, began to glow with a particular color. Between the two pillars was a space wide enough for two elves to walk through, and listening close enough in that spot; one tends to hear song-like laughter.

Just before the pillars is a plaque carved in stone. It depicts four keystones hidden away in various lands across the continent. Roughly transcribed by the church; it also promises that to whomever shall return the keystones will be granted passage home.

Whether or not this referred to returning to Azeroth or of the forest elves and their fabled city in the sky, Truth knew that finding these keystones was the first step in his journey home.

[truthflintspark]

The Witch

Truth wandered through the forest for what felt like hours. He discovered a glen that was blocked by gelatinous green spores and a mine that was teeming with webbed Kobolds. This was the southern part of the forest, and her lair was somewhere nearby.

After passing several bone ornaments hanging from the trees, Truth began to notice a pink fog begin to drift along the path ahead. Brushing forward through rotten bushes and over several fallen trees, he came upon a large clearing.

The dark woods opened up into a vast clearing with giant mushrooms, fields of lush fruit and berries, and a pink haze that seemed to radiate out from a large hut with purple glass windows and a billowing chimney.

If the child from Lightwood was spirited away here, Truth could certainly see why. Yet underneath this surreal mask, he could sense something impossibly sinister about.

Deciding to return with help, Truth turned around in time for everything to go black in one swift woosh...

[truthflintspark]

The Darkwood Forest

He pushed open the large metal gate with slight trepidation after feeling the skeleton key click into place. Inside the base of the tree was a peculiar clearing. One where beautiful green grass met that of gnarled brown twigs and dense green foliage. To Truth, it appeared that the end he’d come from was flourishing with life, while the path he walked led him into death and decay.

Darkwood was a forbidden place, one that no elves would set foot in from fear of the man beasts who lived here. And although Truth feared them too, he had no choice but to pass through here in search of the other keystones. 

In mere minutes of stepping out on the other side of the tree did the world around him darken. It was almost as though night had fallen prematurely, and the owls in the trees above began to hoot and stir the leaves. Unlike Lightwood, there was no gentle hum of sunlight through the canopies, no fauna. There was only the steady crackling of falling leaves, crickets, and a haunting moan that carried through the trees.

Standing before two paths, Truth veered left.

[truthflintspark]

The Gate

Upon reaching the southern edge of Lightwood, Truth found himself standing before an old iron gate at the base of a very large tree. The gate was beautiful. Vines bursting with white flowers and butterflies coiled around the chipped metals, and in the center was the most peculiar lock Truth had ever seen. At a glance it looked like a keyhole in the shape of a butterfly... Yet the longer he stared, the more he thought it to resemble a skull.

According to the elves who worshipped the spirits of the forest, this was considered a holy place. Not only did it encompass the border in which the forest of Lightwood merged with that of Darkwood, but it also had once served as the only passage between the two.

Knowing this gate was his only way forward, Truth knew he’d have to begin the search for the Skeleton key.

[truthflintspark]

Lightwood Elves

The elves of Lightwood Forest - named as ‘Forest Folk’ - are physically quite similar to their Azerothian counterparts, the Sin’dorei. They have elongated ears, slender forms, and expressive brows. The one key difference is that Lightwood Elves boast almost no magical abilities. Instead, these elves make good huntsman when armed with either a bow or an axe. 

Revering nature above all else, these peaceful creatures revere the spirits of the forest and the bounty that they provide them. It is said their eyes glow green to signify their attunement to nature.

Naturally, they call Lightwood Forest their home, but have only done so as far back as the last generation. Originally hailing from the southern woods, these refugees fled north to escape the bloodthirsty beasts that they claim had besieged their homeland.

Now they seek to rebuild their homes and begin again in these new lands. Facing the brink of extinction, these elves tend to be weary of outsiders, and do not betray their secrets easily.

[truthflintspark]

Sunflower

This field of sunflowers was unlike any he’d ever seen before. They were tall, taller than he and dusty with pollen and teeming with strange insects. Nature was thriving here despite the long shadows cast by the forest surrounding it. He speculated that had something to do with the suspended orbs of sunlight floating there in the field.

He was already sweating, and the immense heat radiating from within did nothing to aid the sense of claustrophobia the green stalks purveyed. With great discomfort, Truth stepped into the meadow.

[truthflintspark]

The Verdant Dream

He stepped out of the darkness and into the space between Light and Shadow. It was a beautiful place, holy even, and the elves who lived in this world knew better than to come here.

He faced the clean iron gate that all but contained the vibrant plant life behind it. Brilliant yellow light and orange spores poured out through the bars and Truth could barely stand to witness it.

Shielding his eyes, he turned around and stumbled forward.

Behind him was a broken fence and rusted gate. It was entwined with dry branches and grey grass the shot up from the cold earth beyond it. The quiet fall of leaves falling from the trees filled his ears and in the distance he heard a woeful moaning.

This realm, he realized, was not just a foreign land - but a projection, a symbolic dream that reflexed his own mind right back at him.

Slowly, Truth backed into the shadows and opened his eyes. He would have confide in someone. With sweat running down his temples he pulled himself out of bed and began to dress.

[truthflintspark]

Sawmill

Located in the southern glades of Lightwood Forest is an isolated sawmill belonging to one grumpy old hermit. As the only mill of the elves who migrated here, it once supplied all of the lumber for the village’s early construction. It also serves as an alternative route to Darkwood to the west, although he seems to have blocked the tunnel with a very large tree!

With the local Kebolds filling nearly every other route with stone barricades, gaining access to the mill’s saw and tunnel is crucial to outside travel.

[truthflintspark]

The Outside Forest

As the moon looms ever closer over the lands of the elves, strange creatures have began appearing in this once peaceful region. 

With the danger of formerly docile creatures turning feral, and of poisonous spores now spawning several toxic glades across the wood; The village of Lightwood has since chosen to close up their gates.

A few savvy elves, however , still find ways to travel outside of the village.

[truthflintspark]

Breaking Boundaries

Breaking Boundaries

Truth knew that reality was a fragile concept here, that not everything was meant to make sense so much as it was constructed to look as though it did. Several times he paused to examine his surroundings, truly seek out any flaws in what he was seeing.

The forest itself wasn’t an actual forest, he found. It was more of an enclosed structure made to resemble the real thing. Sure the trees were ‘real’ and the animals and fauna inside vibrant and alive, yet it was all fabricated and bound by some strange storybook logic. Any attempts he made to stray from the paths lain out before him were met with foggy barriers and trees that fused together like wooden walls just out of the clear boundaries.

Ordinarily you couldn’t see these things, not if you weren’t looking for them.

And these things frightened him, and he wondered constantly what the inhabitants of the forest might say if he voiced his concerns.

So naturally he kept his findings to himself, paying no mind as to how he couldn’t simply divert himself around the gaseous root clogging that one hallowed log, or how abrupt the forest changed from cheery to decrepit and rotten. These were just the sort of things he had to adapt to, in the same way that he couldn’t use magic in this place or how his addiction to fel energy had vanished entirely here.

Still, he wondered what might happen if he broke these boundaries?

[truthflintspark]

Bloodthirsty

Bloodthirsty

He stepped out into the clearing with careful steps. There were flowers of orange and yellow scattered along the path ahead. He could hear the birds chirping to life and feel the heat of the sun shining down through the branches at him. Shielding his eyes, he made out a small chapel overrun with vines and boarded up with now rotting wood. It looked similar to the buildings in the hamlet he had just been in, and so he knew that nobody would be alive in there.

Sensing he must go in, Ru’un proceeded with great caution. He knew that he couldn’t allow the peaceful atmosphere put him at ease this far from the Faerie Circle.

He crept up the rotten steps and into the old structure. There were long forgotten and broken pews shewn about, broken boards and shelves, remnants of glass… And at the far end he saw a pillar of light streaming down through a cracked section of ceiling. He glanced back, considering where he had come from… Then pressed further in.

A white butterfly fluttered by his face as he approached the end of the aisle where some kind of memorial had been made.

From the furthest to his left were old and decaying bouquets, appearing as nothing more than frayed stems. As he sought down to the right; the placements looked much more fresh, ending with a bouquet of orange and yellow flowers.

Truth pulled his hands into his lap and crouched on his ankles, observing the skeleton lying there in the natural spotlight. It was a small frame, delicate even, and posed in a way that might have been how one slept.

Behind him, Truth heard the sound of a wooden pew moving. His eyes moved to the glassy window before him and saw a black-haired man seated in the corner.

“A..Ah!?!” Truth cried out, his chair making the same exact noise as he awoke from his dream. He was in class, and everyone was staring at him.

Exhausted, he simply brought his forehead down and allowed his fist to drop against the wood.