The Hollow Stag
The Hollow Stag is not a mere beast—it is a harbinger, a guide, or a curse, depending on the stories whispered around fire-lit gatherings.
- The Lost Pilgrimage – Those who see the Hollow Stag often feel compelled to follow it, as if entranced by its spectral glow. However, those who do never return.
- Fog Walker – The Stag is always shrouded in fog, and wherever it walks, the mist thickens, warping time and space. Paths once known become strange, twisted, and endless, leading travelers deeper into oblivion.
- The Silent Sentinel – It never speaks, never makes a sound, yet its mere presence instills unease and reverence. Animals fall deathly silent in its wake, as if paying homage—or hiding in fear.
- The Fungal Trail – In rare cases, those who break free of its thrall recall following its trail of glowing spores—but the memories are always fragmented, as though their minds had been tampered with.
To see the Hollow Stag is to stand at the threshold of something unknowable. Those who follow it are never seen again—but those who resist are often left forever changed, haunted by dreams of glowing fungi, endless fog, and the soundless steps of something watching them in the dark.
Physical Description
Body Features
The Hollow Stag is a spectral, haunting figure, often glimpsed wandering through mist-laden forests, bogs, and ancient ruins. It resembles a skeletal deer, yet its bones are wrapped in ghostly, glowing fungi that pulse with a faint, eerie light. The fungi sprout from deep within its hollowed ribcage and along its spine, casting long, spectral shadows as it moves.
- Size & Build – Roughly the size of an elk, its frame appears fragile yet unnervingly intact, as though death has no true claim over it.
- Eyes – Or rather, the lack thereof—its empty sockets flicker with an unnatural luminescence, drawing the gaze of those who dare meet them.
- Antlers – Blackened and twisted with decay, its antlers drip with strands of spectral mist, said to be the essence of lost souls.
- Movement – It moves without sound, its hooves barely disturbing the earth. Some say it does not walk at all but instead glides through the mist as if untethered from the world.
Personality Characteristics
Representation & Legacy
No single tale fully explains the Hollow Stag, but many attempt to.
- The Guardian of the Forgotten – Some say it is the soul of an ancient king, cursed to lead the lost into the realm of the dead. The fungi growing upon it are the remnants of those it has guided, their memories feeding the spectral glow.
- A Creation of the Fae – Others claim it is a trick of the fae, a phantom lure meant to ensnare foolish wanderers and drag them into an unseen world.
- A Manifestation of the Forest’s Grief – One legend tells of a once-proud stag slain unjustly by hunters, only to rise again, not as flesh, but as the vengeance of the wilds themselves. The Hollow Stag now seeks out the greedy, the lost, and the cruel, leading them into a place from which they can never return.
Social
Contacts & Relations
Many hunters, scholars, and mystics have sought to unravel the nature of the Hollow Stag.
- Undying Curse – Some believe the Hollow Stag cannot be harmed, as weapons simply pass through its hollow form or shatter upon its glowing ribs.
- A Test of Will – The truly strong-willed can resist its pull, though they report visions of ancient places, voices whispering secrets long forgotten.
- A Way to the Beyond? – Some theorize the Hollow Stag is not a predator but a guide, leading only those who already belong to the land of the dead—even if they do not know it yet.
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