Ethiss-Tal, the Ever-Rooted
Ethiss-Tal, the Ever-Rooted
Aliases: The Root-Queen, The Verdant Choke, Seed of Endless Hunger Status: Dormant, Bound Beneath the Old World’s Forests Domain: Overgrowth, Biological Corruption, Parasitic Evolution Location of Last Known Activity: Subterranean Veins Beneath VirondiaAmong the Harbingers who once bled their malice into Alathor’s fertile heart, none evokes such primal dread as Ethiss-Tal, the Ever-Rooted. For Ethiss-Tal does not seek swift destruction—but eternal, relentless suffocation beneath a tide of devouring green.
Origins and the First Sprouting
Ethiss-Tal’s origin lies in a universe abandoned by its gods, left to rot and fester. Over uncounted eons, life there became its own tyrant—unchecked, ravenous, mutating endlessly until forests strangled mountains and vines bled rivers dry. Born of this cancerous wilderness, Ethiss-Tal became its apotheosis: a queen not of life, but of life run wild, merciless and unbound. When the Harbingers came to Alathor, Ethiss-Tal did not seek to annihilate the Mother’s creation, but to commandeer it, forcing the living world to devour itself and rebuild in her monstrous image.The Verdant Choke
Ethiss-Tal’s corruption is insidious, beautiful, and horrifying: Seed-Borne Infiltration: Her influence spreads first as innocent growth—flowers, vines, forests—that conceal monstrous hunger beneath their lushness. Parasitic Evolution: Creatures touched by her spores mutate grotesquely, becoming extensions of her will: mobile trees, carnivorous blossoms, sentient brambles. The Rootmind: Every plant and beast she twists becomes part of a singular consciousness, expanding ever outward, seeking more to bind and consume. Ethiss-Tal offers no mercy—only the promise of eternal, strangling union.Tales and Warnings
Scattered across Alathor are grim parables about her reach: The Grove of Bleeding Bark: In Virondia’s heartlands, a cursed thicket grows where hunters vanish without a trace, and the trees drip crimson sap that smells of fear. The Silent Bloom: Yeorian scholars warn of pale flowers that grow overnight on graves—flowers said to mark souls subsumed into Ethiss-Tal’s Rootmind. The Choking Season: Legends tell of an ancient era when entire cities were swallowed in a single spring, overwhelmed by roots that rose faster than armies could march.Current Status
Though defeated in the ancient conflicts by the Stewards and mortal heroes, Ethiss-Tal was not truly destroyed. Instead, she was driven deep beneath the surface of Alathor, bound within a slumbering tangle of roots and spores beneath Virondia’s oldest forests. Yet her dreams still leak upward—fertilizing strange mutations, breathing life into forgotten seeds, and whispering through the leaves to those who have grown disillusioned with mortal civilization. Some druids and wildfolk, knowingly or not, carry fragments of her will, venerating nature’s fury without understanding that they serve not life’s flourishing, but its ultimate tyranny. If ever the Rootmind awakens fully again, Alathor will find itself not scorched by flame... but buried alive in verdant horror.
Children
