Kavarnisos

Kavarnisos is a barren and stormbeaten islet off the western tip of Ziemzia Nichlya, marking the first bounds of the northern and southern Gravel Straits. Once commonly known by the Sevnóni as Dlyarezlba (Imperial Wythian: Scalp Splitter) and for centuries informally called Strovkoldov (IW: lit. "Witch-Men Isle") by superstitious sailors, Kavarnisos has been home to few small buildings in its history. Rare is the structure that lasts, for life lived upon the isle is lonely and harsh. Today, faith keeps a scattered sect of heretical Lostekedes together, battling out a meagre existence upon its barren cliffs.

Description

Only mildly warmed to slight hospitability in summer, most of the year moist winds from the north whip up dense freezing hoarfog, which perpetually cloak the islet. It has cliffs in all directions, with only a slight whisp of a beach on one side, comprised of small black gravel. From the beach, a confident hiker can pick their way up the cliffs, though on all other sides the ascent is near suicidal. Atop the cliffs, a sparse covering of hardy grasses grow, enough to support a handful of grazing animals. No trees grow on the islet. A few small caves have been beaten into the cliffs by the waves, which have been known to temporarily harbor castaways or smugglers, though the islet's grim reputation keeps all but the brave or desperate away.

The Hagiography of Kavarnos

Kavarnos the Preacher was a heretical Lostekedes who lived centuries ago and was arrested for inciting riots with raucous and radical sermons. He notoriously broke free from imprisonment in an Aparnovosi garrison, and ran into the city's harbor, commandeering a small but seaworthy vessel which he sailed north, with other Aparnovosi vessels in hot pursuit to prevent his escape. According to highly contested and conflicting accounts, Kavarnos is said to have sailed the vessel singlehandedly, settling to his knees and chanting in prayer as the ship adjusted course and moved by its own accord. Skeptical officials and historians claim he was instead borne across the sea by a small crew of devoted followers, who worked the vessel as he prayed. He chanted for weeks straight as he was chased northward, either said to have never stopped to sleep, or having continued to chant as he slept. This chase through the straits of Wythe was finally cut short as Kavarnos's pursuers witnessed the vessel beach on Dlyarezlba, as it was known to the Sevnóni at the time. The men chasing Kavarnos found him dead and alone on the beached ship, keeled over, his hands still locked in prayer. Never quite a popular figure in his time, in death Kavarnos's teachings were put to parchment and disseminated, where they found renewed notoriety and mystique, manifesting in the foundation of a small monastic order which constructed the original skete upon the isle, rechristening it Kavarnisos in honor of the dead preacher's martyrdom. For a short time, crude wooden icons of Kavarnos even found their way into the homes of the common people. But in the long years since, Kavarnos has become a name known only to scholars of obscura and theological historians, and the population of the skete has slowly dwindled, now consisting of no more than 8 monks.

The Skete of Kavarnos

Squatting on the edge of the cliffs lies a battered and ruined shadow of a monastery. The usual whitewashed walls are replaced by fissured and gritty clay mixed with gorse sod, coated with powdered shell. Dusty and cracked stained glass windows are framed in salt lashed wood, and vibrant red tile is replaced by grim, grey and flaking shale. Doors and mundane windows are made of roughly spaced planks, with scraps of canvas or braided grasses nailed to the back to seal the cracks and keep out the wind.

The Shrine

In the heart of the Skete lies a shrine commemorating Kavarnos, built out of a collection of driftwood, some carved, some left as they were found, artfully arranged to form a naked statue of Kavarnos in his moment of maytrdom, kneeling chanting with eyes half closed. It is believed the driftwood that is occassionally found upon the cliffs and beaches are fragments from Kavarnos's vessel, and thus hold a measure of his divine power. The work is rough, and low on detail, but the dynamism and movement of the piece holds a certain brutal sophistication, and impassioned monks have even claimed to have seen the shrine move or stand. The wooden statue is frequently washed with gentle reverence, before being draped with the finest silks and cloths available to the monks of the islet.

A Poor Reputation

Superstitious Sevnóni sailors avoid Kavarnos and its monks, whispering in hushed tones of bargains made with Sorník to gain unnaturally long lives, paid for in chanted curses directed at ships passing through the straits, calling waves to drive ships into rocks, and coaxing the chilling breath of the King of the Abyss into a beguiling mist. It is said those who drown at the monk's behest are cursed to fall directly into Sornik’s domain with no chance at intercession at the hand of Myrvûs.
Aparnovosi merchants hold scarcely better opinion of the skete, most Lostekedes have little good to say about the deceased Kavarnos and his followers, and the monks of the islet have been known to aggressively communicate their desire for solitude to those Aparnovosi who seek them out. Perhaps influenced in part by the aforementioned tall tales spread by the Sevnóni, many Aparnovosi merchants are afraid of being cursed by the vengeful spirit of the dead saint, invoking icons, warding gestures, and chanted prayer to disperse heretical patterns of divinity cultivated by the monks of the isle when passing through the Gravel Straits.

Population

8

Owning Organization

Lostekedes