The Opal Coven

This is a little-known myth, told in the village of Daroe and surrounding villages of the Ama Region on the island nation of Skuok Strax. It describes one of several myths about the origin of the Obelisk Forest.
During the early times of the Age of Misfortune, Skuok Strax was plagued by poor harvests, miscarriages, bad rulers, raised taxes, one by one, more and more, year after year. Everyone hoped and prayed that next year would be better, the next ruler kinder. This wish seemed impossible to see come true. The people had nothing, and still had to give more, work harder, produce more, and could do nothing to change their situation.
All magic users were required to report to the heads of The Guild, the rulers of the mercantile nation, too, which left the common folk without even low-level healers only capable of healing sprained ankles or headaches. The Guild wanted monopoly on this as well, wanted their powers to work for them and their greed, and they worried that if they didn't have control over the magic users, they would band together to overthrow them.
Their worries were well-founded, but they caused the still free magic users to go underground, and band together in secret, plotting exactly what The Guild feared. The Guild thought that the mages would seek to assassinate them, to replace them with people of their choosing, people who would cause the Skuok economy to break under inexperienced hands. That was certainly some of the secret bands' intentions, but not what The Opal Coven had in mind.
The Opal Coven was made up of people forced to flee their homes and seek refuge in deep caverns along the wooded shoreline of the Ama Beach, a rock-covered, steep place that people generally avoided due to the fatality rate in those waters and the Ama Forest above, which was filled with Ama Wolves, dangerous beasts born from wolves and a wizards experiments- or perhaps a trickster dietys prank. The fact that it was a dangerous place, was what drew these magic users to this place, where it was safe, and they could live with their families in peace.
That was all that The Opal Coven wanted, yet that was not something that The Guild wanted to grant them. When The Guild found out that there were magic users hiding in the Ama region, they sent soldiers to it to threaten those left behind in the villages nearby. The Opal Coven were ready to give themselves up, when they learned from an escapee that everyone already had been slaughtered. The Opal Coven would later learn that their villages had been slaughtered from the very beginning, by orders of The Guild.
Enraged with The Guilds actions, and reaching a limit regarding their cruelty, The Opal Coven gathered their knowledge and built a spell that would be able to reach The Guild where they sat in the capital enjoying their lives on other peoples money and misery.
The spell bound the magic users - druids, wizards, sorcerers, bards, clerics, paladins, and many more - together with each other, and with the nature surrounding them. Knowingly, they let it rip them to pieces as black stone sprouted from the earth, winding through the forest. As the storm they had called forth struck lightning into them, their essence charged toward the capital, striking the members of The Guild. The spell didn't kill the members of The Guild, but cast them down and for the rest of their lives immobilised them.
The obelisks in the Ama Forest, spread through it in a strange pattern and impossible to count, are a deep black, with a sheen of dark red that glows in the moonlight. In the Ama Region, it is said that this is the reason why, if any of The Guild turn foul, they will be consumed by illness and eventually perish, completely paralysed. It is said that it is because The Opal Coven still watches The Guild, to ensure nothing like what happened in the Ama Region in the past, would happen in Skuok Strax ever again. It is said that the remnants of The Opal Coven, made up of the descendants of the original members, still live in the Ama Forest, though they don't make themselves known.

Date of Setting

Age of Misfortune