The Monk's Cave
Demesne: Serenity 1
Once, or so the story goes, a bloody-handed general grew sick of war and retreated to a remote cave to meditate on his life. The Weaving Ladies were disquieted by this, for he had been a man on whose shoulders the fate of empires had rested. The Yellow Lady came to him and tried to coax him into seeing the world again, but he refused. The Red Lady reminded him of his many battles and showed him visions of the fall of his empire, but he did not move. The Green Lady offered him knowledge of the traitor who had killed his son, but he put such grief aside. And in the end, the Violet Lady reached out her hand and ended his life. The sisters asked the Blue Lady why she had done nothing, and she reached down and closed his eyes. "He had found peace with who he was," she said, "and that was his destiny."
Perhaps it's just a tale, but there is a cave in the mountains where the walls are covered in blue crystals and the mineral-laden waters drip on a sitting figure, legs still crossed in meditation. The crystals cover him and he resembles a stalagmite. The priests and shrine maidens of the nearby temple leave offerings of flowers, rice and wine in front of the entrance to the cave. They do that just in case he should ever wake, and take up the sword again and lay waste to the landscape as he once did.
The Red Cherry Blossom Bar
Demesne: Battles 2
There are Nexan stories about the greatest card shark to ever walk the earth. They might not agree on his name, but they agree that he stole his skill from Mars herself in a small dusty town. If you trust the Nexans - who are a sacrilegious and disrespectful people - he found the Maiden of Battles when her horse had thrown a shoe and was waiting for the blacksmith. One thing led to another, and they started drinking and playing cards. Now, Mars was used to the refined drinks of Heaven, but couldn't hold the base rotgut that the bar was serving. The card shark tricked her into raising the stakes again and again before revealing he had a Full Dragon and cleaning her out. The man walked away from the bar as the master of all tests of skill and luck and went on to become the subject of many contradictory and often explicit stories told in Nexus and - allegedly - slept with the Empress, three of the Incarna, and the Elemental Dragon of Fire (although the latter story has a punchline about 'a burning sensation' and so shouldn't be taken seriously).
These stories are almost certainly nonsense. And yet there is a bar in a dusty town in the Scavenger Lands, where the cherry trees in the garden are always laden with bright red fruit and which serves fine cherry liqueur, and where card sharks and Gateway players gather for high stakes games. This isn't a place where casual players go. Ledaal Kes has been seen there, as has One Ox and Lu Menra. This obscure little town wouldn't attract the masters of the games of Creation if it was nonsense - would it?
The Whisper Well
Demesne: Secrets 1
Everyone knows not to take water from the whisper well. It's been told things, and you wouldn't want to drink that, would you? Anyway, the water is a dirty green and ivy chokes the stone structure. No one knows how the custom got started, but people from the surrounding villages come to the whisper well and shout things that no one else should know into it. They confess their adultery to it, release their fears, and tell it their hidden hopes. And then they walk away, feeling better about whatever they told it.
The well doesn't forget. Generations of voices echo within it, bouncing off the stone walls of the old well. No one can make out any separate voices, but if you listen to it there's an endless susurration coming out of it. If you did drink the green water, then you'd fall into a stupor and be afflicted by the countless things the well had been told. Maybe you'd go mad if you drank too much. The children think there's a monster down there, living in the well - some kind of dragon. But how would you know? The well doesn't tell its secrets, after all.
The Heath of the Gods
Demesne: Endings 2
Up in the highlands there is a heath covered in heather and gorse that blossoms with bright purple flowers. Voices don't carry here - not properly - and people occasionally find old rusted weapons and old bones when they graze their sheep here. Every year they set fire to the heath and offer it the blood of an ewe and a ram and every year it grows back healthy and strong. Ewes who graze up here have many fine and healthy lambs who grow up big, but die young - as if their lives were compressed by their mother's grazing. As a result, the peasants here always hold a few of their sheep back and keep them away from the heath.
If you trust the tales, this health was where the sheep of the gods once grazed. The shepherd folk who live here don't doubt that the gods keep sheep - after all, they'd say, tapping their noses, how'd the gods get their clothes if they didn't have sheep? 'Tis plain to see. And certainly, there are strange sheep horn-like spiral patterns in the rock, found by boys who go up into the gorse on a dare. People don't disturb the spirals, though - not anymore. The last two boys to do this were found - one of them an old man, the other a babe.
There's an old Shogunate fortress up on the heath, ruined and shattered. The amethysts have fallen out of the walls and the heavy granite walls and dragon-headed statues are eroded and worn. Boys might go onto the heath as a dare, but no one goes near the temple. You can hear the gods talking inside and see armoured warriors patrolling the walls, and no one wants to disturb them. Anyway, the gates are shut and none can pass. There's a hole in the wall, but there is a pile of skeletons and shattered weapons there. Some of the skeletons wear the clothing of the shepherd-folk.
