text; un: stormborn

[thebrideoffire]

There is a great deal to discuss. Wrathion has provided much of the news that I have learned, but there are two further pieces of information that I feel is relevant. The last sacrifice to Sanwon was the child of Hyang-Won and Anui. She seems to have been from Waicai and while she moved past her beliefs, it never fully disappeared.

When the volcano started to heat again and it was time for someone to go, she gave her child. He was the last sacrifice. She waited until Hyang-Won was at hunt. When he returned and found his son gone, he was frantic and angry. He disappeared into the woods where a man that Hyang-Tai calls 'the Traveler' followed to calm him. It's not known what was spoken of, but apparently when Hyang-Won returned, he was changed, as were his beasts. They became as they are now. Not creatures of the woods.

Anui was gone and the villages were quiet. I think it may be possible that whatever curses this place is related to that and perhaps to the traveler. He is the reason for the House of Ravens, those that go in but never come out.

It might be possible to find a way to undo this curse, as we have had to undo the curses of ancestors here, but I am not certain how.

I do ask that someone accompany me to the House of Ravens, but only those that may wish to know more. I made a promise that I must fulfill and it may offer more answers.

Comments

un : dappled peals of the parted seas (voice)

[scrapgege]

[Xie Lian is kind of glad this is only voice, and he sounds calm, but the mention of this Traveler, that he has heard called the 'man in white', makes him uneasy. A silhouette dressed in white, bringing both boon and chaos... There might be a slight tremor in his voice.]

The Traveler... could he have been the one to change him? Made him what he is now? We still haven't had any clues as to how these people got to be what they are...

un : dappled peals of the parted seas (voice)

[beitangmoran]

We're working on finding our way inside.

Given what we now know of the Beastmaster, I don't think he likes the place overly much, but this... Traveler seems to have his fingers in many pies, and he can calm him down and was there when he changed into what he is now?

[New target acquired. This Traveler fellow seems to know a lot and manipulate powerful forces.]

What promise did you make?

[thebrideoffire]

That is what I believe. I was given no direct evidence, but the way of the story and the manner that things changed after the child was sacrificed, I believe he is behind it. It seems no coincidence that the traveler went to the woods to find Hyang-Won and then Hyang-Won emerged as he is now.

[thebrideoffire]

I think that he is responsible, though it is hard to say if the malice comes from him or if he meant to offer another type of relief. Hyang-Won seems to now search for the child. The Serpent Woman and the dark waters, those are his attempts to find the boy.

[She's a bit at a loss, knowing little of magic, but all of this feels a little familiar. A bigger curse than the ones they grappled with.]

Hyang-Tai asked me to look for her nephew.

un: white pawn; text

[chosenbylight]

Did they pursue the boy all the way to the House of Ravens? Is that what changed the man Hyang-Won into what we know him to be now? Something in the temple itself?

[thebrideoffire]

I'm not certain the House of Ravens was used for this purpose. From what I understand, it is here because it was Hyang-Won's attempt to change the method of sacrifice and appeasing the volcano.

When Hyang-Won went into the woods, the traveler followed and after, Hyang-Won emerged changed, as were his animals.

un: Black Prince; text

[blackscales]

Is "The Traveller" another term for the White Wanderer? Sounds similar enough to be.  

[thebrideoffire]

Perhaps? I call him the traveler because that is what Hyang-Tai called him.

[chosenbylight]

From what I am now coming to understand, based on Wrathion's conversation with the Huntress, the House of Ravens was the traditional method of sacrifice. I had thought, when the villagers spoke of giving to Brother Sanwon, they meant literally.

I am not certain that giving a child to this temple is a better fate, in the end.

But what does the White Wanderer do, with his tributes? The Beastmaster does not approve of sacrifice, and no wonder after what happened to his son, so it cannot be that.

[blackscales]

I only ask because previous understanding was The White Wanderer established an alternative to the House of Ravens, so it's worth discerning if this is a different take on the same individual or a different individual altogether.  

[thebrideoffire]

I think the Huntress was once Anui and so I don't trust her word. Not if she willingly sacrificed her child. It was to Sanwon that she gave him, when the volcano began to heat. But House of Ravens I doubt was the cause.

It would be only speculation to what the traveler does. Until we see what is at the House of Ravens, it would be guessing.

[thebrideoffire]

It would be the same, but he was simply referred to differently by the seer. I believe this might have come about from whatever happened in the woods.

But this method, it taints the land, I believe. It seems as well the seer was not pleased with the current situation.

[chosenbylight]

I do not know that we can be so quick to judge her, if those were the customs of the village where she was from. While I do not approve of the methods myself... Even now, here in Ke-Waihu, where I understand they are less stringent in their following of the local customs, the people are still deeply superstitious in their beliefs.

The young jeweler, who we rescued from sacrifice himself. He told us that they would always sacrifice to the mountain, just before it began to heat too much. That they have not given it anything for years. How many years, I wonder -- since the White Wanderer offered them their alternative, perhaps?

[blackscales]

Then that individual, as I understood it, offered a cure -- the cure that becomes the black water when it melts. And that individual disliked The House of Ravens, stood up alternative shrines, and offered alternative methods to that sacrifice -- for Waicai worshipped at the House of Ravens who offered tribute to the volcano, Sanwon. You believe what we have been told until now to be incorrect?  

[thebrideoffire]

She lived in this village content and without participating in such actions. To give away one's child? I care not if this was once her custom, she did not follow it in this village. She knew she did wrong when she sent that child away while her husband was gone.

Perhaps. That apparently seems to be the case. Though they seem eager for other methods.

[thebrideoffire]

The black water belongs to the Beastmaster. It is related to the Serpent woman, I believe. She searches for the child for the Beastmaster, created for that purpose.

I believe that there has been an injustice done and because of pain and grief, the land suffers. I think as well someone took advantage of that situation and tainted this place. I do not trust the traveler or the Huntress.

[blackscales]

That is decidedly at odds with everything we understand. Well, beyond the serpent woman searching for a child. 

[thebrideoffire]

It is what the Seer told me.

[blackscales]

Recall carefully exactly her words. The same Seer told Anduin The White Wanderer provided the cure, and the dark waters followed it -- which we have confirmed is due to the heat melting it. I have personally experienced this. 

[thebrideoffire]

Her words exactly that the Beastmaster went to the woods, the traveler was there and the Beastmaster came back changed. The current cure came about then. The dark waters are unrelated to this matter and the Serpent Woman searches for the child.

I do know that the Seer was worried about the Beastmaster hearing the conversation.

[blackscales]

That reads to me as if the White Wanderer is the person she spoke of. That he brought the cure and perhaps made a deal with the Beastmaster, which resulted in his change. Maybe the cure and the alternative to the sacrifice he lost his son to were in exchange for something, something that changed the Beastmaster. Hyang-Tai previously specifically said the cure they were offered had 'depowered' after the heating caused by the volcano, so perhaps she meant they were unrelated to the serpent woman searching for her child?

[thebrideoffire]

You state exactly what I believe as well. I must confess, I feel a great deal of sympathy for Hyang-Won. I wish to help him somehow. What has happened to him, it was born out of grief and rage. Another took advantage of that.

Now that magic has corrupted him, his actions are beyond his former self.

[blackscales]

Given that the cure he offered turns to dark water when heated, and dark water makes a mirror in the volcano, if a deal was made with the White Wanderer for both it would make sense he put the dark water there as some sort of alternative way to placate the volcano in place of Waicai's House of Ravens. The same thing serving two functions: crop renewal and holding back the volcano. It seems as if for the villages it had mostly worked apart from when the heat was too much, however the Beastmaster does appear to have paid a price if his change was a result -- and now obviously the result wears thin. It has only lasted a few years, it wasn't permanent.

[thebrideoffire]

I know that we are looking for a means to placate the volcano and to mitigate this magic. I wonder though, could we help the Beastmaster? Turn him back to the man he was?

[blackscales]

If this entire place is destroyed by a volcano I doubt placation would do him any good.

The obvious solution would be to help him search for his son, however if his son is dead no doubt he'll be even more upset upon finding out. We cannot know either way until the house opens.

Undoing what was done to him, however, requires understanding what was done. We may need the White Wanderer for that. His shrines did help resist the Beastmaster's power. Perhaps there's a root there to helping restrain him, at the very least, if not undo what was done. Equally, water from Ke-Waiar helps when drunk. The signature felt the same to me, touched by the White Wanderer. Drinking some might help him, or it might undo him entirely -- all I know is it wards his gifts in others.