The Covent Creature that once stalked the Gailish Barrows of northern Gailen went by many names during its undisputed primacy over the misty and boggy region, The Great Black wolf, Yogriffs vengeance, Firinus, but in reality it had not one name, but many.
For the Covent Creature was born from the collective malice of a group of exiled Druidic healers from Pririo, an ancient order that had been keeping the populace in good health, driven away by the encroaching influence of the Antramarians, and fear of the convent regarding their "unnatural" power.
The Exile may as well have been self imposed, as the Druid women found life in the dark brush and bog to hone and focus their already powerful natural abilities, but with none to heal they began to search inward for much stranger, older forms of druidic Magus.
It was after the Anguish of Yogriff, when the Antramarians invaded, and all of Gailen felt the agonizing sting and rage of the betrayal they had suffered, that this Covent found a renewed purpose, to ensure the Empire never entered their homeland, even if it would cost them everything.
They returned to Pririo, asking for those who would give their lives to defend Gailen to come with them. They received a respectable number of volunteers, but perhaps what these men did not know was the manner in which their sacrifice would manifest.
These men though they were to die heroically in the desperate defence of the front perhaps, but in reality the women of the covent had other plans. These men would be offered in a great pyre, fuel to complete a great and terrible invocation.
That night, for hundreds of miles across Gailen and even in Gimson, the skies were stained a dark crimson, and the faint wails of the unwitting sacrifices could be heard on the wind.
Birthed from that night of horror emerged the Covent Creature, it was a being made up seemingly of living shadow and dark flame,vaguely a wolf in form it was a twisted mass of pure ethereal, invulnerable to any blade, but quite capable of ripping a man in the finest armor apart.
The cost of this menacing feral guardian of the deep bog, apart from those men burned alive, was that the Covent had all entered a deep slumber, their collective consciousness sustaining the beast at the cost of their own.
This would begin the reign of the Covent Creature, the sole tyrant over the Gailish barrows for nearly 3 Ages. Occasionally the tales of the beasts relentless furocity would be foolishly equated to rumor, now and then Smana or Imro would dispatch a force to attempt to clear the area, none of who would return, or those that did, half mangled and driven utterly mad in terror.
The Beast would finally be killed, ironically enough, by a Gailish woman, a breadmaker who's family had been slaughtered by the creature while settling unknowingly too close, and that was the problem, having been sustained on rage for so many years the Covent Creature had stopped caring about the distinction between Gailish and Antramarian, no longer a protector, it was simply another beast to be put down.
And so this woman, using Druidic magic to take the form of a nimble and silent deer, found the cavern in which the now rotting, but alive, witches lay, still trapped in the horror they had created to attempt to protect their homeland.
The Gailish girl silently slit their throats, and the piercing cry of the Creature could be heard in the far distance, and then the bog was silent once more.
The Druid girl would still hold dominion over much of the bog for a time, befriending a pack of modest and ordinary black wolves to keep the fear of the Covent Creature alive and the Antramarians far from her bog, but she too would eventually fall in her later years, and the Gailens and the Antramarians would begin to slowly trickle back into the silent barrows.
For the Covent Creature was born from the collective malice of a group of exiled Druidic healers from Pririo, an ancient order that had been keeping the populace in good health, driven away by the encroaching influence of the Antramarians, and fear of the convent regarding their "unnatural" power.
The Exile may as well have been self imposed, as the Druid women found life in the dark brush and bog to hone and focus their already powerful natural abilities, but with none to heal they began to search inward for much stranger, older forms of druidic Magus.
It was after the Anguish of Yogriff, when the Antramarians invaded, and all of Gailen felt the agonizing sting and rage of the betrayal they had suffered, that this Covent found a renewed purpose, to ensure the Empire never entered their homeland, even if it would cost them everything.
They returned to Pririo, asking for those who would give their lives to defend Gailen to come with them. They received a respectable number of volunteers, but perhaps what these men did not know was the manner in which their sacrifice would manifest.
These men though they were to die heroically in the desperate defence of the front perhaps, but in reality the women of the covent had other plans. These men would be offered in a great pyre, fuel to complete a great and terrible invocation.
That night, for hundreds of miles across Gailen and even in Gimson, the skies were stained a dark crimson, and the faint wails of the unwitting sacrifices could be heard on the wind.
Birthed from that night of horror emerged the Covent Creature, it was a being made up seemingly of living shadow and dark flame,vaguely a wolf in form it was a twisted mass of pure ethereal, invulnerable to any blade, but quite capable of ripping a man in the finest armor apart.
The cost of this menacing feral guardian of the deep bog, apart from those men burned alive, was that the Covent had all entered a deep slumber, their collective consciousness sustaining the beast at the cost of their own.
This would begin the reign of the Covent Creature, the sole tyrant over the Gailish barrows for nearly 3 Ages. Occasionally the tales of the beasts relentless furocity would be foolishly equated to rumor, now and then Smana or Imro would dispatch a force to attempt to clear the area, none of who would return, or those that did, half mangled and driven utterly mad in terror.
The Beast would finally be killed, ironically enough, by a Gailish woman, a breadmaker who's family had been slaughtered by the creature while settling unknowingly too close, and that was the problem, having been sustained on rage for so many years the Covent Creature had stopped caring about the distinction between Gailish and Antramarian, no longer a protector, it was simply another beast to be put down.
And so this woman, using Druidic magic to take the form of a nimble and silent deer, found the cavern in which the now rotting, but alive, witches lay, still trapped in the horror they had created to attempt to protect their homeland.
The Gailish girl silently slit their throats, and the piercing cry of the Creature could be heard in the far distance, and then the bog was silent once more.
The Druid girl would still hold dominion over much of the bog for a time, befriending a pack of modest and ordinary black wolves to keep the fear of the Covent Creature alive and the Antramarians far from her bog, but she too would eventually fall in her later years, and the Gailens and the Antramarians would begin to slowly trickle back into the silent barrows.
