The Silver Touched
In the Primordial Age of Glory humanity had already caught the attention of many Primordials. Kimbery showed the others how humanity could come to express components of what that Primordial found most pleasing to the eye. And so it was that the Silver Forest took this into consideration that helped him finally decide to act. Looking to the East in the massive forests that Gaia and her lover Cytherea had grown he found humans that revered the forests and the trees. They where patient hunters blending in with their surroundings as if they where not there, waiting for days if needed before finally striking at their intended targets.
He came to these people in the form of a large ash tree with roots that extended all across Creation. And whose branches seemed to brush against the sky vault. The tribal elders where gathered and a path through the great tree was revealed to them. From the tree hung vines bearing fruit with each piece bearing a seed of knowledge that helped Creation take root. When the path stopped they where within a great cavern somewhere inside the trunk of the great tree. Here there was another forest and the ground was covered in moss. Water poured from knot holes high above and collected into crystal clear ponds. Trees of every kind grew here and it was here that Szoreny spoke. From the center the tree moved. Two of its branches became arms. Its eyes glowing a brilliant silver color.
He spoke to them and promised to teach them all the secrets of the forest and the world. To become princes of all they surveyed and to carry his glory all across the east of Creation. For it was his plan to spread his roots to the deepest parts of Creation. Its new fountainhead, the anchor to which all of Creation would be based around. Confronted with one of the Makers and promised such glory and power all the tribal elders agreed to his offer. He hung the elders from ash trees for three days as his silver blood mixed with their own. To instill in them loyalty and as a mark of their promise an ash spear with a silver head impaled in their side. For three days they hung from the branches of the Great Tree and when they finally were let down they had become radically different. No longer entirely human. The silver blood of a Primordial coursed through their veins now.
Unlike Kimbery he did not offer any part of his soul hierarchy to power their expanding civilization. Cities of shaped wood and stood anchored to the eldest of trees. Monuments to the World Tree were omnipresent from the capitol to the smallest of towns in their expanding domain. A side effect of the silver blood they became taller and more broad in the shoulders. Adopting the coloration's of the forest they became the perfect hunters. Status was only be the hunt, birth ment nothing to them. To become respected they had to show great patience and hunting ability.
When the youth of the Silver Touched where ready to become adults they where instructed to forge a spear with a shaft of ash and the head of silver. The only ash trees deemed acceptable by the elders was found in the depths of the forest where the roots of the World Tree have pushed close to the surface. But there was danger there with the great beasts the Primordials seeded the world with. And the silver was mined from the roots themselves. Cutting into the bark the silver blood would flow which was poisonous and deadly until forged, many youths dying in the process. But once the blood hardened it was worked and shaped into a spear head. Each youth needed to forge their own spear. And when it was complete they where bound to an ash tree for three days and impaled with the spirit. It was this ritual that awakened their primordial blood and made them more than just mere humans in the eyes of the Makers.
In time their empire covered much of the East. The great Forest Lords stood nearly 10 feet tall. Ancient and wise as the oldest of trees. Many sat inert for decades in contemplation on the nature of Creation and the cycles the Primordials had woven into all of existence. But when the war came the Silver Blooded answer the call of the World Tree and displayed for the first time all they had learned. Entire forests imbued with the power of the World Tree. The warriors wore armor of living bark enhancing their might to compare against the Warstriders and other power armor of the Exalted and treacherous Mountain Folk. For all their might they could not change the course of the war and when the World Tree was banished so too were they changed.
When Szoreny was exiled the World Tree hit the outer most shells and fragmented. No longer a single tree but smaller and less impressive conglomeration of trees that reflected his former nature. The metal from the body of Malfeas and his own silver blood covered the once majestic tree into a forest of silver. Landing with the remnants of the mighty crown in the prison of the exiles.
The inversion of the World Tree shattered the civilization of the Silver Blooded. Where the World Tree once dwelt in Creation now where terrible gaping wounds. His pain and transformation effected them just as the collapse of Kimbery devastated the Lintha. But their change was far more drastic and would become the stuff of nightmares that still haunts Creation to the Second Age.
Without the guiding power of the World Tree their own primordial blood revolted in spontaneous change. Their skin became a thick and leathery hide. Moss covered scales covered part of their back, long dagger sharp talons came from thick and broad fingers. Huge mouths open to reveal three rows on the top and bottom of razor sharp teeth that could cut a full grown man in half with a single bite. Even though their civilization had collapsed they retreated into the forests of the east and with the effects wrought upon them they where nearly impossible to find.
And for an age they remained dormant the eldest of them sprouting roots of their own as years of sediment covered them and they became more than mere mortals. In their long sleep they did not notice the events of the Usurptation or the Great Contagion and the Fae invasion that ended the First Age. It was nearly nearly a century after those events that the youngest crawled out from the dirt and looked upon all that has changed. In time they came together. The Grove of the Ancients is where the eldest of them became as trees. And it was the basis of their new civilization. One that for the last 750 years has been a terror in the East.
In the century after the Contagion and the Invasion ended the soil of the east began to shift as the dormant race rose once again into awareness of the world around. For the first time in nearly four millennium that they had walked Creation and for them time had barely seemed to pass in the long hibernation. The Grove of the Ancients had taken root and grown tall and proud. The cluster of trees had grown tightly together that the branches and the crown where all interlace. Beneath the protective canopy the remnants of the once great civilization dedicated to the eternal growth of the World Tree now seemed to be little more than a collection of monsters. They were twisted and warped with the banishment of the World Tree. But they where determined to rebuild all that they lost.
For those first few decades they stalked silently in the shadows of the eastern forests for the relics of the civilization that they had lost. Buried under a lot of growth and hidden under the roots of trees thousands of years old the ruins of the capitol where found. Taking what relics they could back to the grove where they could be stored and revered safely. During this time they uncovered the sleeping forms of the others and awakened them through long rituals that drew their minds back into their bodies. For when they slept their spirits danced in the reflective mirrors of the Silver Forest. As they shaped and rebuilt their home their actions slowly awakened the elders once more. Their altered natures allowed their roots to touch the branches of the Silver Forest and in this way they could learn his will and enact further reaching plans that came with the long outlook.
Despite the warping effects of their bodies their minds remained intact though diminished. They have always been a proud race after all they where able to accomplish on their own in the Time of Glory. In those early years they focused on rebuilding since their technology was never based on the soul hierarchy of their patron but from the secrets he had shared with them. It was from these secrets they regrew their weapons and armor for the Grove was a manse that not only helped shield them from the prying eyes of heaven but its organic nature allowed them to build and shape much like the magi-tech factories of the High First Age. But they moved slowly and carefully as to avoid any unwanted attention from those who would want to destroy them.
They where fortunate that their patron was not so consumed by hate and violence as the other Yozi that completely twisted those who followed them. For them they where motivated by revenge against Creation, the Exalted and most of all the treacherous gods who now inhabited Yu-Shan itself. Open war was impossible for them it was something they could not survive and the Silver Forest understood that. And so they became the insidious whispers in the East. In remote villages and the survivors of decimated cities tried to exist within the forests of the East they came to them. Whispering promises of safety, good health, plentiful food and water. All they needed to do was worship the World Tree so that its roots might heal and take root in Creation once again. The villages that listened where shown how to survive. How to shape the land and pull a bountiful harvest from the canopy. Each village shaman was hung from the branches of a tree with a silver headed spear in their side. And so the cults of the World Tree took root in the east.
Were they once valued patience and hunting status was now determined by the number and size of the flourishing cults spread out across the East. Each of them acting as the voice of the World Tree to their completely mortal charges. The central tree in each cult village could be used to call upon aid. And it is to the merit that the Silver Touched answer every important summons. Fulfilling their oaths so the cults can grow.
Others have felt the hate of the exiles more clearly and do not see the merit in fostering the cults of the World Tree. And it is with this small group many who have heard of them base their opinions on. To the folk of Creation they where terrible god-monsters once men who fought on the side of the Primordials and where cursed by the Exalted champions. Now they have returned to feast on Creation. They target the cults of prominent regional gods and devouring or torturing their victims. Those they leave alive are branded with the Old Realm glyphs of traitor. Prayers to the Primordials cut into the flesh which drives mad any lesser god who views them. And in this way they weaken the faith humanity places in their godly companions. By showing the mortals directly the gods cannot protect them, that Creation is this way because the Primordials are not exiled they bring some to believe that Creation would be better served with their return. Taken out of the hands of the Exalted and lazy gods who no longer care about Creation and only concerned with their own decadence.
Few in Creation realize the lingering threat the possess for their plans have taken millennia to shape and prune. The cult of the World Tree has spread far and wide. Providing succor and nourishment to anyone who willing enters into the cult. Were once families starved now they had more food than they could ever dream. Villages besieged and haunted by the Fae are rendered safe with the bindings the Primordials used to keep the Wyld out long ago. Shamans emerge from the dunes to a lost caravan. Water wells up around their feet and an oasis grows quickly. All they need to do is understand the World Tree will provide and nourish Creation were as the others have neglected and abused it. In the west a simple family vessel carrying all their worldly possessions is about to be ruined by approaching Lintha ships. The cultists are there to invoke ancient prayers that put to sleep the infernal worms pulling the vessels. Not even other yozi cults truly recognize what they are doing as more and more trees spread over Creation whose roots touch the branches of the Silver Forest.
Who is to say what happens when that network of Creation spanning trees is formed. Looking at it from high above the oasis of trees all across Creation are spread out and planted in such a way to invoke certain principles in the foundation of Creation that would allow the Silver Forest to return once the prayers at each tree are recited together.
