Tears of the Moon

Deep beneath the high hills rising west of Nīwulá Valley, water as clear and glimmering as moonlight waits quietly in a pond. The cavern appears a regal hall with smooth, natural walls worn and formed by time and lit up by a glow given out by the water known as the Tears of the Moon.

"A single droplet can split the veil between life and death", or so the stories of the Tears tend to begin. What exactly this means no one knows, and every story explains differently. From bringing back a loved one to achieving command over the dead, the reality of the Tears remains obscured beneath mountains of different tales and stories from any with a will to tell them.

It is said, also, that guardians have watched over the Tears since the Silent Age. To ensure their loyalty, these individuals - once human - are said to have been granted freedom from death and bound to the caverns where the divine pond resides. Then again, other versions of the tale say anyone who finds the glowing, glimmering water, is cursed to remain and watch over the place until the end of time itself.

The oldest known version of this myth lies in a long since abandoned temple of Moon in Nīwulá Valley, where the archivists of old wrote all they knew on tablets of clay and stored them within their libraries hidden from outsiders.

Historical Basis

Despite extensive search throughout the old Nīwulá Valley region and the highlands leading up to the mountains in the west, no definite proof have been found as to the existence of a pond of magically glowing, blue water hidden underground.

What has been uncovered are a network of tunnels as if old, abandoned burrows of some gigantic creature, with smaller caverns and larger rooms alike joining in a strange, underground web.

The exploration of these tunnels, however, has proven difficult due to the frequent disappearances of entire research and exploration parties entering them. Eventually these casualties grew to a point where the founding - and funding - of another expedition became all but impossible to achieve.

Date of Recording: oldest version found in Nīwulá Valley dates back to the Silent Age
Recorded By: archivists of Méyanū