The Gorouti Witch

Her eyes twinkled in the setting sun as did a pattern, rendered across once pristine stone. As she burned in the center, the witch opened her mouth and cursed all that witnessed her death. They would never forget her and nothing would wash away the stain of what they did.

Summary

Before Omarop was founded as a city-state, Gorouti was the only city that existed. Originally it is said that the Old City Forum was designed to display the fine granite of the Omarop Highlands but, notably, there were no plans for an obelisk. For seven years the forum was a beautiful testament to the force of humans and dwarves to shape stone into chairs, arches and planters that were previously thought of as largely unworkable. On the seventh month of this seventh year, Gorouti was in a large-scale hunt to capture a coven of hags that had been abducting children in the area. Within the first seven days, they had captured three of the members and burned them to death in the forum without issue. On the eighth day, Corailda, one of the local hedge witches was hauled into the center of the forum. She was found guilty and set to burn at the stake at dusk. As the full moon rose into the sky, Corailda turned her gaze up to the sky. She began to chant a curse as her eyes glowed and around a pattern glowed on the ground. She promised the crowd and the heavens that her death would not be forgotten and that the very forum would forever be marred with the reminder of this act.
Long after she perished, the pattern on the ground glowed well into the night. In the morning, glittering gem pieces depicting scenes of the seasons that came to glow with every passing night. A dark stain of where she stood remained visible in the centre. At first the citizens tried to clean it, but the stain would remain. Then they tried buffing it out, but by dusk it had returned again. Magic was employed without success as every dusk the mark would return. After one hundred years of trying an obelisk of marble was placed over the mark and for once the citizens breathed easier. By dusk the obelisk’s marble had turned jet black, its beautiful carvings of the legends of yore hard to discern. Rather than make another attempt, the obelisk was accepted. However, those in attendance to the burning had been plagued by unending nightmares and the judge’s family had the same generational nightmare and a nasty habit of dying young until they eventually ceased to be.
As it turned out, neither Corailda nor the people who died before her were the hags that the city had sought out. After the murder of seven more children and fourteen days later, the hags were inexplicably found hanging from the city walls, each bore an ancient symbol for a different season. From that day on, Omarop has never had a hag issue since however.

Historical Basis

The historical accuracy of this story is questioned by some as there is no one to verify that the mosaic was not originally built with the forum and other than anecdotes there are no official records of the hunt and murders. The obelisk is quite notably different from the rest of the forum.

Spread

The tale of Corailda is largely known around Gorouti District and Omarop at large. In more recent years, some tour guides have taken to adding this tale to their tours and some souvenir shops have 'witch dolls' that are said to protect its child owners from bad luck.

Variations & Mutation

Though Corailda's name remains the same in every version, in some of the versions of the tale she only left the blasted mark. It is only in the second written version that this detail was pointed out on paper. In the original, written in a journal by Spokane Scholar Juriz, both the mosaic and the mark were attributed to Corailda. Some argue that the second version was only written as such for the city to try and take ownership for the beautiful mosaic that visitors come to see.

Cultural Reception

Amongst those in Gorouti District, this is an allegory of why one should not be quick to judge and why respect of witches must always be given. For some mothers it is even a hope that there is some supernatural force protecting their children.
Elsewhere in Omarop, the Gorouti witch is viewed as a sort of problem. It frames the past of the city as one with officials that were inept and flawed. It is thought of as more of a tall tale for the more simple minded of the city.

Related Locations

• Old City Forum