"While out walking among the hills, I once met a strange man- or a woman, I could not tell- whose presence I first became aware of by the sound of soft chimes in the distance. They wore an orange cloak that covered their arms and a hood that hid their face, save for two small pinpricks of light. Despite what some might have called an ominous appearance, I felt no trace of ill intent in them. We travelled together for a short time, and exchanged nary a word before going on our separate ways. Though it was only a matter of hours, I will never forget the time that I spent with them."— Unknown
The C'Hwistolat are an enigmatic group of travellers thought to hail from a land beyond Pretheya. They are spoken of only in stories, with scant few individuals able to claim having ever met one of them, and are thought to appear mostly in the western reaches of the continent around Landamar and
Zemet.
Appearances
They are described as individuals clad in red-and-orange gowns embroidered with foreign runes. The cloaks they wear form a circle around their bodies, obscuring their features entirely from view save for their lower legs; which are said to be far thinner than those of
Tveirfotr or
Thousandforms and to seemingly lack feet. They adorn their robes with small chimes and bells, which let out melodious sounds as they move about.
The patterns on their robes are described differently in various stories; with some being relatively simple, and others far more ornate. One characteristic that they all share is a long scarf which they wrap around their necks: These scarves are said to be anywhere from three feet, to a dozen or more long, and to trail behind them in the air as they move; never quite reaching the ground.
Behaviour
It is unclear from the stories involving them whether the C'Hwistolat are capable of speech. They are often described as making soft chattering sounds vaguely reminiscent of birds, but whether this is a foreign language or merely some other kind of noise is unable to be deciphered. Attempts to communicate verbally with them are always described as falling flat, but they are shown to be remarkably intuitive and capable of discerning meaning through other methods; primarily non-verbal communication such as gesturing.
They are exclusively encountered far away from civilisation; almost always in mountainous areas or other places at high altitude. Here, individuals travelling through the region may come across them while on their journeys, and frequently end up travelling together for some time. While together, they often share various hardships as they must navigate difficult terrain or overcome other obstacles; and they are usually depicted as using teamwork to overcome these trials. After a brief time, however - usually once the human's path takes them down or away from the mountain - they must part ways with the C'Hwistolat; whose paths always take them further up.
The C'Hwistolat's Travels
There exist a small handful of tales of individuals who chose to defer their own travels in order to continue on with the C'Hwistolat, and thereby chose to follow them as they continued to ascend. In these cases, the C'Hwistolat are said to have continued travelling upwards - often to altitudes dangerous for humans - until they reached the peak of the mountains. Of those who try to join them, almost all are forced to give up before reaching the peak. There exists one story of a man who did succeed, however, and he writes as follows:
"When I finally reached the peak of the mountain, only then did the creature at last stop. It strode to the very highest peak of the mountain and there stood still, turning its head from side to side. It gazed down upon the landscape that stretched out around us; and I felt as if it, too, had its breath taken away. Then, after a few moments, it began to kneel down upon the ground. There, it shut its eyes, and I believe began to meditate. I took the opportunity to rest myself, and a length of time passed as I stared off into the distance. When I was finally awoken from my reverie by a sound behind me, I turned to see that the creature had stood back up. As it did, I glanced at the scarf around its neck, and I was certain that it had now grown longer.
I knew in that moment that our journey together was complete. And so, we bid farewell to each other, and went our separate ways."— Unknown
