The Scroll

Many other myths abound throughout the world.

Some tell of ancient heroes battling the forces of evil.

Others tell of endless, vast riches.

Some others speak of times long gone of war and peace, and countless deaths and tragedies sweeping the world hundreds of times over, taking millions along with them.

More still tell stories of the gods and their origins, and that certain people rumored to have existed during that time have ancestors that still walk the earth, telling the stories of their ancient ancestors and the various achievements they made or the great darkness that they had been through in their time. 

But one figure claims to have been alongside all gods.

This being, an ancient Oracle, is simply known as The Scroll.

In a mostly uncharted section of mountains located in Aswary, there lies an old and unknown cave near the feet of one of the many mountain ranges, hidden away from the public and nearly inaccessible without the right equipment or the resolve one would have needed to make the journey to find this cave. In this old and damp cave lives a quiet, secluded and friendless hermit bound in old, fading robes and tattered clothes that speak of a time long ago from which no man can rightly calculate. This hermit, a woman known only as "The Scroll", lives in silence waiting for others to find her. In need of advice or ancient stories or other things, those wise enough to have understood the stories will come to her in search of what they need. In this abandoned cave they will find her, sitting by a burning fire - said to have been lit when she first discovered and inhabited the ancient alcove beneath the surface - and The Scroll herself sitting there, waiting in silence.

She appears both aged and young at the same time. With silvering, greying hair and faded blue eyes stronger than sapphire, and with runes written in black covering every inch of her skin from head to toe, she claims to have seen the gods both before and after their rise to the pantheon, which would mean that she was alive during the Pantheonic Age, long before any history had been properly recorded by historians. The runes, she says, are the language of the gods themselves and give her the energy and the magic required to speak to them from the mortal world.

Whenever she speaks, the runes begin to glow with unknown magic, as if the power of the gods indeed pulses through her body and has been doing so for thousands of years. She claims also to be related to the God of Justice, Idite, and the God of War and The Military, Syther. She often speaks in riddles and tongues when speaking to outsiders, and can sometimes be heard rambling either to herself or someone else, despite the fact that she is believed to be the only person inside the cave unless adventurers have come to seek her out personally for her innate knowledge and thoughts on matters both past and present.

She cannot see the future but can make vague interpretations of what may come to pass or what might be expected based on past and present events, but those who find her are more inclined to ask of the past and the present, as she herself claims to not be the resource from which to gather thoughts about the future events that have not happened yet and which may change their course in a moment's time, thus proving her thoughts inconclusive and essentially null.

If she has existed since the Pantheonic Age - a fact which she never elaborates upon but also never disproves - then she would indeed have been blessed with unknown power by the gods at the time to act as their personal liaison to the mortal worlds on their behalf to the people who they hope to bring to the faith and the ideas of polytheism. If she has only existed for a number of decades, then there is the possibility that her family tree extends back to the Pantheonic Age and to members of Idite and Syther's families, either extended or personal. 

When speaking to someone seeking knowledge, she can often be seen pulling the sleeves or legs of her tunic and pants upwards to examine the countless runes that have been tattooed onto her skin over the years. As mentioned before, these runes are believed to be written in the language of the gods and thus unreadable and unrecognizable to everyone save for her. When she speaks, any number of runes at a time may begin to glow with magical energy.

She does not elaborate upon her given name if asked by those who seek her. She will say that, back then, her name was the most important thing to her and those who knew her, but that as time passed and she became more and more disconnected from her lineage and those who had lived alongside her, that her name became an unnecessary burden and so she had all but forgotten it. She is known only as The Scroll, The Eye or simply 'Woman' otherwise, and will respond to all calls by these titles when being spoken to.