Founding of Annûn

Construction beginning/end

"The way I hear it, it was mostly cast-offs, layabouts, and would-be shamans (and not just a few under the influence of some potent herbs who maybe wanted to find more potent herbs) that camped around the tree, mostly by accident or convenience, the first winter. When old Greenleaf popped out of the Tree, a dozen or more died right there on the spot, on account of they were scared to death!   "But when those what didn't realized what was going on, they begged him to teach them the "way of the Tree" or some nonsense and he rightfully turned on his heel and went right back on there and slept for a thousand years, and by the time he next woke, the whole place was a school, and they'd made up their own way of the Tree, and he had to learn it right back from them! At least, that's how I heard it..."

— The Storyteller, aka the drunkest man in Vensheim

Whether it was actually a thousand years in the making is somewhat up for debate, but this is about the time Ngana (Life) allowed the first sort of established religion to be created, in her name. As the legend goes, Derwydd, the son of Osianna and resident dryad of the Tree awoke one spring to find himself and the Tree surrounded by hundred of would-be acolytes, seeking blessings and knowledge from the Mother. Derwydd, quite annoyed by the commotion, told them to be off and returned to the Tree, deciding to sleep out the year.   The following spring, he was met with the same rabble, and, further annoyed, decided to sleep for ten more years...then 100. After a couple centuries, the temporary camp was decidedly less temporary, and a small village surrounded the tree, and several people actually lived in its branches, studying and meditating, observing and recording Nature around them. Eventually though, he finally gave up on anyone leaving and, making the best of a bad situation, decided to teach them what lore he knew. Unexpectedly, he found the whole process very satsfying, and himself became a supplicant of the Mother (who he actually had known) for more knowledge, and thus was born the Hearth (or "Annûn") of Crann Bethadh, or as it became known in later centuries, simply Annûn.