Lover's Leap

Origin: ca 6,500 years ago

This once important and vital ritual has changed to become a spectacle, a romantic ceremony for spry teens looking for signs of true love.

History

Once upon a time the Verdant Descent was a sacred ritual peformed by the druids of the Thorncircle at the spring equinox to renew the bond between mortals and the spirits of the land. Participants would descend into a ravine thick with flora of all realms, offering blood and songs to awaken the slumbering earthen nymphs. In exchange, crops would flourish, blights would lift and dangerous local beasts were pacified, leaving the community alone for another season.

In modern times it is viewed as a romantic rite called Lover's Leap. A symbolic act in which couples leap into a shallow mossy basin, emerging together to receive the blessing of fertility and devotion.

The ancient songs of lost language are hummed without understanding their original meaning and the connection to the spirits have been forgotten. Nowadays, beasts do wander into the community, occasionally wreaking havoc and destruction but the inhabitants are tenacious and resourceful, believing this is just how matters are.

Impact

It has been many hundreds of years since the true Verdant Descent has been performed, and it's purpose is considered primal and pagan by those who remember what it was for. In 1038 there is talk in the court to drain the ravine to build a defensive fort - unknowingly risking an ecological and spiritual catastrophe. Couples have already begun to vanish, taken by vengeful spirits into their own pocket realm.