The Hanging Tree

The Hanging Tree was not enchanted by any deliberate spellcaster or ritual. Instead, it became magickal over time through a process of cumulative emotional saturation—a convergence of death, despair, and involuntary soul-binding. Each act of violence, especially racially motivated executions, bled into its fibers. It didn’t just witness death; it held it.

When Isabella, a young Mbali girl, died and her coffin was buried too close to its roots, the tree absorbed her essence, an innocent sorrow that made it receptive. Maude cursed the town just before being hung unjustly, her grief, unlike Isabella's, was not passive. It was active. It twisted the Tree’s spirit into something sentient.

At that moment, the Hanging Tree transitioned from a vessel of suffering to a conscious entity of vengeance, albeit one fueled by pure emotion rather than thought.

This tree is almost as old as the town of Wolfden. It has seen a lot of history and most it wasn't good. It saw its fair share of Aurelian's hang, whip, and beat Mbali and other dark skinned ethnicities.

Over time whippings and beatings went down but the number of hangings have gone up. The pain, anger and grief built up in the tree. When Isabella died, it incorporated her coffin into its roots. It also incorporated Maude ’s grief, then her anger when she was hung. Maude’s death was the last one on the Hanging Tree. The people of Wolfden were scared of her last words, though they never said so aloud.

Twenty-five years later, all that pain, anger, and grief, especially Maude ’s, erupts and abducts the children of Wolfden and hangs them on its branches. The tree has since been torn down.

The Hanging Tree is now a symbol of trauma, both personal and systemic. To some, it was a relic of justice; to others, a mark of cruelty. Its destruction brought no joy, just relief from the fear, a lot of silence, and some warnings.

If it had never existed, Wolfden would have fewer ghosts, and fewer stories. But it wouldn't have the reckoning it had.

If it had survived, it would have continued its violence until the entire town vanished.

To the Mbali community, it was a reminder of oppression turned into weaponized grief. But to Wolfden as whole, it became a cautionary tale.