Whispers in the Wilds
Metaphysical / Paranormal event
Strange dreams ripple through rural communities, beasts behave erratically, and unease spreads across the forests. These whispers mark the earliest recorded signs of what would become known as The Hollowing.
In the year 425 BG, isolated settlements across the lands of the Forgotten Realms began reporting bizarre phenomena. Villagers spoke of recurring dreams of shadowed forests, endless mazes, and weeping stars. Animals became restless, sometimes aggressive. Crops wilted in fertile soil. Birds flew in spirals and refused to migrate.
Then came the first sightings: creatures — once ordinary — now misshapen, as if reality had forgotten how to shape them properly. Locals called them “ghost beasts,” unaware they had just witnessed the beginning of The Hollowing.
As weeks passed, survivors from nearby woodlands and outposts began fleeing to the cities, mumbling of twisted versions of their loved ones. Children returned from play as snarling husks. Fathers came home from hunts no longer blinking.
Whole villages began to vanish — not with fire, not with blood — but into a terrible silence. Forests overtook their ruins with impossible speed, and what remained stood eerily intact, as if waiting to play out their last day again and again.
Magic used to investigate these occurrences either failed or returned warped messages and distorted visions. Clerics found prayers echoed by voices not their gods. Rangers and druids sensed something sick in the earth.