The Weeping Idols

In the years before the Fall, every village maintained shrines to the Old Gods—carved wooden idols in village greens, stone statues in temple gardens, crude effigies in roadside shrines. These graven images were objects of devotion, comfort, and tradition. Parents would touch the carved sun-disk of the Queen of Summer before planting. Travelers would leave offerings at Father Death's skeletal visage. The idols were silent, patient witnesses to the rhythms of life.

Then the Day the World Broke arrived, and something changed.

Now, three decades later, the old idols have become objects of dread. They weep. They move when no one is watching. Their carved eyes track movement. Frost forms in unnatural patterns across their surfaces, creating new faces within the old. Most disturbing of all, they seem aware—not with the benevolent watchfulness of divine presence, but with something else. Something hungry, or grieving, or furious.

These are the Weeping Idols: the graven images of abandoned gods, transformed by catastrophe into objects of horror rather than hope.

Physical Manifestations

The phenomenon presents differently depending on the idol, the deity it represents, and local conditions, but certain patterns have emerged:

The Tears

The most common and name-giving manifestation. Idols—particularly those of the Queen of Summer and the Maiden in the Moon—develop moisture that seeps from their carved eyes, running down stone or wooden faces in steady streams.

This is not condensation or melted frost. The liquid is warmer than the surrounding air, sometimes steaming faintly in the cold. Chemical analysis (when possible) reveals properties that defy explanation: the "tears" from a Queen of Summer idol might contain trace amounts of pollen from flowers that haven't bloomed in thirty years. Those from Father Death's images sometimes test positive for human tears—but not the tears of any living person.

The weeping never stops. Some idols have been crying continuously for decades. The moisture pools at their bases, forming small lakes of accumulated sorrow that refuse to freeze even in the deepest cold.

The Eyes

Carved eyes, whether painted wood or chiseled stone, follow movement. Not always. Not predictably. But enough that those who spend time near Weeping Idols learn to trust the prickling sensation on the back of their necks.

Experiment: A scholar from the Aurora Conservatory once marked the position of an idol's gaze with chalk, left the room, and returned from a different angle. The idol's eyes—fixed, unmoving stone—somehow now looked directly at the new entrance point. When confronted with proof that the eyes had shifted, the statue's gaze slowly, almost reluctantly, returned to its original position while the scholar watched.

Some report the eyes not just tracking, but expressing emotion: sorrow, rage, disappointment, or worst of all, accusation.

The Frost-Faces

On idols exposed to the elements, frost accumulates in patterns that form new faces overlaid on the original carving. These frost-faces are usually grotesque, agonized, or pleading—expressions the original gods never wore.

The most disturbing cases involve idols of the Queen of Summer, goddess of warmth and life. Frost never touched her images before; now her statues are encased in ice that forms screaming faces across her stone features, as if the goddess herself is trapped and suffering.

The Movement

No one has ever directly witnessed an idol move. But positions change. A statue of Father Death might face east one morning and west the next. An idol in a circle might stand six inches from where it was the day before. Chalk marks drawn around bases are found broken, the idols shifted in the night.

More unnerving: idols found in positions that should be impossible. A wooden carving of the Horned King discovered face-down in mud, despite having no joints to collapse. Stone statues found atop buildings they couldn't have climbed. One priest reported finding his temple's idol of the Seer outside the locked door, facing inward, as if it had walked out during the night and was now trying to get back in.

The Sounds

On still nights, near old shrines, people report hearing the sounds:

• Stone creaking, as if under tremendous weight
• Wood groaning, like a tree in high wind
• Whispered prayers in languages no one speaks anymore
• Children's laughter (particularly near Queen of Summer idols)
• The sound of weeping—real, human sobbing—from stone throats

Some claim to hear words in these sounds. Pleas. Warnings. Accusations.

Theories on the Cause

The Abandoned Gods Theory

The most popular explanation among common folk: the gods are trapped in their own idols, abandoned when the world broke. Their tears are real divine grief, their movements desperate attempts to escape or communicate. The frost-faces are the gods' true torment made visible.

This theory resonates emotionally but raises difficult questions: If the gods are trapped, who or what trapped them? And if they're truly divine, how could they be imprisoned in mere carved wood and stone?

The Residual Faith Theory

Scholars at the Aurora Conservatory propose that centuries of prayer and devotion imprinted something onto the idols—not the gods themselves, but the collective faith of millions. When that faith turned to despair and abandonment, the psychic resonance twisted, creating manifestations of anguish.

This explains why idols in regions of stronger pre-Fall devotion show more dramatic phenomena. It also explains why newer idols (carved in the last thirty years) show no effects—they never accumulated enough faith to manifest anything.

The Sympathetic Corruption Theory

Magic throughout the world has become tainted and unpredictable. Perhaps the idols, created with minor blessing rituals and consecrated with divine magic, have become conduits for that corruption. The tears and movements are symptoms of broken enchantments expressing themselves in physical ways.

This would explain why destroying an idol sometimes causes magical backlash, and why some idols emanate detectable corruption similar to failed spells.

The Witness Theory

A darker possibility whispered among travelers: the idols aren't trapped gods or corrupted magic. They're witnesses. Something uses them as eyes, watching the world through every carved visage. The tears are not sorrow but hunger. The movements are not attempts to escape but attempts to reach.

This theory is unpopular because it raises the question: What is watching? And what happens if it decides to do more than watch?

Regional Variations

Northern Shrines (Frostmarked Territory)

Idols in the far north have almost completely succumbed to frost-faces. The original carvings are barely visible under layers of ice that have formed into grotesque new shapes. Frostmarked shamans perform rituals to "free the trapped faces," chipping away the ice, but it always returns within days.

Some Frostmarked clans have begun carving new idols that incorporate the frost-faces into the original design, creating hybrid images of the old gods merged with expressions of suffering. These "True-Carved" idols, they claim, are more honest about the nature of the divine in this new age.

Abandoned Temple Districts

In ruined cities, entire temple complexes full of idols have created zones of concentrated weeping. The tears accumulate in temple basins, creating pools of the strange warm liquid that steam in the cold. Some desperate souls drink from these pools, claiming healing or visions. Others who drink go mad, speaking in the voices of long-dead priests.

The largest such site is the Temple Garden of Caecras-That-Was, where an entire circle of stone gods stands perpetually weeping into a central pool. The pool has never frozen and radiates a faint, sickly light at night. The Aurora Conservatory has quarantined the site, but cultists regularly breach the perimeter, seeking "divine communion through shared suffering."

Rural Roadside Shrines

Simple wooden idols in village squares and along trade roads show the most dramatic movement. Perhaps because they're less massive than temple statues, or perhaps because they were carved with more direct, personal faith, these smaller idols are found most often in "wrong" positions.

A common rural superstition: never camp within sight of a roadside idol. If you must, face away from it and don't look back until morning. Those who ignore this advice report dreams of being watched, or wake to find their belongings rearranged, or discover the idol has moved closer to their camp.

Documented Incidents

The Shrine at Broken Ridge (Year 7)

A settlement maintained an old shrine to the Queen of Summer in their central square. The wooden idol began weeping in Year 2, which the community initially saw as a sign the goddess mourned with them. By Year 7, the tears had become a torrent, flooding the square. When they tried to move the idol, it became impossibly heavy—six men couldn't shift it an inch.

That night, the idol was found lying face-down in the flooded square, as if it had prostrated itself in grief. The next morning, every child under ten in the settlement had vanished. No trace was ever found. The idol was burned, and those who lit the fire reported it screamed.

The Circling Stones (Year 15)

A stone circle dedicated to the Old Faith, with carved monoliths representing each god, was observed by a Frostmarked clan over the course of a year. Each morning, they found the stones had rotated slightly around the center. By the year's end, each stone had moved to the position of the next god in the seasonal cycle—Winter's stone where Summer's had been, Death's where Life's had stood.

The rotation then reversed and began again. The clan shaman attempted to divine meaning from the pattern but received only a vision of "time running backward while the world stands still." The clan now avoids the circle, though they report hearing it grinding even from miles away.

The Weeping War (Year 22)

Two settlements—one worshiping primarily the Queen of Summer, one devoted to Father Death—both claimed their respective idols had delivered divine messages through the pattern of their tears. Each message contradicted the other. Religious tensions escalated to violence.

When fighters from both sides descended on each other, they found both idols had moved to face each other across the no-man's-land between settlements. Both were weeping so profusely that the ground between them had turned to mud. The battle stalled as both sides watched their gods apparently weep at each other—or at what their followers were about to do.

Neither side retreated, but neither side advanced. They stood in the mud for hours until darkness fell. By morning, both idols had returned to their original positions, and the fever for battle had broken. Both settlements now maintain an uneasy peace, but neither will speak of what they saw that day.

Interaction and Dangers

Physical Dangers

Touching the Tears

The liquid from weeping idols is not safe. Those who touch it often experience vivid, disturbing visions—usually of the god the idol represents, but twisted and suffering. Prolonged contact can cause fever, delirium, or in extreme cases, a psychological break where the victim believes they ARE the suffering god.

Destroying Idols

Attempting to destroy a Weeping Idol often triggers violent backlash. Wooden idols that have wept for years sometimes ignite with flames that burn cold rather than hot. Stone idols shatter explosively, sending shrapnel in all directions. Some who have destroyed idols report being haunted afterward—hearing the sounds of weeping constantly, seeing the idol's face in every shadow.

Prolonged Exposure

Spending too much time near active Weeping Idols causes psychological effects. Despair, religious mania, compulsive prayer to gods that may be dead or trapped. Some develop fixations on the idols, refusing to leave them, eventually dying of exposure while staring at carved faces.

Spiritual Dangers

False Hope

Some desperate souls see the Weeping Idols as proof the gods still exist, still care. They pray to the idols obsessively, interpret the patterns of tears as messages, build new faiths around the phenomenon. This rarely ends well—the idols do not answer prayers, and those who expect divine intervention are often disappointed fatally.

Cult Formation

Several Frost Cults have incorporated Weeping Idols into their rituals, using the tears in ceremonies or interpreting movements as divine approval. The Children of Silence believe the idols are "teaching the proper expression of divine stillness through eternal weeping."

Identity Confusion

Rare but documented: individuals who spend extended time near Weeping Idols begin to believe they ARE the god represented. They adopt the god's traditional role, speak in archaic language, and sometimes develop minor magical abilities that align with the deity's domain. These "God-Touched" individuals are universally unstable and dangerous.

Cultural Impact

Religious Crisis

The Weeping Idols have deepened the crisis of faith. Are they proof the gods still exist but are suffering? Proof the gods are dead and only their death-throes remain? Or proof the gods never existed, and the idols are just reacting to magical corruption?

Priests of the Old Faith are divided:

• Hopeful Interpretation: The gods weep for the world but have not abandoned it
• Punitive Interpretation: The gods weep at what their followers have become
• Tragic Interpretation: The gods are trapped and suffering alongside mortals
• Denial: The idols are not divine at all, merely cursed objects to be destroyed

Idol Destruction Movements

Some communities have destroyed all their old idols, burning wooden carvings and shattering stone statues. They view the Weeping Idols as cursed objects that should not exist in a godless world.

Others see this as sacrilege and defend their idols, even the weeping ones, as the last tangible connection to the divine.

Scavenger Trade

A black market exists for pieces of Weeping Idols. Cultists pay well for fragments, believing they hold power. The tears themselves fetch high prices among alchemists and desperate folk seeking healing or visions.

Idol-breakers are a new, despised profession: thieves who vandalize shrines to harvest sellable pieces. They rarely live long—whether from magical backlash, vigilante justice, or simply bad luck is unclear.

Advice for Travelers

If you encounter a Weeping Idol:

1. Do not touch the tears—they are not water and not safe
2. Do not stare into the eyes—the longer you look, the harder it becomes to look away
3. Do not camp within sight of it—you will not sleep well, if at all
4. Do not attempt to communicate—whatever answers might come, they will not be from gods
5. Do not destroy it unless absolutely necessary—and if you must, have an escape route planned

If an idol has moved closer to your camp overnight, leave immediately. Do not try to understand why. Do not return.

Related Articles

• The Old Faith
• Religious Crisis of Year 0
• Queen of Summer (Deity)
• Father Death (Deity)
• Frost Cults
• Magical Corruption
• The Day the World Broke

"I asked the statue why the gods had forsaken us. Its stone eyes wept, and in the pattern of the tears I saw my question reflected back: Why have you forsaken them? I have no answer. The statue weeps still."

— Journal of Sister Kael, Priestess of the Queen, Year 12

"We used to pray to them. Now they pray to us—or maybe they beg. I can't tell the difference anymore. Either way, I won't listen. I can't bear to hear what gods sound like when they weep."

— Unknown Idol-Breaker