Rano Moko

At the heart of the island of Lampuato lies Rano Moko, the Great Lagoon. For most of the island's history, the lake served as the center of life - its waters fed the people, who fished and drank from it, and it sustained thousands. But when the royal family of the Kingdom of Lampuato turned away from Kosalo, inflaming the fears of their people, the waters of Rano Moko were altered by the ensuing metaphysical collapse.

The islanders had long believed that abandoning Kosalo would endanger the balance of the universe, and that, if sufficiently disturbed, the order of things would unravel with terrible consequences. When the Great Lagoon turned into a crystalline poison, they knew they had been right.

Today, the lake is a sight both beautiful and horrific. The fishing villages along its banks are long abandoned, reduced to slumping ruins. Yet the waters themselves are breathtaking - perfectly clear and glittering in the sun. That very clarity, however, leaves nothing to the imagination: through the glassy surface, one can see the corpses scattered across the lake's bottom. Most are fish, but among them lie other creatures - and not a few human bodies.

When the lake turned, it killed everything that touched its waters, and did so so completely that even decay could not claim its victims. Every corpse in Rano Moko remains pristine, as if it had fallen only moments before - all visible, suspended in perfect preservation beneath the shining surface.

Notable Spirits

When the Mekongga left Lampuato to seek a safer home, they made the choice to forget the names of the island's gods, hoping that in doing so, the gods themselves would fade. In most cases, they succeeded - though this had no beneficial effect on the nameless spirits left behind. They remained as perilous as ever.

But in the case of Rano Moko, the goddess Kalidanu was not forgotten. For so long had she been the patron and heart of the kingdom that even the determined efforts of her former priesthood could not erase her name.

In the time before the collapse, Kalidanu was the most important goddess on the island of Lampuato. She crowned the kings when they ascended the throne - they would wade into the waters, and the goddess herself would place the crown upon them, a tradition that had endured for centuries. She was called the Mother of the Kingdom, and the honors paid to her were said to increase the health and prosperity of all who lived on Lampuato.

When, after his coronation, King Saambu neglected those honors, the priests and the people pleaded with him to attend to the goddess. He promised that he would - but failed to keep his word, choosing opulent indulgence over piety. Kalidanu grew offended, and then distant. Finally, she ceased to manifest altogether, and the lake became deadly to all who touched it.

Some believe she is dead but not gone - a spiritual corpse adrift within the lake itself. Others say she merely sleeps, or that she has become a kind of living death, a goddess suspended between worlds. But one truth is agreed upon by all: no more kings will ever be crowned in her waters, and it will be death to try.