The Garden of the First Furrow
Ervenian Era, 1051 AB
The Garden of the First Furrow, often called, The Great Mother’s Garden, is the divine domain of Thea, goddess of fertility, growth, and the cycles of the field. It exists uniquely in two reflections at once, on the goodly plane of Belierin and the lawful groves of Abellio, embodying both the wild generosity of nature and the careful stewardship of ordered cultivation.
Customs and Law
Guest-Right at Water & Oven
Share bread, water, and a name at quay, well, or bake-house, and all parties owe hospitality and frank speech until the next bell; lies taste of chaff and catch in the throat.First Fruits & Last Glean
The first ripe basket goes to the commons; the last glean is free and protected. Hindering gleaners draws community censure and field-penance.Art as Contract
Agreements are sung, carved, or planted (seed-runes, braid-hedges). Within a vow-circle, tempers cool and resolve holds.Challenge Before Chains
Disputes are tried first by craft or kindness, bread-weigh, canal-mend, share-tally, or archery for crows. Victory obliges uplift: a tool, a lesson, or safe conduct.Sanctity of Ways
Cairn-lines, canal paths, lover’s walks, funerary roads are inviolate; spite here dims lanterns until amends are made.Geography
The realm appears as vast fields, marshes, and orchards that bloom without end, their bounty never hoarded and their paths always guiding the lost to water, shade, or grain. On the Elysium face, abundance spills unchecked: wild rice, fruit-laden groves, and reed-flats alive with naiads and Azata. On the Arcadian face, every furrow is measured and every canal carefully tallied, where harvests are shared by contract and song. Both sides are part of one whole, each nourishing the other, joined by the Mother’s Circuit, the annual planting-walk where Thea’s own steps close furrows whose echoes ripple into the mortal world, good harvests, failed crops, or timely rains.
Travel and Access
Oceanus High Roads: Calm reaches braid through both faces; ferries and living boathouses slip on to the Beastlands and Arborea.Border-Furrows
At dawn and dusk, paired furrows “face” each other; speak what you seek and why now and step between wild and orderly halves as they lead from Belierin to Abellio and back.Green Threads
Quiet reed tunnels and hedge arches seam to House of Nature districts; return by offering water and a truthful account of your errand.Inhabitants
The Garden is tended by petitioners reborn as gleaners, healers, and water-wardens, alongside Azatas, Agathions, and good-hearted Fey who ensure that guest-right and stewardship are never broken. Customs are shaped by bread, furrow, and oath: sharing water and a name binds hospitality, the first fruits belong to the commons, and disputes are tried first through song, craft, or kindness before arms are ever raised.Localized Phenomena
Peace of Elysium
Open violence dulls, blades feel heavy, voices soften; choose parley and doors (and hearts) open.Kindling Bloom
Malicious wildfire crumbles into flower-ash at the border; hearth-fires and cleansing burns keep their spark.Witness Mist
In marsh or spray, kindly truth carries; spiteful falsehood clots on the tongue and will not travel.Blight’s Rebuke
Hoard, cheat the share, or trample guest-right and the land answers: waterholes walk, grain heads shatter, birds ignore the kites, until restitution is made.Wildway Drift
Paths slide to shield nests, nurseries, and seed-banks; cruel pursuits take long, reasonable detours until the lesson lands.River’s Favor
Water walk, control water, create water, find the path, and purpose-keyed teleports/way-walks guide with uncanny precision along or between Oceanus branches and canal-grids.Mercy’s Preference
Heal, restoration, remove disease/curse, calm emotions, atonement, and communal protections last a little longer or reach a little farther; evil spells and effects, domination/enslavement, and fear magics strain or fail.Performative Casting
Casting while singing, mapping, planting, weaving, or tallying shares steadies the mind; benign effects are read as part of the rite.Greenstep
Travel magics that soften passage or spare the land (longstride, pass without trace, gentle repose for seed) feel surer when the journey is kind.Undeath Refused
Soul-harm and necromancy that harms life fray; rites that lay the dead to rest take gentle hold.Trait Type |
Description |
|---|---|
| Gravity | Normal. |
| Time | Normal time with a Seasonal Cadence: tasks aligned to planting, tending, healing, or harvest flow a touch smoother; hoarding or needless haste meets small delays. |
| Shape & Size | Infinite, Patchwork of fields, orchards, marsh and meadow, perceived as two conjoined faces where in Belierin are wilds and Abellio are ordered. |
| Morphic Traits | Divinely Morphic; Thea and her named wardens can raise furrows, call rain or open granaries with a word. |
| Elemental Energy | None Dominant. |
| Alignment | Neutral Good. |
| Magic | Healing/restoration, plant and water magic, weather (gentle rain, warding winds), divinations about seasons, terrain, and crop signs are enhanced. In addition, when vow-tied: sending, tongues, protection, heroism, and similar magics bound to a sworn work or guest-right. While, evil spells, necromancy that harms life, compulsion used for coercion or enslavement, fear-dominations, and destructive fire meant to waste fields are impeded. |
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