Avakra’s Dusk

“The Takra of Spirit teaches that Warana is Avakra’s final gift to us, but I see it differently. What lies rooted in Avakra’s Dusk is less of a tree and more of a towering lesson, one that should be carried with us to the darkest corners of the world. It says: ‘You will be betrayed, you will be punished for the crimes of others, and you will fall. Yet, you will endure. Endure and blossom into something greater.’”

— In’Gor, Ur-Takra, Last Heir to the In’Grok Dynasty.

In the easternmost reaches of Paxos, one may find a titanic tree, brimming with the power of Ymiris, the All-Mother. Beneath it, the last vestige of an Everlasting, the Heart of Avakra, still beats, cradled in the chest of a great giant. Shamans can always be found near this elder of the woods, drawing its blood-red sap or harvesting the Warana, the fruit of boundless dreams. This is Avakra’s Dusk, a sacred place to the Primal Blood, forbidden to all outsiders, for it is where the true children of Ymiris can commune with their bound Goddess.  

When Avakra, the Everlasting patron and guide to the Oerikan people, was slain, her soul was bound into the first of the Everlasting Vestiges. The Heart of Avakra, as it was named, was used as a weapon by the Triumvirate of Olem, while her proud people were made into servants. It was not until the Everlasting War that a great warrior named Octna, guided by visions sent by the Heart, would liberate his people and the Vestige that was their birthright. Following the wisdom of Avakra, he led them to Paxos, where his Everlasting patron had been slain. There, they came to battle a great giant, one of the tools of the enemy, but through the power of the Heart, the beast was felled. In its chest, Octna and his followers would bury the Heart, in the hopes that it might take root and Avakra might live again. Instead, the Heart sprouted into a great tree that stands to this day as the center of Primal Blood culture. 

All members of the Primal Blood must be anointed with the sap of the Warana when they come of age. Those who follow the path of the shaman must journey to Avakra’s Dusk, imbibe the blood-sap, and commune with Avakra’s spirit, who will shepherd them to Ymiris herself. From this moment on, they are bound to Her; they can feel Her pain, sorrow, and wrath, and learn to give it shape in the waking world. Every spell they cast is simply a manifestation of the All-Mother’s emotions. The shamans also draw the sap from the tree and use it as an ingredient in their concoctions, including those that give berserkers their strength.  

The flesh of the Warana fruit can allow for communion with Avakra and Ymiris, drawing the user into a realm of waking dreams. However, those not previously anointed by the blood-sap find the Warana to be deadly poisonous. Its seeds have been planted throughout Paxos and beyond, but only a handful of these have sprouted, growing into lesser shrine-trees the Primal Blood hold sacred. It is the sap of these trees that the shamans mix with the blood of their enemies, their own, and with the soil that is the flesh of Ymiris, to create the primordial clay, from which they craft their weapons and armor.