Ausket

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Somewhere, lost in the Starwood Strand, an old, forgotten, dilapidated magic circle carved in stone flickered to life. The unfinished runic formula that occupied its rings filled with a shifting light as particles of glowing magical essence began to rise from nothingness. Fragments of light and knowledge coalescing in the center ring, forming an ethereal disk. Life of a sort pulled from the chaos of the drifts of wild magic that ebb and flow though the isles. A small form began to take shape in the flickering, arcane light. The glowing silhouette slowly becoming more and more defined until, as suddenly as it had arrived, the flux of mana was gone, and the circle again lay broken. The form, unfinished. Unfinished, but not so much as to spill the essence that had poured into it. The fragmentary vessel filled with arcane Life awakened. Its first choking gasps of breath taken as it unfurled upon the broken stone. Its chest rising and falling with a faltering rhythm, the heart within quickening to life. Its face lay open to the star-laden night sky, its undeveloped wings telling of the black bone beneath the thin strips of muscle and sparse flesh that spanned their digits as they splayed out in the starlight. It shuddered as consciousness flooded it as well as the searing pain of its senses being realized for the first time.

The frantic pattern of its breathing slowed as the pain subsided, and it lay there, processing the feeling of the crisp early-winter wind through its fur, the sound of the rustling leaves, the fragrance of the woods, and slowly, it opened its eyes. That first vision filled the creature with wonder. The abyssal blue of the night sky framed by softly glowing leaves on the dark, swaying branches of nearby trees. Stars sparkled across that inky canvas with an occasional shooting star painting a colorful trail as it raced by. It reach out to that wonderous sky with a claw, and paused as it now studied its limb with childlike fascination, turning it's paw one way then the other. After a moment, it pushed itself up so it could examine the rest of its body. So curious, it thought, that it knew how maneuver itself, and what those leafy things are called, and how it knew to describe them as "leafy", and- and... The tiny creature flopped back down. Its mind in a whirl, overloaded. It stared up at that beautiful celestial veil and tried to calm itself down. Perhaps it was better not to question how it knew what it knew, at least for now. And besides, everything was strange, new, and interesting! It sprang to its feet and took to investigating its surroundings. It traced the runes of the broken circle, poked just about everything in the area, climbed a tree, and plucked a glowing leaf from it and stuffed it in its mouth. As it turns out, just because it is shiny does not mean it is tasty... but maybe it was just a bad one?
*munch*
nope, still didn't taste good.
So, it climbed back down, and began to wander the Strand. Weaving betwixt the dark trunks of the trees, beneath their luminous canopy, the creature was captivated by the enchanting environment it found itself in.

(Perhaps the broken circle had originally been intended as a summoning circle, for it is known that spirits given form this way are also given knowledge enough to understand and navigate the world they've been brought into. It is, However, ultimately unknown what the creator's original intent for the circle was.)

For many days, it roamed; discovering more and more about the world and itself. It learned the importance of stealth given its small size from its encounters with hostile wildlife. Through trial and upset stomach, it found things that were safe to eat when it was hungry. It even came across a few elemental spirits in its wanderings who taught it how to use magic. Often it would see great winged creatures fly overhead, above the branches of the forest. Never did they notice it down on the forest floor, but they seemed so interesting. Its curiosity led it to wander out of the Strand and into other elements' territories, crossing first into plague's domain, and then into wind's. The land of plague smelled of decay and disease, and twisted wildlife roamed the land, but still those great winged ones could be seen here as well, seemingly unfazed by the harsh environment. The tiny creature made its way quickly through the plague lands, following the cliffs that bordered the sea, for there was little that the creature dared to eat there. After its brief sojourn in plague's territory, it found itself in the Reedcleft Ascent at the base of the towering cliffs.

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1
The creature was battered by the winds that rushed between the craggy stone rises as it attempted to climb up to a flat, grass-covered section. Even with its underdeveloped wings tightly folded against itself, the wind threatened to tear the creature from the rocks, and cast it into the water below. It's claws scrabbled to find new purchase in the lull before each new gust blew in, the climb rapidly draining what little strength the tiny creature had. Its heart jumped into its throat as one of its claws lost its grip on the rockface when one particularly strong gust tore at it. Just barely halfway up, and already its aching muscles were at their limit. Desperately, the creature looked for any nook or narrow crevasse in the cliff face where it might be able to squeeze itself into so that it could rest. As it turned it's head to scan the cliffside to its left, it just managed to make out the ledge of a narrow split in the rock that, as far as it could tell from where it was, might just be deep enough to provide some solace. It recklessly threw itself from hold to hold between gusts, risking the fickle wind catching it and casting it from the rock to make it to the crack in the rock and the respite it would hopefully provide before its strength failed. Reaching the crevasse and peering inside, it appeared that luck favored the creature as the space was indeed just large enough to house it from the wind's wrath. It crammed itself into the narrow space with what remaining strength it had in its trembling limbs, displacing a few skittering bugs in the process, but at least it was safe for the time being. The fatigue from the climb hit shortly after he'd manage to curl up, and sleep took the weary creature soon after as it listened to the chorus of wind and waves.

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'A Scene From a World That Could Be'
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Festival hubs:
Shadow 2022
Arcane 2022
Wind 2023
Wind 2024

Ongoing events:
fishing!

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completed scripts:
grassland script - VFADWTJD EUTDN EPTNZHTBTS, OJEWFIS XFI UFDCDZEL
= Mountain clans chasedaway, victory for longnecks

"they seem to be coded messages between beastclans... kinda lame, I was kinda hoping they'd be pieces of magic scrolls."