The Seasonal Realms or the Verbena Seasonal Realms are four seperate Realms within the Shade Realm of Life, otherwise known as the Umbral reflection of the planet Venus.
Formation[]
The Verbena Tradition claims that the Seasonal Realms once existed on Earth, but were preserved in the Shade Realm of Life during the fall of the Mythic Age by their legendary founder Lilith.
The Four Realms[]
- Winter Castle - The former palace of Dragonlord Viouvre in the French Alps was thought lost in the 1300s, but was rediscovered by Nightshade in the 1400s after a conversation with a Hermetic mage after the Grand Convocation. The Realm itself is mountanous with tall peaks or gently rounded mountain tops covered in a snowy, primordial pine forest.
- Caldwell (Coldwall) - A glacier covered in crystaline relief sculptures of mythic beasts.
- Winter Castle - An elegant medieval palace carver from the greystone bedrock of the mountains set on a high cliff accessible by flight or skilled climbing (though there is a hidden entrance on the valley floor as well). The castle is protected by the Guardians of the Tree, and provides protection for any Verbena visiting the Realm. In the castle's courtyard are one of the blood-oaks sacred to the Verbena Tradition.
- Spring Cottage (An Giblin Coille) - Originally located in the backwoods of the Catskilles Mountains, this cottage existed on Earth until 1913 when it slipped into the Umbra once all Sleeper memory of it had faded. It reappeared in a vision of Verbena Lady Charlotte Quay in 1969 during her Awakening. The Tradition discovered the cottage in the primordial Realm of springtime An Giblin Coille ("April Forest"). The Realm is a forest filled with cherry trees like whithered hands bearing pink blossoms, willows, and crabapple trees. By a small stream is a bottomless well.
- Spring Cottage - A quaint, well kept cottage of shaved timber beams surrounded by a flower garden. Inside the Cottage is one open space decorated with ancient agricultural tools like scythes and yokes, and lit by lanterns. Verbena gather here during Imbolc and Candlemas, or when the Moonseeker caretakers have parties. In the back of the Cottage is the Verbena World Tree, a sapling that represents the seeds of myth remaining on Earth that will slowly take root under the Traditions' guidance.
- Summer Grove - Legends claim this Realm was once part of the kingdom of Prester John who claimed to the kings and popes of Europe to rule a vast kingdom full of wonders that stretched from what is now Eithopia to Zimbabwe. The Order of Reason discovered the land and warred over it for 300 years, but no sign of its king was ever discovered. When it slipped from Sleeper memory the land shifted to the Umbra as Summer Grove. It was rediscovered by an unknown Verbena spirit-walker who was allegedly lead there by a dark goddess.
- The Realm is a huge grove of sacred oaks at the center of which is a a grove with an immense World Tree. The Verbena claim this tree is the adopted form of a Pure One now enslumbered. Most never venture beyond the world tree, however, as travelers in the Realm get a sense that it is dangerous to do so. Legends claim that if one explores further they loosee the ability to reason becoming creatures of pure insinct. The forest is said to give way to a savanna with a watering hole where animals, mythic and mundane, come to drink. Beyond that, perhaps there is desert. No one is sure.
- Autumn Circle - Autumn Circle was once a druidic sanctuary in Celtic Britain, and is the oldest of the Seasonal Realms. When the Romans came and began a purge of the druids, they retreated to their most powerful Node on the Isle of Man. In 61 CE, as the Romans closed in, the druids asked their gods to aid them. In exchange for all of their lives, the Node was saved from the Romans (presumably by Lilith) and moved to the Umbra. It was re-discovered in 575 CE by Welsh Bard Myrddin.
- The Realm is a large clearing flattened by eons of dancing. In the center is a stone altar shaped like a ring. From its center grows the Realm's brightly colored World Tree. The altar is marked with sigils from ancient, pagan cultures, some so old they are unrecognizable. Beyond is a moonlight forest in Autumn, and a sacred circle on a hill. The rest of the Realm is soggy, mist-covered downs, hedge mazes, and a pool with blue nothingness at its center.