Karameikos - Vaults of Pandius

there was but one Eye, the Fire Opal used by QueenPetra to foresee the defeat of the Beast Men at thecost of the life of Halav Red Hair. Others claim thatthere are other Eyes: A Black Opal Eye, said to havebound the souls of the Terrible Sisters Trilena andKarelena; its misuse has also been cited as the causefor the Silent Forest in the middle of Dymrak’sWood, as well as the Silver Princess’ curse thatclaimed Lost Haven. Legends tell of an Azure Eye,said to be the source of All Knowledge, the stonethrough which Zirchev learned and taught the skillsof forging bronze to Halav, and use of the loom andwheel to Petra. The Huntsman’s knowledge of thestirrup and laminate bow were also said to havebeen gleaned from the stone. Some say that hispeople, the Darine, pay to this very day for Zirchev’smastery of Runic magic, that the price will be metwhen they find and master the Last Eye, the ViridianEye of Time.The White Witches. Historical anomalies, thesefigures appear over and over again in the tales of theTraladarans, and, in fact, many other culturesthroughout the Known World of Thorn’s Mystara.Tapestries surviving from the earliest days after thedefeat of the Beast Men (such as one recovered fromthe Temple of the Shield) show them in thecompany of Halav and Petra. Woodcuts of theearliest Thyatian missionaries’ transcriptions of theSong of Halav — even verses of the Song itself —reference the pale golden-haired girls. Are theyelves? Faeries? No two sources agree on their originor purpose, except that they come to the aid ofheroes in their darkest hours. Or is it that they lureheroes to their doom?Zirchev’s Folk, and His Gift: One tribe chose toflee Traladara, rather than face the onslaught of theBeast Men, only to return some 400 years later afterwandering the Great Waste and the Plain of Fire farto the west. They have never truly been welcomedback, and are regarded with an even deeperbehind the weaves. Because theTower of Seven Lights is located inthe Alphatian capital, thosestudying methodical, rigidcoursework are called SundsvallInitiates. Their weaves tend to bemore powerful when workingwithin their Talents, but they areunable to do much beyond whatthey haven’t yet learned. Bycontrast, those who forego studyat the Tower to learn on their own,or with a non-Tower-trainedmentor follow the Cipriantradition of instinct and trial-anderror.This is the method favoredby the Flaemish weavers of Braejrand the Glantrian Alps. While theirweaves tend to pack slightly lesspunch than those of theirAlphatian counterparts, Ciprian“Wilders” (as those in Sundsvallrefer to them) have a widerbreadth of weaves to use withintheir chosen Talents.Clerical and druidic magicfunction just as written in the D&DRules Cyclopedia.These changes wrought on themagics of Thorn’s Mystara involvesignificant alterations to the twomagical powerhouse nations ofAlphatia and Glantri. But we’llhave to save those summaries forfuture issues of Threshold....79THRESHOLD: The Mystara Magazine Issue #1