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The Axes of Destruction

Father Augustus and Sister Whiteoak had been rivals as long as anyone could remember, each teaching two very different faiths. Often they would rant against the beliefs of the other in the marketplace, though Veldegreen was a quiet village with a long history and their followers coexisted mostly in peace.

The first time they came together to agree on anything was when the Prodigal King sent his axe men to commit the great blasphemy of hewing down the Tree of the Covenant.

The Church of the Potter's Wheel taught that the heroine Risah Ariah became a Saint of the Heavenly Realms when she was martyred by wicked druids, the great tree that miraculously sprouted from the place her blood was spilled warding off the evils of their witchcraft and marking the Divine Sculptor's mastery over the forest. While the Vessels of the Wildlands believed that Risah had in fact undergone a ritual to forge a pact with the restless spirits of the forest, becoming the Tree and the symbol of their peace with human kind.

However bitterly they disputed this, both agreed that the Prodigal King's axe men could not be permitted to hew the Tree down to build a royal pleasure ship for the new king to use to tour the world. And so it was there they were both chained to the great tree and hacked to pieces for defying the orders of royalty, their blood dripping down to soak into the great roots that each were as thick as a man's torso.