In the A to Z Challenge I will be describing parts of my fictional world I am starting to use for Roleplaying games. Most of this information is not known by my players, not to hide it from them, but because I think tons about a location that I won’t force them to sit through during gaming sessions.
The Star Woven Path is a series of conditional portals that link hundreds or thousands of forests together, not all belong to the same realm and cross many worlds. It is said that it would take a thousand years to traverse all possible paths. As the knowledge of how to build them spread and the creation of new avenues were opened, this may actually be an understatement.
The elves jealously guarded the secrets of the Star Woven Path, and utilize the verses of the Star Walkers Song to encode hints on how the various elven realms are reached along the starlit path. Each verse of the song is a riddle in the landscape and actions that must be followed. As these songs are passed down in elvish custom most elves will know a dozen or more verses, even if they do not know the answer on how to use them. Elvish loremasters will know hundreds and know what many mean. Often the answers are in an understanding of elvish poetry and features in the land.
Some verses are simple and understandable such as:
From Carhelin to Vormorhoral astride wings
Hopping as a cricket o’re four skipping stones blue
Midst the early morn dews flicked o’re the pond alive
Leaping between the old men mossed and still of age.
Others less so:
The green caern among lilies, ‘neath twin stars, giants.
Living breath of stones making song of living lights
Overcome a noisome smell of an aged beast
White sentinels twice then thrice part turned around
Unlike my depiction of dwarves in the last entry, elves are close to their typical fantasy behavior. While the dwarves in my campaign used a lot of influences from asian architecture and language, the elves take a lot of cues from gaelic language and celtic design influences.
Xystus of Games 