Like that of most early residents of Icemule Trace, the abbess’ tale begins to the south in Wehnimer’s Landing.  Early in her life, she made the choice to dedicate herself to serving Oleani, goddess of spring and of love.   On a mountaintop in Sentoph, southwest of the Landing, far from the bustle of city life, there stood a grand temple aptly named the Temple of Love.  It was there that she enlisted her service, and served as a Novice to the order of priestesses that called the temple home.  The order itself was dedicated to serving the small surrounding villages of farmers and woodsmen, and to honoring the rites of their goddess.

If you travel to that remote mountain, even today, you can see the temple or what is left of it. It now stands in ruins, decades of darkness having taken their toll.  If you dare to venture into the temple as it is now and climb the rickety ladder that leads to the building’s attic, after making your way through discarded symbols of ancient rites, you will find a small window.  Sitting on the small bench before that window as you look out over the countryside, a castle can be seen perched high on one of the surrounding mountaintops the west.  Through that window a novice of the order, a young girl who we now call the abbess, watched as her fate began it’s long journey

There seems to be no record of who owned the castle, or if it was even inhabited at all.  Of the few documents that were gathered after the fall of the temple, it appears that the priestesses never met their neighbors.  On the occasions that they would travel into the mountains, they would always find nothing but an empty courtyard. But, sitting in that window, they could see the darkness unfolding before their eyes.  It was a sort of spiritual darkness that seemed to simply consume everything in its path. Starting at the walls of the castle, it spread out over the countryside like a plague.  Several groups of priestesses were sent out to investigate, and were never seen again.  Frightened villagers from the surrounding settlements began to arrive at the temple seeking safety.  With them, they brought tales of horrific sights and sounds, tales of entire communities simply vanishing into the darkness.

Soon the darkness began to approach the temple, high on its mountainside.  Afraid for her order, the High Priestess of the temple sent the refugees away.  The priestesses prepared to make a last effort to save themselves and the temple itself.  On their holiest day, that of the spring equinox, they planned to hold holy rites and call upon Oleani herself to save them.  What really happened that night is now lost in the rumor and gossip that tends to follow such an event.

On the morning of the equinox as the sisters prepared for their final ceremony, the novice who would become our abbess wandered outside to walk the temple’s garden and pray.  The approaching darkness worried her greatly and she sought the goddess’ help though her humble prayers.  So lost in her meditation she was that she didn’t even notice when a small bird landed on a branch near where she knelt.  As the bird began its song, she became entranced.  As she stood the bird flew off, landing in a tree to the edge of the garden.  From tree to tree the bird flew and from tree to tree she followed, as if lost in a trance.  Leading her far away from the temple and from the approaching darkness.

Night began to fall, and the young novice knew she must return to the temple for the ceremony would begin when the moon of Liabo was high in the sky.  As she traveled back through the forest, she began to notice that the area had become strangely silent.  There was none of the usual chatter from the creatures of the forest, or even the sound of the spring breeze through the leaves of the trees.  Finally, she reached the edge of the temple grounds and, there too, the silence was overwhelming.  The temple itself appeared as if it hadn’t been inhabited in years.  The garden had been left untended, the walls starting to crumble in places, though it could not have been more than a few hours since that bird had lead her away.

As she approached the entrance to the temple she called home, she found to door strangely ajar.  It seemed, as if the temple had been deserted in just the time she was gone.  There was no sign of life at all within the temple walls.  As she crossed the threshold, she was almost overcome by the stench, a mixture of dust and decay.  Stepping over shards of broken glass, she made her way through the temple, looking for any sign of her sisters.  It was if some great force had swept through and destroyed everything in its path.  The flowers that once adorned the temple lay dead and crumbled at her feet among the broken glass and debris.

Making her way through the darkened hallways, she looked about her with a mixture of awe and growing fear.  First to the meditation garden, where she had been just a short time earlier and then further within the temple.  Then she stopped at the altar, overlooking the ruined sanctuary.  In silent prayer, she knelt before the abandoned altar.  A dark, chilling laughter came from the shadows.  She turned to see the high priestess standing behind her.

The priestess looked down expectantly at her.  As the priestess grew closer, the novice could see that something had changed within her beloved matriarch.  Her robes clung, tattered, to her withered form.  Her once lustrous hair hung about her face like a shroud.

“You have no reason to fear me”, the priestess said as she moved slowly closer.

At first the novice was overcome by fear, unable to move from her place before the altar.

“I would never harm you”, the priestess smiled soothingly.

Her senses returning, the novice rose to her feet and began to run just as the priestess raised her hand to strike.  Unsure where to turn, the novice made her way to the city of Wehnimer’s Landing.  There, there was a great temple dedicated to the goddess of death.  Surely, she must be able to find answers there,

As she sat in the chapel before the altar, a group of monks happened upon her.  Realizing that she was clearly distraught, they asked her if they could be of service.  She told them of the darkness and of the ritual that had been planned.  Then, sheepishly, she told them of how she had wandered off that morning.  With a deep mournful sigh, she continued, telling them of how she had returned to the Temple of Love to find it abandoned and of the high priestess appearing as some sort of apparition.

The monks were clearly shocked, but continued to question the girl.  Sensing that there was something of her story they were reluctant to believe, she asked them if there was anything they could tell her.  They whispered among themselves for a moment and then asked her why it was that she had wandered off on such an important day.  That was when she told them of the bird that had captivated her so.

Nodding in approval, the monks took the girl aside into the Lord Cleric’s private office.  They told her that while she did appear to be of the order that presided over the Temple of Love, it was simply impossible for her to have been there that morning among her sisters.  For, it was nearly a decade passed since any one of them had been heard from; ten long years since the darkness took the temple.

She stared at them in awe, as they continued.  It was their belief that, for some reason know only to her, Oleani herself had sent the bird to lure the girl away from the destruction that was on it’s way.  And that the goddess had kept her in a state of peaceful captivation until it was safe for her to return and tell the story.  Unable to believe at first, the girl insisted that it had been just that morning.  But, even she had to admit that the temple was deserted and appeared to have been so for some time.

She stayed there in the temple for a few months.  As she rested and time went on, she herself began to believe that Oleani had spared her for a reason.  The order must carry on, even in the face of such destruction.  After much thought, the girl decided that it would be simply too painful to try to rebuild near the site of the former temple.  She would, instead, travel north to the town of Icemule Trace.  The town of Icemule was itself dedicated to Laethe who is a loyal patron of Oleani.  There could not be a more fitting place to make a new start.

With a tearful farewell, she left the monks in the temple and traveled north over the glaciers.  After a long difficult journey, she finally made it to Icemule Trace, only to find that the town itself was locked in its own battle of darkness.

There was a lord who lived to the northeast of town, in a secluded stronghold.  There he would stay, spending most of his days counting his coins and wishing for more.  He began to hear voices in the cold night air.  At first, he had dismissed them as his imagination but they continued to grow louder.  Night after night, the voices told him that he could be powerful and rich beyond his dreams.  Finally he gave in and responded to the voice, asking how he would come to gain that power.  The voice replied, ‘You shall build me a shrine, a shrine to Amasalen’.  He obeyed the voice, and built a shrine in the hills to the west of town.  Over time, others came to seek the same power and a cult to the lord of blood formed in Icemule.

To save another lengthy story, it will suffice to say that the town was plagued by sacrifices and fear.  The lord came to realize that he had been tricked by Amasalen, but it was too late to save himself.  He prayed to Laethe, and begged him to save the town from the horrors that he had set in motion.  There was a great battle of light and darkness, but in the end, the will of the town overcame any darkness that sought to take them.

The lord had heard of our novice and the group of priestesses that had come to join her in service to Oleani.  Believing that his prayer to Laethe was heard, and in turn heard by Oleani, the lord wished to show his gratitude and sincerity.  On the day after the great battle, he turned over all of his belongings, including his stronghold, to the priestesses so that they might continue to carry out their work.  In an effort to make clear the symbolism of the gesture, he had carved upon the oak entry lintel the words ‘To attone for our many sins, we bestow this hall and the surrounding lands on the Merciful Sisters.’ Even before they had a chance to thank him he was gone, never to be heard from again.

The sisters set about consecrating the stronghold and rebuilding the order.  Soon, the building was completed and they renamed it ‘The New Hope Abbey’.  The novice became the abbess of the new abbey.  There, they held the same rites that she had been taught as a young girl.  They also dedicated a good portion of their time to research.  It was the goal of the abbess to discover what exactly it was that happened to her temple in the landing, and assure that nothing of that sort would happen again.

After many long hours of prayer and the following of many fruitless leads a book fell into the hands of the abbess.  Within its pages was a description of a ritual with a result bearing an eerie resemblance to the darkness that overtook the priestesses to the south.  After just a brief look at what the book contained, the abbess hurriedly locked it in a cabinet within her private chamber.  Fearing what might happen, she forbade anyone from reading it further.

The book was rumored to have belonged to a great sorceress.  In the hopes of learning more about the ritual, and perhaps of finding something to counter its effects, the abbess set out to find her.  She knew it would be a risk, but the need to free her sisters outweighed any fears that she had.  And so, making sure that the book was locked away safely, she set out on her journey.

It wasn’t long after she had left; the curiosity of the priestesses got the better of them.  What exactly they were thinking, it is likely will never be known.  Perhaps they thought that they themselves could find an answer.  Perhaps it was pure curiosity.  In any case, one fact is clear.  The priestesses found that book that the abbess had taken such care to hide.  Somehow, they managed to invoke the darkness once again.

It was months before the abbess returned to her beloved abbey.  One can only imagine the happiness she felt as she crossed through the gates of Icemule once more, ready to make her way up the mountain and rejoin her sisters.  That happiness faded as she began her climb up the mountainside.  Joy replaced by nagging memories.  The unrelenting silence as she approached the abbey, the ruins of her dream.

To face such complete sorrow not once, but twice was more than she could withstand.  Grief mingled with the guilt of not securing the book overtook her.  It is said that Zelia felt pity for her that day, and graced her with the blessing of insanity.

Now left to wander Icemule Trace, for she has no home to return to.  The keys that once kept the cursed book confined still hanging about her waist. She makes her way through town, warning of the darkness.  Silent prayers forever lingering on her lips, she offers blessings to those who pass by, most of whom dismiss her not knowing the truth that she speaks.  Watching helplessly as the townsfolk go about their lives, forever knowing that the darkness is out there, waiting to be unleashed again.