RELICS OF THE ANCIENT WORLD " -- Those committed to the principles of ancestor worship have chosen the shrines of Mount Juna as their place of worship and solace. There, they inhabit the temples ruined by the ancient Red-Tower's eruption and dedicated them to the alien terror of their mythic God. Those preaching his name pretend their God is still real, and that he exercises his will through the savage ash-storms, unforgiving climate and mutated monsters who have taken up residence at the Mount with their worship-brothers."
SUMMARY -- The Merid nomads and strange ash-deformed creatures of the region are the only living beings who are capable of enduring and thriving in the ash wastelands at the feet of Mount Juna. There is no evidence in the Hypatian College or the tales of Merid wise-women suggesting Mount Juna was ever green or populated: it has henceforth remained this way since the world formed in its first days, possessing a harsh biome of its own. Religiously, it was once believed a pilgrimage could be performed across the Ashlands in the belief that the god Trithys would eat their sins and purify their soul through hardened exploration of its breadth. Now, only those committed to the praise and adoration of Trithys remain in their shrines, living off the hunt of the region's animals and tree roots.
LEGENDS -- If one follows the tales spun by nomadic wise-women and the old poems of the College, it is believed the God Ninh-Ur carved the first shapes, words and symbols from Mount Juna's magma and fire with the Golden Razor and used them to educate the wandering Tryphaenian ancestors, showing them the fundaments of architecture and society. The evil ones lingering in the ashlands from the First Dawn burned in the excess of the Razor's light, chasing them within the bowels of the Red-Tower where they gathered and infested the forests around the Mount, transforming the hills into ash. Their congregation was the birth of five Gods, chief among them was Trithys, who gives dreams of prophecies and foresight of troubling times and natural disasters, testing the willpower and strength of the Dragastic people.