Rituals and Words of Wyr (first age)

Wyr'Palja
"Wyr"
First Age
Twilight Solar
Deceased

Student of Speriman.
Focus of study: Essence, Exaltation, Yozi Influence on essence, life, and patterns.

What is known:

* Sought and perhaps completed work on a ritual of cleansing for Primordial taint and corruption in natural essence. A reversal theory based on study in shadowlands, primordial remains, and wyld cleansing of infestations.
* She created a manse of learning with her circles and peers. It is somewhere
"in the east".
* Killed by her own circle to protect Creation. Many believed her mad, many saw her as a pioneer. Why the divergent view is difficult to ascertain.
* Lilith knows of Wyr more than most. Wyr did study with Brigid for a time.
* Corvant and Silver have some information. Silver just a little. Corvant may have written works by Wyr but was not willing to share that information openly.
* No one knows if Wyr has been reborn yet or have names of her first circle.

Lost Manse of Wyr
During the First Age, a group of solar and lunar exalted grew weary of the excesses of their brethren. Disillusioned, they withdrew from exalted society and sought an isolated place of their own. During their search, one of their number—a Twilight named Divash—discovered an extremely unusual demesne deep in the jungle east of Rathess. After months of study, Divash became convinced that he could design a manse upon it aspected to both solar and lunar essence, a feat unheard of previously (and since). Anxious to start, Divash convinced the rest to join him in building this manse and to make it their new home. One of those he lured to his side was Wyr, a twilight eager to understand the devastating effects of the Abyss on the world.

Building this dual-aspected manse quickly became an obsession with Divash and most of the others in the group. Initially relying on their own charms and sorcery, the group took to using human labor
and conscripted sorcerers to speed the process. As the manse grew, so did the need for labor. In their obsession, the exalted assumed that the human laborers were just as determined as they to build the unique manse and felt that the humans would see the opportunity to work on it as its own reward. As such, the laborers were no better than slaves, conscripted without compensation. Slowly, the exalted
began treating them as slaves, using them to staff the manse and cater to their needs. They drafted a small cadre of dragon-blooded to keep them in line. By the time the main structures of the manse were completed, the group had become just as decadent as the Exalted society from which they had withdrawn. The exalted enjoyed their creation and isolation for only a few years before the Usurpation began. Even in isolation, the exalted heard of the treachery, though the staff of the manse remained
ignorant. The immediate reaction of the exalted was to slaughter their dragon-blooded staff. Content that they were safe in isolation, and sure their decadent brethren would turn back the usurpers, the group settled back into isolation.

Without the dragon-blooded keeping them in line, the human staff began to abandon the manse, slowly at first, but soon in droves. The exalted barely noticed, more concerned with the Usurpation, which was going very badly for their kind. Eventually, the exalted decided to join the fight, and left the manse to reinforce the other exalted. By then, however, it was far too late, and the dragonblooded destroyed them.

Only the humans forced to help build the manse now knew of its existence, and these, too, passed away soon enough. Like so much of the First Age, the existence of the manse was forgotten, and
the jungle soon claimed the manse. Though the jungle intruded through the centuries, the manse
remained intact, resisting the effects of age, weather and nature. That changed roughly 200 years ago when a meteor struck the manse. Whether this was coincidence, providence or divine will, the impact knocked down a portion of the manse, though the manse absorbed a good deal of the meteor’s energy.

The contrail of the meteor was seen by a gold faction sidereal named Octaliel, who tracked down the point of impact in the hope of salvaging starmetal. She recognized the manse for what it was, though the method of its construction was beyond her. Completely stunned that a manse that had taken such damage still remained more or less functional, she spent a good deal of time studying it, discovering (but not understanding) its dual solar and lunar nature.

Determined to help solars reclaim their destiny, Octaliel resolved to rebuild the manse. After retrieving the starmetal from the meteor, she summoned a number of spirits and demons to help her patch the damage as well she could and to protect the manse while she left to gather assistance for the rebuilding effort, using an artifact found in the manse to bind the demons within the building.

Unfortunately, she did not get far with her rebuilding plans. In Nexus, a rival quarreled with her over the starmetal and accidentally killed her. Though her rival did manage to get the precious ore, Octaliel took the secret of the manse with her to her grave.

For nearly two hundred years, the spirits and demons in the manse have waited. Though some managed to escape the manse once Octaliel died, others were not strong enough to get past the manse’s defenses and remain inside, plotting their escape.

Three Gated Cage

The work of Wyr

Notes

Unpublished works, personal library pieces, the notebooks of Wyr include diverse topics. From alchemy to quintessence, ambrosia of Yu Shan to simple home remedies, the subjects of transmutation laid at the very heart of her work. She believed if Creation became from a singularity, from the same source, then understanding how that source transformed, you could come to reunite, or remove, aspects of that source. This would in turn create or reunify differing realities of a particular subject.

In some ways, this was a form of quantum spell theory.

Her Workbooks

Unnamed works, much like her notebooks, Wyr's notebooks include not only theory but the test and effect of those theories on the world. The true heart of these theories began not so much with mundane devices, but a friend and Solar who fell to corruption during the Primordial wars.

According to legend, when the solar Baradine was corrupted by a primordial, she was restored through the depth of work performed not only by Wyr, but primarily upon her research. This research became known as the ritual of the Three Gated Cage.

One of the first Solars, Baradine had her nature twisted by the touch of She Who Lives in Her Name, a Yozi fought against during the wars. Because she had been corrupted, the gods refused to aid Baradine in finding her path back. Once touched, the gods turned their backs upon the chosen of heaven. Many celestial exalts simply accepted this as the way it must be. But a few felt determined to save their comrades as the wars progressed.

Of all of the heroes blackened by the Primordial wars, only Baradine was successfully saved. The legend states a group of solar and lunar exalted who had fought with her refused to abandon her. Various stories mention that that they managed to restore her, including one story that refers to a device that aided them as a cage made of three sides, three gates.

What is the Three Gated Cage?

Few alive recall anything of this fabled creation. And those who do remember Wyr often see her as a madwoman. There was a reason heaven turned their backs on those touched by the Primordials and Yozis. But heaven is not speaking.

Where is this fabled cleansing ritual? What does it entail? Is the lore of it hidden in the notebooks? the workbooks? the ruins of a dual-aspected manse lost somewhere in the jungles of the east? Or is this all...a fairy tale?