Legends of Eiyressia [EN]

Dead Lakes

Though life won in its war over death, Des'tri'dem's influence on Eiyressia has remained. Parts of the planet changed forever, becoming warped and twisted. As time passed, places like these were abandoned, allowing them to live their own life, without any kind of interaction from the human world. Some say, that it was done in fear of the unknown, other speak of the beauty, that comes with nature derived from depths of the Abyss. The leading example of such nature being the Dead Lakes, waters tainted by the touch of the dead.

Their water, once crystal-clean, now are turquoise, glowing ominously sometimes at night. Many stories tell of how soon after interacting with even the slightest amount of water, a person began to fell apart. His personality traits, emotions began to fade away, being replaced by their negative counterparts. These grow relentlessly, until a point where the person loses control over their own body, resulting in a suicide, close enough to a Dead Lake, so that his body will be entirely submerged in what led to his demise.

No one in his right mind would dare coming close to those lakes, fearing for their own lives. For people, who want to discover more about those dangerous places, await deadly abominations, monsters, which defend their homes till their death, regardless of their own safety. Often times, they are called "emerged".

These beings, were humans, who had succumbed to the effects of the waters, submerging in the Dead Lakes. Their bodies wither, the longer they are under water. What was destroyed is replaced by Dead-Lake coloured ooze. It works the same, as the turquoise water, leading to another unnecessary and easy to avoid death.

Though for many, the emerged have the bodies of once loved ones, the truth is, that their bodies are only husks, nothing more. None of them remembers their pasts, the person, they once were. Their sole purpose of existence, is to defend their new home, at all cost. You can call an emerged by his old name, reminisce about moments spent with his former self, yet he won't understand any of it. In his eyes, that person died and now lives someone else, unconnected in the slightest form with his past.

Luckily, emerged spend most of their miserable lives inside the Dead Lakes, lying there idle, just waiting for some brave soul, who will dare come close to them. At almost no time those beasts get out of the water, under their own will, waiting for moon to save them, a sign of freedom.

The worst of times, for those who dare settle close to the tainted waters, is full noon. During it, emerged come out of the lakes, wanting to come to places, they once often visited. For a brief moment in that night, some of their memories return. They follow the paths they walked so many times, roads, strode countless amount, trying to get in their old houses, to no avail. The moment, they see someone, they lose control, changing again in the beasts, that they've become.

They bite, shred, tear everything that comes in their way, without a moment of hesitation. Only once they are done with their work, consciousness returns, allowing them to despair over the action what has happened.

Full noon in many villages means one thing — danger. Villagers barricade their homes in fear, often forgetting about other people, who might need help during the night. Those, who won't manage to get home before dusk are left for dead. Many people don't sleep during the night, listening in horror to the unnatural sounds and attempts to utter simple words from the emerged. No one tries to talk to them, knowing that such an attempt would lead to their own death and nothing more.

Once the dawn arises, any thoughts of irrationality disappear. Wounds are tended to, any damage that occurred during the night repaired. At that time emerged come back to Dead Lakes, fed and strong after what they had done last night. At that time the world returns to normal, casting away from its course, even if for a moment, the nature of the Abyss.