The Binding of Wenafar

"Unklar sought out Wenafar after a time, and beseeched her to join him in his efforts. She was far-seeing, and held as one of the greatest of the Val Eahrakun and Wenafar spurned the Horned God, “Be off darkness, for you are the mote in his eye and bring discomfort to all you touch.” But she did not fully grasp the power of Unklar and had forgotten that it took the might of all the Named Val Eahrakun to drive Unklar into the Undeeps and she misjudged him.

In the north of the Lands of Ursal lay a small mountain without consequence. The dwarves of old had built a hill fort upon its flanks, but that they abandoned in the early days of the Kinship Wars. Unklar came to this mountain and raised it up, burying the fort and all around in heaps of stone and fresh soil. The Horned God drew water from the earth so that it pooled at the top in a mere, and he set many trees to grow about it. The mere was deep and still and cold, reflecting the heavens above as would a mirror. It was the most beautiful of all his creations, but its design was otherwise.

Into the water he set a powerful magic so that whomsoever looked into it became snared in time. The passing of days had no meaning for its victims, so that they remained there until their gaze should be broken. Unklar named it Monrudge, and it was a prison and a trap for Wenafar. Birds were Wenafar’s greatest love, and these she made of herself in the Days before Days and released to roam the wide world. She watched over them, and they were her eyes and ears all over the world. Rumor of a mere came to her, for birds spoke of it to her, relating tales of how no creature, great or small, could pass over it without being lost. She stole away to the mere in secret, to glean what she could of its making.

Few were the places of Aihrde that Wenafar had no knowledge of, and this was one. She knew it was of Unklar’s making, and saw many of her birds laying dead around the mere. She approached cautiously, but without fear, for she was a Val Eahrakun, and accounted the hand maiden of the All Father. That fearlessness was her undoing, for when she cast her gaze into the deep waters and saw the light of the skies above her, she fell into a trance. Sitting down by the lake she marveled at its beauty and wondered at the heavens that were partially of her own devising.

Unklar came to her then and wove a mist around the mere, and set snares and traps of his own devising, such than none could easily come to Wenafar’s aid. In later years, rumor of her came to men of bold intent and many tried to rescue her, but they left their bones, and their tales, upon the jagged cliffs of Monrudge.

There she remained for many hundreds of years."

Excerpt from the Codex of Aihrde, The Binding of Wenafar, Page 78