#avoalet: the water garden

[phoenixiancrystallist]

Forspoken Photo Dump 35: Avoalet, The Water Garden, Part 1

[phoenixiancrystallist]

The skulls are stacked up on a table in Derbent Cave, the one behind the town, tucked into an out-of-the-way corner

The main part of the cave is a wide-open room, littered with the helmets and bows of Unjust Enforcers. Some of those helmets have been pinned to the ground by arrows, almost like the Enforcers had turned on each other for some reason.

And for bonus what the fuck points, in the bed behind all those hides (which is also where the game of Skull Jenga is hiding) is a corpse missing its head and every limb except its left leg

Chichek is such a bizarre town. I honestly don't know what to make of it.

Every skeleton I've been able to find within it is headless. And I haven't been able to find their skulls anywhere. Just a bunch of headless skeletons in various states of repose. Only one features the weapon that killed them: an individual sitting propped up against the dry central fountain. And that weapon is a sword; strange, considering that Avoalet's executions tend to involve arrows rather than blades.

A whole slew of headless skeletons, no skulls in sight, and only a single clear cause of death that seems to have nothing to do with the resident Tanta's minions.

It's so bizarre. And very different from any other settlement I've come across.

[phoenixiancrystallist]

Forspoken Photo Dump 39: Avoalet; The Water Garden, Part 4

[phoenixiancrystallist]

Forspoken Photo Dump 37: Avoalet, The Water Garden, Part 3

[phoenixiancrystallist]

Forspoken Photo Dump 41: Avoalet; The Water Garden, Part 6

[phoenixiancrystallist]

Forspoken Photo Dump 40: Avoalet; The Water Garden, Part 5

[phoenixiancrystallist]

Forspoken Photo Dump 38: Avoalet, The Water Garden, Part 3

[phoenixiancrystallist]

Forspoken Photo Dump 36: Avoalet, The Water Garden, Part 2

[phoenixiancrystallist]

Forspoken Photo Dump 91: Visoria; Shepherd's Meadow, Part 2

[phoenixiancrystallist]

Forspoken Photo Dump 90: Visoria; Shepherd's Meadow, Part 1

[cruelfeline]

A pair of skeletons hidden away in a little alcove above the waterways of the Water Garden in Avoalet. They managed to find a spot safe from all of the Broken crocodilians, and I expect they ultimately succumbed to starvation or exposure or disease or Break. Bittersweet to see that they died holding hands.

I wonder what sort of psychological effect these scenes have on Frey. They're endless: so many little tragedies scattered across Athia. The depressing discoveries never seem to stop. I imagine it's tough for her, day after day after day, seeing the endless evidence of suffering. Especially with the cause of it embedded in her right arm. Likely being a dick the whole time.

[cruelfeline]

So this is a "fun" scene early on in Avoalet. Near the central Water Garden refuge, I think.

We have four people. Two sitting and looking relatively unharmed, save for being skeletons. One crushed under the remains of a wagon, itself crushed by a boulder. And another crushed by a different Boulder.

I supposed this could have been a landslide... but, given Prav's gravity magic, it could also have been great stones falling from the sky: a result of Prav's magic going haywire as she descended further into madness.

Or! If one wants to be really dark, one could imagine that Prav herself directed these stones to fall where they did. Adamant that her people remain in her realm, no matter the cost. Perhaps punishing them for running.

Can y'all imagine that? Nearly out of Avoalet. Cipal nearly in sight. Almost there... only to have your family and supplies and possessions suddenly crushed right in front of you. Maybe the other two skeletons were injured in the event. Maybe they just couldn't keep going in the face of such a horrific setback.

Either way, they're all dead now.

[phoenixiancrystallist]

I have officially queued a week and a day of photo dumps. Finished off Praenost and all of the Water Garden in Avoalet! The Water Garden is the biggest dump yet, with 55 photos split across six parts XD

So y'all have ALL sorts of pretty pictures to look forward to ;)