Questionable Questing

Going well. Getting votes. Waiting to see who sticks and who will give good feedback. And it was a eroge?
Want to talk about the Groves of the Shattered Kingdoms and the Old God druids and witches who dwell there?

It's a rumor, again never verified but I wouldn't be surprised if it was. And the Groves, sounds spooky, what are those?

Good Cows

Places of rune stone alters and circles where the presence of the Old Gods is most concentrated. Sacred trees fed on blood and pain grown dark with sacrifice. Here, the lore and power of the spirits of Allowan is kept, added to and refused.

Its been where Warlocks and enchantresses since before the Tormathi and the Eternal Fires of the fleeing Dragon slaves have practiced their craft of calling on the primal magics of the world. They are hidden and protected, communities grown up in them are overseen by druids and Invested of the Old Gods.

They've been both a reason why the cultic forces of the heathens have been disorganized and why they never go away. Their both without unity and hard to destroy. Compare the Tormathi creating sorcerous academies and using the principes of their temple scripture to formulate a tight logical system of mysticism to power wizard schools.

So hidden mythical forests surrounding dark magic runes and alters. Sounds cool and spooky. What would it take to destroy one of these circles and properly purify the land of its spirits? Since it seems that would be the ultimate goal of the Tormathi.

I've had an idea for this. The Defiling wars. When Old God aligned lords and ladies tried to burn down the most holy templels of the Tormathi and the Tormathi attempted to destroy the sacred sites of the most venerated and feared spirits like Father Winter.
The Defiliing Wars were short lived as it brought down avatars of Summer to slay and burn

Angels came from the void and smote the wicked. Both sides had their gods ruin the other and it led to general rules of don't try to obliterate rival religions entirely.

In the long run it seems the Tormathi are winning though. Not just because of better organization but by creating and sponsoring centers of higher learning they position themselves to be future administrators, lawyers, and advisors. Thus giving them some serious institutional power surrounding the infrastructure of the Kingdoms. Something no king will be able to fully root out without crippling themselves.

Indeed. The advantage of the Groves is the bardic traditions they feed and the rural places who rely on them. The Old Gods are massively tied into the seasons, agriculture, hunting and fishing. There's always someone wanting their help.

Would be cool if you had herders of sheep or cows regularly pass by these ritual circles as they make their grazing path to avoid winter down south, and in the process sacrifice some of those animals, have a little festival with wine and dancing. Maybe set up some trade deals or betrovals. Then at the end, they have the Shammen bless their animals, maybe heal any injuries or sickness.

Just a nice little flavor event or background stuff that immediately comes to mind when you mentioned seasons.

I like that a lot. Now, Hamish has been invited by Lucan to allow Grove druids into the acadmies. There are Tormathi sages who think this is folly. Allowing the chaos and destruction of the Old gods in. Lucan is doing it as a bleeding heart wanting peace, but also, if Hamish is lecturing, he isn't skinning people and ripping out their organs to feed to trees. Lucan wants to domisticate the Old Gods traditions.

Hamish, he wants to bind the Groves together and make proper organization. While keeping individuality. The Eternal Fires of the dragonlords are on the downswing after the fall of the Old King. Hamish would have the Groves intergrated more with the courts, wanted by the nobles for advice and power

Can it even be domesticated if so much of the magic they've developed is based on sacrifice and bloodshed?

Do criminals or animals.

Sure but is everyone else going to accept that? And plus it's like trying to reform the Sith. If your magic system is based off of fear and suffering it's kind of hard to pivot into puppy dogs or rainbows. Of course the groove isn't that bad, but the point still stands. They have hundreds, maybe thousands of years, of sacrifices and blood flowing into these forests. You think they can slow it down now?

People not accepting that is the principled opposition against Lucan's position of supporting the Groves as part of a larger High Throne.

Oh, I'm not criticizing it. I'm just saying it's a great source of drama and how a lot of people are going to absolutely hate the idea of being forced to "civilize" for the sake of their genocidal neighbor.