Volume 4: The End of the World Chapter 6: Holy Tree Mother Temple
Seven thousand eight hundred naturally grown wooden steps wind their way up around the thick trunk of the World Tree - more like a winding mountain road than a ladder leading to the tree's canopy.
William had been here before.
Or rather, he had fought here before.
Back then, due to the influence of the seven disasters, the shell of the world protecting the present world became extremely fragile. The Void Kings of the Moon Realm tore apart the curtain, created rifts in the Moon Realm, and directly projected their power into the present world.
Most of the places where Moon Realm rifts are created have a mystical connection with the corresponding Void King of the Moon Realm. Back then, the Hungry and Corrupted Lady Camilla opened up the connection between the Lake of Entropy and the real world by corrupting the Ravenwood Forest, which had the most vitality in the entire Wick Continent.
The main plot of the Ravenwood map in the game is to remove the local corruption curse and expel the pollution of the Moon Realm. At that time, Camilla planned to completely corrupt the World Tree and turn it into a hotbed for the growth of corrupt forces, so that her body could cross the barrier of the World Shell and enter the real world.
It can be said that apart from the three Void Kings who successfully entered the real world in the ending of Waning Moon, Camilla is the one closest to the goal of entering the real world.
Of course, Camilla's plan was ultimately stopped by the Endwatch.
In addition to William and his fellow judges, there were also two powerful "god"-level beings who thwarted Camilla's conspiracy.
The "Great Mother", the will of the World Tree, and the "Father of the Wilderness", the common leader of the great spirits of the wilderness.
The main job of the End Watchers in the game is to run errands all over the Ravenwood area and unite the forest elves who were originally scattered. Finally, they summoned the "Big Mother" and "Father of the Wilderness", two gods believed by the forest elves. They resisted the erosion from the Lake of Entropy at the critical moment, buying time for William and his team to defeat Camilla's incarnation of nothingness and close the Moon Realm Rift.
In a sense, the fact that these two "gods" were able to withstand a direct attack from a Void King is already quite amazing.
This is also the main reason why William hopes to form an alliance with the forest elves.
Based on the strange traditions of the forest elves, William never expected them to provide him with any military support. After all, war is too cruel for this race.
If they want to fight against the Moon Realm in an all-out way, the current high-end combat power of the present world is still a little lacking. Although the Void Kings are not united, William cannot put all his hopes on the other side's internal strife and rely on luck to defeat them one by one.
It is a taboo to pin your hopes for victory on the stupidity of your enemy.
But then again, the true nature of "Big Mother" and "Father of the Wilderness", the two gods worshipped by the forest elves for generations, is also a very difficult question to answer.
Scholars of the Holy Spirit Church believe that the "Great Mother" and the "Father of the Wilderness", like many myths and legends on the Vic Continent, are reflections of mortals' incomplete memories of the Holy Spirit of Creation. The "Great Mother", which symbolizes the will of the World Tree, is a fragment of the Holy Spirit "Mother", while the "Father of the Wilderness", which symbolizes royal power and hunting, may be a mixture of the prototypes of the "Father" and the "Boy".
This is the more authoritative official statement, but William does not think it is the standard answer.
The "Father of the Wilderness" is likely to be similar to the God King Oka in the Black Water Mythology, who is a person of authority who obtains powerful power by imitating myths and legends through ritual magic. After all, every "Father of the Wilderness" must hold a "divine marriage" ceremony with the World Tree to gain powerful power. This is in line with the principle that when an authority is born, it needs to imitate past myths and legends to resonate and gain power.
But this is not the case with the “Big Mother.”
It has no personified manifestation, no spokesperson to exercise power, and it does not make decisions on its own. From these points of view, compared to gods, the "Big Mother" is more like a running program.
William guessed that this was a driver that could control the release of power from the World Tree.
His conjecture is not groundless.
A very crucial piece of evidence is that the ancestors of the forest elves were colonists from Ava. If the "Big Mother" is really people's imaginary memory of the creation of the world by the Holy Spirit, then the forest elves, as outsiders, have no original collective memory of the belief in the "Big Mother".
Before the Holy Spirit Church appeared, myths and legends were extremely regional. Early magic based on those myths, or what should be called "witchcraft", would weaken significantly or even completely lose its effectiveness after leaving the cultural circle of its casters.
Therefore, it is almost impossible in existing theory for the forest elf ancestors from Ava to shape the "Big Mother" into a god directly based on their common collective memories.
Of course, William actually doesn’t care about the origin of the “Big Mother”. As long as she doesn’t originate from the Moon Realm and will become his enemy in the future, it’s fine.
What he really cares about is how he should make good use of the power of "Big Mother" to fight against the Moon Realm.
Since the other party has no personality, there is no possibility of negotiation. In other words, the "Big Mother" is just a powerful colorless force, but it is currently controlled by the Forest Druid class.
Therefore, as long as he controlled the priest group of the forest elves, he would be able to indirectly control this power.
In the past, there had always been a deep conflict between the priest system of Ravenwood and the warrior class of the tribe. They only relied on the "divine marriage ceremony" to barely maintain a fragile relationship of interests.
I think even after more than a thousand years, the nature of this contradiction would not have changed much.
In this case, after William roughly understood the governance level of the Duke of Holy Tree through the "Wild Hunt"'s mode of action, he began to consider whether to turn to the priest group that believes in the "Great Mother" to discuss cooperation.
Of course, it’s just a consideration. Maybe those priests are even less human in comparison?
"But... the current Duke of the Holy Tree is actually a woman. Doesn't this mean that the ritual of the 'Father of the Wilderness' has been abolished?"
William kept mumbling as he quickly climbed up the stairs in two steps at a time. After all, there were 7,800 steps, and if he didn't move quickly, he would not be able to reach the top in a short time. If he didn't want to attract unnecessary attention, William might have chosen to use the Transfiguration spell to fly up.
Let’s get back to the point… It is impossible for women to inherit the power of the “Father of the Wilderness” through ritual magic.
So how did the current one hold the position of the Holy Tree Duke? You know, although the forest elves don't want to cause more killings than they can handle, they live with beasts and forests, and they are also a race that highly respects the strong and the concept of the survival of the fittest.
Among the forest elves, the weak cannot possibly win the support of the others; strength is the root of everything.
Why is that?
It was not until William climbed all the steps and arrived at the door of the Cenmu Gate that he thought of a possibility.
Could it be that the real backer behind the current Duke of Holy Tree is the Riel Empire?
Recalling what the Wild Hunt had said before - they were sent out to hunt down those who were against the Empire, William became more determined about this idea that had just come to his mind.
After thinking about this possibility, William's first reaction was to breathe a sigh of relief.
"It would be much easier if that were the case..."
William muttered to himself.
If the current Duke of Holy Tree is a staunch imperialist who needs the support of the empire to keep his position, then it would be the best thing for William.
The other party lacks both hard power and righteousness. Then I can choose not to negotiate at all, just take power directly, and then support someone who is willing to obey me.
In the end, instead of treating it as an ally, they directly brought Jade Province under their control like they did Blackwater Province.
If that was the case, then he could even deal with the Empire's expeditionary force to Ava at the same time. After all, the Emerald Province was the real "rear base" and strategic depth of the expeditionary force.
If he could take over the Jade Province, the expeditionary force's war would not even spread to the mainland of Ava.
Now that he has the resources of two provinces and has formed an alliance with Ava, he can try to challenge the empire directly.
Thinking of this, William, feeling a little excited, pushed open the white door directly.
If this is true, then my top priority is to contact the priest group that believes in the "Great Mother" to see if they are a superior force worthy of my support.
Just as he was thinking this, on the other side of the door, a forest elf woman who looked like a maid seemed to have been waiting here for a long time. After seeing William open the door, she immediately bowed to him respectfully.
"The Great Mother's listener learned of your arrival not long ago, and he has been waiting for you inside the temple for a long time."
The maid said so.
William was stunned for a moment when he heard this, and then he immediately became alert.
During this trip to the Jade Province, I should have kept it a secret very well. At least, no one in Holy Tree City should know that I was coming.
Is this what she says to everyone who comes here to make the pilgrimage?
Before William could ask, the other party continued:
"The Great Mother told us about your great feat of saving Ava in the Moon Realm not long ago. Therefore , please also save Ravenwood, which is in great danger."
