Starfall Stone

The Starfall Stone is a thin, sharp edged rock which ascends from the fathomless depths of the Roiling Abyss to break the surface at the eye of that great storm. A sphere of calm waters and air surrounds this point, a shelter within the massive tempest, but not one eagerly sought: there are not plants or animals, no fresh water, upon the Stone, and the waters here are devoid of fish and other sea creatures or plants.

Visitors to the Stone are rare indeed. To a ship swept into the Roiling Abyss, reaching the Starfall Stone is a terrible sign, for it means one is as far as one can be from escaping the tempest. But to those who are foolish enough to try and cut across the Abyss, the Stone represents brief respite before the second leg of the journey.

Once every one hundred and one years, however, a visitor arrives: a Chosen of Journeys comes to the stone, ascending its sheer face by way of hidden paths. At the highest point of the stone, dotted with pearlescent metal, a droplet of salt water has grown from the near-negligible spray that has made its way inward from the storms beyond the Stone’s sphere of calm. The visitor takes a cloth of ochre Celestial Silk and wipes the droplet away, then descends once more.

The purpose of this ritual has been lost to most memory, with even the gods of Yu-shan and the Sidereal Exalted left to muse on its origins, and for every Sidereal and more there is a different theory put forth. Some who speak that the Five Maidens once numbered more wonder if the Stone marks where their number was reduced to its current state. Others think it marks where the first Exalt, of the Fivescore Fellowship, fell at the opening of the Primordial War. The most ancient gods, who lived through those ancient times, pass no comment, perhaps treasuring their secrets, perhaps unwilling to admit that the Arcane Fate of the Star Chosen has had deeper effects than most have realized...