Panels of the Past

Panels discovered in the Vault of Thorns depicting W_rm’s (???) possible past.

On the Bridge §

First scene §

• Starts with scenes of a handsome couple in a town square, holding hands.
• What stands out it that the dark-haired man is wearing a kilt and the woman has an embroidered coat of arms on the front of her dress
  • Look very much like the traditional attire of the Forfar region
    • Coat of arms is that of the ApBlanc clan.

Second scene §

• Shows the man riding away in armor on a horse in barding and armed hordes can be seen in the distance.

Third scene §

• screen is split
  • The man is fighting hordes of enemies.
  • The woman, now pregnant, is praying together with druids, likely for the safe return of the man

Fourth scene §

• The man kills the leader of the enemies and the druids conjure torrential storms, driving the enemy forces away in a chaotic route

Fifth scene §

• Soldiers with hanging heads return and the woman is watching on, tears streaming down her checks and fall on her rounded belly

Panels in the High Druid’s Council Chamber §

Sixth scene §

• The man is depicted in the same town square you saw in the first panel at night, but his face is pale and he bears pale white scars of grievous wounds

Seventh scene §

• The woman rushes onto the town square at night, with a desperate look on her face, which borders on madness

Eight scene §

• Has multiple parts showing the woman being locked away be an older couple, who also wear the ApBlanc coat of arms, likely her parents
• Other parts of the panel showing the woman with a obsessed expression on her face, running through the streets of a small town

Nineth scene §

• Two parts; showing dead life stock animals and dead people, with drops of blood shown quelling from small wounds

Tenth scene §

• Two parts: A mob following a trail of blood drops; the woman on her knees in front of the older man shown earlier, pleading. The older man turns his head away from the woman.

11th scene §

• The mob in the town square, presenting the head of the man and his decapitated body. The woman is shown as having thrown herself across the corpse, crying bitter tears. Some of the town onlookers are shown to cast a side eye towards the swollen belly of the woman.

12th scene §

• The woman gives birth to a healthy-colored boy with straw-blond hair

Panels in the Lily Pad Path §

13th scene §

• A mob is shown to batter down the door of the woman’s family’s house, while she escapes through the backdoor, baby in her arms, running towards what looks like a sacred druidic grove with a massive oak tree in the middle

14th scene §

• The woman hands the baby to a female druid with fiery red hair

15th scene §

• In the background the druid can be seen slipping away with the baby
• In the foreground that mob has slung a rope over the branches of the sacred oak and is hanging the woman.

16th scene §

• To the left
  • The female druid is shown with the baby in her arms
  • In the middle druids cutting down the hanged woman from the tree
• To the right
  • A high druid holds a mob at bay and first people the crowd turn away.

Panels in the Greenhouse §

17th scene §

• Female druid raises the boy to a handsome man, teaching him courtly arts, horsemanship, music, fencing, chess. Notably absent is any teaching of druidic arts.

18th scene §

• Night under a full moon, showing the young man bent over the body of a doe, looking up towards the moon with blood smeared around his mouth
• In the distance the female druid can be seen with a shocked expression on her face.

19th scene §

• Three parts
  • Upper part: The female druid meditating under the sacred oak, a cup at her lips, bend over a blessed antler, the young man can be seen watching her from the bushes.
  • Middle part: The young man has attacked the female druid, who has in turn driven the points of the blessed antler in his chest, making the young man howl in pain.
  • Lower parts: The eye teeth of the young man have lengthened to sharp points and he seems to drink the blood of the female druid, tearing her to shreds, while his own is pouring out of him through the holes the antlers made.

20th scene §

• Druids bury the female druid’s body and leave the sacred grove over which now a dark cloud of evil hovers.

Panels Beyond the Greenhouse §

21st scene §

• Fire ravages the grove, but the sacred oak from which the mother of the boy have been hanged and under which the female druid died is completely untouched by it.
• On the edges of the panel large wolves can be seen to encroach on the land and town.

22nd scene §

• A young man, wearing a kilt with the coat of arms of the ApBlanc clan and a lute slung over his back, is shown in the sacred grove amidst the young trees, instructing workers to build an estate and hack down every tree in sight except the old oak.
  • Young Minstrel
  • Castle ApBlanc

23rd scene §

• Split into scenes of grand balls held in the complete estate
• the man with the lute (minstrel) proposing to a woman carrying a holy symbol of Sarenrae around her neck, but she turns her head away
• The minstrel and the Sarenrae cleric getting married
• The couple raising 3 sons in a now empty castle, while gardeners outside pull out tree saplings from the ground

24th scene §

• Top
  • A young boy of maybe 12 years being torn apart by wolves, the minstrel/cleric couple watching on in horror.
  • Gilan
• Middle
  • An adolescent boy of maybe 18 being stabbed in the back by an assassin
  • Morholt
• Bottom
  • The minstrel seem to be searching for something – or someone – in the empty castle, while the Sarenrae cleric is flinging herself off a caste tower
  • In the background a young man of maybe 22 years, also wearing a symbol of Sarenrae is being dragged away by a misshapen creature.
    • Bythos
    • Bragain ApBlanc ⦁ The castle stands empty, its servants lying either dead or running away

Panels in the Room of the Mushroom Nymph §

25th scene §

• Top
  • The former estate seems to have grown by a grand hall and another tower. A light shines out of a window of the highest tower. Again trees are being felled around the castle
• Middle
  • A small army streams from the village at the foot of the castle riding under a coat of arms, being beaten back by a hodgepodge of mercenaries
  • Behind the line of mercenaries, workers adding walls to the existing building, creating a full-blown fortified castle with the old oak in its courtyard
• Bottom
  • The castle towers over the land, which seems to be overrun by hideous creatures
    • Wolves as large as ponies
    • Strange creatures which looked like a hideous confusion of human and animal parts
    • Even trees which snatch travelers with their branches and devour them
    • The largest concentration of these beasts seem to be right around the castle.

26th scene §

• Top
  • ApFitch forces assault the now complete castle and being beaten
  • The surviving member of the ApFitch family are being thrown into a dungeon
• Middle
  • The ApFitch family can been seen lying in a heap in the courtyard next to the oak, all dead, except one
  • A paladin of Ashava is tied to the door of the entry hall, and executed with a large greatsword (Identical to the stonesword Mina is carrying) by an armored warrior with an ApBlanc coat of arms on his armor, whose face looks like a slightly older version of the Young Minstrel
• Bottom
  • In the distance the courtyard with the beheaded form of the paladin can be seen
  • But your attention is drawn to the mist which boils around the surrounding lands and the dark storms roiling in the skies
  • It almost feels like the land has been ripped out from its surroundings
  • Its denizens are being twisted into caricatures of themselves, with only the druids being spared
  • What used to be a majestic mountain in the distance has become a smoke-spewing peak.

27th scene §

• Top
  • The ApBlanc warrior directs the twisted humans to hunt the druids and cut down trees.
• Middle
  • The Druids seem to be split in two factions:
    • Those who fight back against the twisted human and
    • Those who entice travellers to join their ranks and replant trees
  • Both factions are being led by red-haired women.
• Bottom
  • The druids incur heavy losses and the middle of the scene is taken up by the High Druid sacrificing himself in a ritual
    • Separates soul from body; he essentially kills himself

More panels, but those are empty