The Garden

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"There are a thousand speculations on why Death is strange in the Neath. Perhaps one is true."

"THIS COUNTRY - MOUTH-OF-THE-RIVER - THIS WAS THE PLACE OF HER OVERTHROW" "In the Garden is the Design; in the Garden occurred the Ascents; in the Garden were selected the Shames. Therefore none shall enter it without that they be blinded with thorns and bound with the Three Oaths. And should any seek to alter the Design or repeat the Ascent or uncover the Shames, they shall be given to the Wax-Wind."

The taste still lingers. The smell of earth and grass when you sleep. What will it bring?

The Garden, hidden deep within the Mountain of Light, predates the Bazaar's presence in the Neath by a wide margin. Its precise location is unknown, and it may not even be a true garden, but it is heavily sought after by those who know of its power, as they see it as the ultimate source of Neathy immortality. Unfortunately for them, only the birds and the bees (hah) can enter it freely at the moment; the Presbyterate's College of Mortality guards the entrance.

Eden?

The Mountain of Light, daughter of the Sun and the Echo Bazaar who is worshipped as Stone, provides a strange vitality to the Elder Continent. Fruit can grow from rocks, bones can sprout from the soil, and in some cases, inanimate objects have minds of their own. An area's "liveliness" depends on its proximity to Stone, so people who die in faraway places across the Unterzee often die permanently, while those who live on the mainland (such as Londoners) can often recover from death with nothing but a bad headache, and people of the Elder Continent itself can live a century and still look good.

The Garden is the source, or perhaps one source, of this vitality. It is in fact one of Stone's many, many wombs, where she fosters life that would not be allowed on the Surface. The waxen beings now known as Snuffers once roamed the Garden freely; they were cast out of it when the Thief-of-Faces stole jewels from Stone's wombs. To this day, the Snuffers remember the Garden, and long to return to it, but their aspirations seem all but impossible.

Birds and other flying creatures carry the airs of the Garden; hence, hunting them is strictly forbidden in the Presbyterate. They say this is because the Mountain dreams of flight. In ages past, birds stole seeds from the Garden; one of these seeds, now a tree, resides deep within the Mirror-Marches of Parabola.

WHOSO THIRSTETH AND DRINKETH OF THIS, SO SHALL HE NEVER DIE.

One of the most coveted treasures in the Neath is Hesperidean Cider, brewed from the golden, robust Hesperidean Apples of the Garden. When drunk, Hesperidean Cider immediately restores its imbiber to their physical prime, grants them a free escape from the slow boat, and plagues them with mysterious visions of the Garden and the Mountain. Following these visions may grant an imbiber a more permanent form of immortality. The Masters of the Bazaar have stores of this precious drink, but the Capering Relicker was the first to brew it.