The First Seed
The story of Strathmore isn't etched in stone, but woven into the very air around its secluded valley. Legend speaks of a cartographer named Silas Blackwood, driven not by maps of land, but by the mapping of dreams – specifically, the recurring dream of an obsidian bloom. He followed this spectral flower for decades, eventually stumbling upon a cleft in the mountainside, shielded from all but the most persistent winds. Within that cleft lay not a town, but a resonance, a place where the veil between realities thinned.
Blackwood didn’t found a settlement; he awoke one. The valley had always been there, dormant, imbued with a strange energy – an echo of something older than time itself. The initial inhabitants were drawn by whispers, by the scent of rain on volcanic rock and, most powerfully, by the pulsing luminescence emanating from the Obsidian Bloom, a single, impossibly perfect flower that grew at the heart of the valley.
- Silas Blackwood vanished without a trace shortly after establishing a rudimentary observatory.
- The first settlers were drawn to the Bloom’s light and claimed it held the key to understanding the universe.
- Early records hint at complex rituals involving geometric patterns and the manipulation of sound – attempts to harmonize with the valley's underlying rhythm.
The Resonance
Strathmore’s unique characteristic isn't its location, but its ‘resonance.’ The valley exists in a state of perpetual temporal flux – moments bleed into one another, echoes of the past shimmer with unsettling clarity, and the future occasionally whispers through the present. This isn’t simple déjà vu; it’s a tangible distortion of time, fueled by the Obsidian Bloom.
The Bloom doesn’t merely emit light; it generates harmonic frequencies that interact with the valley's geology and the minds of those within it. Skilled individuals – the ‘Harmonists,’ as they were known – learned to manipulate these frequencies, influencing events, accelerating growth, or even briefly altering timelines. However, prolonged exposure resulted in “temporal bleed,” a dangerous condition where an individual becomes fractured across multiple points in time.
The valley’s architecture reflects this instability. Buildings are constructed with interlocking geometries designed to dampen temporal distortions and often shift subtly over decades – as if responding to the fluctuating currents of time itself.
The Harmonists
For centuries, Strathmore was governed by the Harmonists, a secretive order dedicated to understanding and controlling the valley's resonance. They were not warriors or politicians; they were scholars, artists, and mystics who dedicated their lives to deciphering the Bloom’s patterns. Their knowledge was passed down through intricate oral traditions and encoded within complex geometric designs carved into the very stone of the valley.
The Harmonists believed that the Obsidian Bloom was a nexus point – a place where the threads of reality were thin enough to be manipulated. They developed elaborate rituals involving music, dance, and the construction of resonant chambers designed to amplify and direct temporal energies. Some achieved remarkable feats - accelerating the growth of crops, healing grievous wounds with unnatural speed, even glimpsing potential futures.
Their decline began subtly, marked by an increasing number of “bleeds” – individuals lost within the folds of time, their memories fragmented, their identities fractured. The Bloom’s light grew dimmer, and the Harmonists became increasingly paranoid, consumed by a desperate attempt to contain what they had unwittingly unleashed.
The Echoes Remain
Today, Strathmore is a shadow of its former self. The Harmonist order vanished without a trace centuries ago, leaving behind only crumbling ruins and fragmented records. The Obsidian Bloom continues to pulse with an eerie light, though its influence has diminished. The valley remains isolated, shrouded in mist and legend, attracting those drawn by whispers of forgotten power and the unsettling allure of temporal distortion.
Small communities exist within the valley, descendants of the original settlers – wary of outsiders and fiercely protective of their unique heritage. They maintain a cautious respect for the Bloom, recognizing its potential danger while clinging to the belief that it holds the key to unlocking profound truths about existence itself. The echoes of the Harmonists’ rituals still linger in the air, manifesting as inexplicable phenomena - objects appearing and disappearing without explanation, moments of intense déjà vu, and the unsettling feeling that time is not quite what it seems.