"Turn your eyes south. Wait nine heart-beats. In the heart of the Elder Continent, a tiny fugitive gleam of warmth. It's gone."[1]
The Mountain of Light is a massive, glowing peak located deep within the Elder Continent. For her radiance and its life-giving effects, she is worshipped as Stone, one of the three gods of the Unterzee.
The Life-Giver[]
Stone is a living mountain far to the south of the Presbyterate. She is the daughter of the Bazaar and the Sun,[2] and the mother of Mt Nomad[3] and a host of other creatures.
Stone is as old as the Earth itself,[4] and influences the lives of nearly all who inhabit the Neath. The unnatural, unexplainable vitality she emits is what makes death in this realm mostly impermanent.[3][5] A piece of the mountain at the center of Polythreme[6] makes the normally inanimate denizens so alive that they scream,[7] and the citizens of the Elder Continent are particularly long-lived.[8] She is also the source of the Wax-Wind, said to be her weeping,[9] which blows across the zee and poses a frequent hazard to zailors.[10] And of course she glows, enough to blind anyone who gets too close without proper protection[11] - though she is courteous enough to dim her light at night.[12]
The Garden[]
At the heart of the Mountain is the Garden, the source of all its vitality;[13] said to grant immortality and eternal youth, this place has been the target of many an expedition.[14] It is the birthplace of the Snuffers, who were cast out after the first of their kind wounded the Mountain. Now the only things that may enter are birds and other flying creatures, so hunting these is strictly forbidden in the Presbyterate. According to the Presbyterate Adventuress, only these creatures are allowed in because the Mountain dreams of flight.[15]
The Mountain Wounded[]
The Nameless River flows with Stone's blood. Art from FL.
Stone bears multiple wounds that bleed over the Elder Continent and down the Nameless River.[16] No one may truly know who inflicted them, and it may have been multiple parties[17] - one being the Thief-of-Faces, who is known to have raped her long ago.[18] These wounds leak life; for instance, the Lesser Wound is located on one of her limbs, near the Prison of Flint.[19][20]
A Mountain-Sherd.
Worship[]
People from around the Elder Continent regularly make pilgrimages to Stone, and sometimes they clip relics called Mountain-Sherds from her slopes.[21][22] These retain their life-giving properties on a small scale,[23] and may grant a living being immortality if used to replace their heart - though this is accomplished by turning it into a building[24][25] or even an entire city,[26][27] possibly depending on its place on the Great Chain.
Stone's Attention[]
Stone's blessing grants health and agility.[28] Her curse doesn't seem to do anything, but perhaps we merely have yet to witness its effects.[29] Be wary of surprise bits of stone and even diamonds showing up unaccounted for on the ship; these may mean Stone is watching you from her glowing, ever-living mountain home.[30]
Real-Life Parallels[]
The Mountain is likely named after the diamond known as the Koh-i-Noor (Mountain of Light in Persian). This diamond was once the largest in the world, and passed through the hands of the Kakatiya dynasty in India, the Persian Empire, and the British Empire. It is now a part of the Crown Jewels of the United Kingdom. It may also reference Debre Berhan, a former capital of Ethiopia whose name is Amharic for "Mountain of Light".
References[]
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