The Menagerie

, also known as the Circle of Beasts and the Oasis, is a holy site of The Wildmother located in southern Xhorhas near the Whitedawn Lagoon.

Description
In the middle of the dense jungle southwest of the Whitedawn Lagoon is a clearing with a small lake or oasis pool of extremely clear water fostering all manner of fish throughout and under the surface. The thin shore is dotted with rocks and scattered brush atop the rich red exposed earth. Beautiful rock carvings of various animals and creatures line the edges of the lake, like a statue garden surrounding the lake, a menagerie of beautiful art enshrining this space as the Court of Beasts. Jungle deer, bears, elegant jungle cats, massive lizards– all sorts of creatures, all immortalized in these sculptures. Along the western bank are a few odd, broken rocks that push away from the rest of the smooth edges of the water, like a hillside with red rock that is submerged, and there are scattered slivers of well-carved statues sitting around the entrance to a cave, like a cathedral entrance, with the statues set to walk through and into. The raised bank itself is the mouth of a cavern that just beyond where the water is, in shadow, descends deep into the earth on that side.

Background
Located in the jungles southwest of the Whitedawn Lagoon, the Menagerie was created and maintained by the Stone Family at the behest of the Wildmother as a gift to The Changebringer. Millenia ago, following the death of a hero of a then-recent conflict, the Wildmother instructed a champion of the Raven Queen named Stone to take the limbs of the hero to an oasis and create a Menagerie as a gift to The Changebringer, where he would feed the limbs to the beasts there. The Stone Family continues to maintain the shrine and bury the dead brought to them there by preparing them with salts and minerals that begin the process of decomposition. A sign or vision from The Changebringer or The Wildmother then indicates to which beasts the body should be given, and the animals consume it, eventually returning it to the earth.

In a dream, Caduceus saw a mammoth ravine of grey and dark rock carved into the earth, steeped in shadow. Along its southernmost base was a rudimentary city. Below and beyond that was a beautiful untouched shore of beaches and tumultuous surf, and within the nearby dense jungle was an oasis, a solitary lake amongst the tangled trees and vines. He saw beasts called to drink at it, and along its edge the red earth and rock formed a cavern which twisted and wound with thick heavy veins of gold spiraling down like frozen bolts of lightning in the rock, revealing a temple with natural water drifting down from the lake above forming a pool. Caduceus saw purple crystals fall into the waters of the pool and begin to grow roots, like crystal fingers, along their base.

Caduceus related his family legend to the rest of the party, telling them that long ago, The Wildmother told a champion of the Raven Queen named Stone that he should take the limbs of a fallen hero and walk the plains until he found an oasis with a red and gold veined cave, and that beasts would gather there. He would feed the limbs of the hero to the beasts that would water there, and upon that site would be a Menagerie with creatures that would be a gift to The Changebringer from the Wildmother, to remind her that nature is infinite.

Caduceus reiterated his family legend: “You shall take the limbs of this hero and walk the plains until you find an oasis at the mouth of a red and gold-veined cave. There, upon my altar, you shall feed these limbs to the beasts that walk there, so that they may hold my mark. And to this site you shall build a Menagerie whose beasts shall be my gift to the Changebringer, to remind her that nature is infinite.”