Pu’una

The Wellspring Of All Souls, And The Temple That Protects It

Landmark— On the cold and barren surface of one of Ald-Amura’s moons, there exists a broad crater, and sixteen pairs of diligent hands tending the ghost-sea inside.

The People

Just under fifty living beings make the moon their home. Sixteen Pu’una Elders work around the clock in shifts conducting rituals and collecting stories from Pu’una’s Rim. Each elder has two apprentices selected for their aptitude in necromancy that take part in minor ceremonies and chores around the temple in between their studies and training. Finally, the temple traditionally keeps two animal representatives who take part in rituals involving the souls of beasts and Monsters.

Work on the crater is hard, and material pleasures are few, but every member of the temple’s staff has spent most of their lives proving themselves worthy of this place, and they view their roles as unmatched honors. This is not to say the attendants are a miserable or humorless people—quite the opposite, visitors often comment on how much fun everyone seems to be having playing in low gravity, enjoying the weekly game nights, or exchanging jokes with the more talkative or adventurous souls.

The standard Pu’una uniform is a colorful robe, finely embroidered with pictographs commemorating the discovery of Pu’una and the building of the temple there. When the temple was founded, a thousand of these uniforms were hand stitched by a collective union of tailors and seamsters from Tinaris-Mal. The very same union makes the Monster Care Squad’s distinctive cloaks, thousands of years later.

Local Monster

No firm contact has ever been made with a Monster on the moon, but theories and folklore suggest that the moon itself could be a Monster. While this hasn’t been confirmed, and raises a number of existential questions regarding Monsters and their connection to the souls of other living beings (to say nothing of the obvious communication barriers this truth presents), everyone who has ever worked or lived at Pu’una for any amount of time believes this idea unquestioningly.

Notable Sublocations

  • The Temple at Pu’una—One might expect the temple that tends to the wellspring of souls to be a magnificent sight, and one would be disappointed. The temple is a modest thing, large enough for dorms and a well stocked kitchen, bereft of gilding or ornate symbology that signals the importance of the place. The Temple also includes a large atrium greenhouse that supplies much of the fresh food for those staying here.
  • Highest Succedaneum—The biggest library known to Ald-Amurans is a pleasant day’s stroll across the lunar surface from Pu’una. Stored here, in this vast shelf-lined pit that delves deep into the planetoid’s surface, is a single copy of every published work in Ald-Amuran history. Millions of volumes rest quietly on the shelves, with thousands more added every day. Once a year, the sixteen Elders of Pu’una make a trip to make sure everything is working okay, and their apprentices will often visit as a small vacation or to pick up some new reading material.
  • The Wellspring—To behold the wellspring is to look into the face of everyone and everything that has ever died. Stare too long at the ocean of history and you risk never looking away again. The well is intoxicating; it holds the answer to every question you’ve ever had, and it holds, vividly, every crime and cruelty ever visited upon another. Remember this when you watch the Elders wade waist deep into the crater to set the flow right, or when you see one of the Pu’una animals splashing gleefully with a soulswarm of comrades.
  • The Snared Canyon—Once a year, on All-Souls’ Night, Pu’una opens and pours its innumerable spirits through this canyon and onto the world. A fast-moving wave of ancestors washes over the surface. Sometimes the spirits will leave gifts, or lose their personal effects, in the canyon as they leave.
  • The Distillery—Fiercely denied by everyone who works at Pu’una, the temple is reported to contain, in its basement, a sophisticated brewing facility that produces incredibly limited run drinks. Bottles with the temple’s distinctive label and unreplicatable logo (it uses moondust in the dye) are perhaps some of the most sought-after items in all of Ald-Amura. A new drink is created every year, with past vintages ranging from fine wine to bubbly sodas.

What Happens When You Arrive

  1. All-Souls’ Night is tonight, and every Elder has been struck ill by a mysterious sickness.
  2. The soul’s flow has been interrupted and disturbed, and nobody seems able to right it. The crater is beginning to overflow.
  3. A fieldtrip from one of Ald-Amura’s schools has vanished on the moon’s surface.
  4. Two hundred million books have been added to Highest Succedaneum today.
  5. Looking up to the star-filled sky, you notice that Ald-Amura is no longer staring back at you.
  6. An enormous single eye has opened on the lunar surface, just a few days’ walk away from Pu’una.