RITUAL - 1413 CE

Part 1:

In the vibrant Guinean forests of West Africa stood the village of Ekon. In the early 14th century, this small part of the waning Ife Empire was cloaked in a heavy air of mystery and lore, as harrowing legends cast long shadows over the lives of its inhabitants. In this obscured chapter of history, the monstrous Obia and the Obiama, witches that control them, are palpable terrors that stalk the night, not mere figments of folklore. These spiritual practices craft a narrative as intricate and ancient as the myths of Olympus in the northeast.

Akinah, a figure of fear and respect in Ekon, renowned for her mastery and capability to summon the beasts, sets forth on a dangerous path to commune with what her ancestors called the “Dream Witch”. Driven by her ambition to gain power from the void between worlds, she prepares a ritual of dark intent, seeking to merge her mortal essence with the eldritch, to bridge the gap between her existence and the unfathomable.

Part 2:

The Obiama concocts the darkest arts known to her kin, arcane secrets of the progeny of the Dream Witch, spanning years in meticulous preparation. To gather the necessary power, Akinah dispatches the obia into the night. These towering, fearsome creatures venture into Ekon’s neighboring villages with missions grim and gruesomely efficient, abducting young women whose fates become inextricably entwined with the ritual.

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As the malevolent energies accumulate, the land around Ekon begins to mirror the corruption of the spell. The brilliant life force that once pulsated through the wilderness begins to ebb away, succumbing to a creeping blight. The once lush forest transforms into a sprawling swamp, a land forsaken by the natural order. As the flora withers, the animals transform along with it, corrupted creatures infected with a pitch-like sludge, an infection caused by Akinah's interference with powers beyond mortal ken.

Part 3:

At the ritual's zenith in 1413 CE, the Obiama faces the culmination of her years-long quest. The forces she has invoked encircle her, a maelstrom of energy that promises transcendence or oblivion. But the Dream Witch is no mere ancestor, no mere conduit for power. She is Yidhra, an existence that stretches back to the dawn of time, an Earth-mother, an Outer God, a being of tenebrous might. This goddess of the void regards Akinah not as an acolyte ascending to divinity but as a tasty morsel in her eternal cycle of power.

In what she expected to be her moment of triumph, the human witch finds herself being consumed, not elevated. The swamp engulfing Ekon stands as a morbid testament to her ambition—a vibrant community turned to a cursed memory, its fate sealed through the will of the Dream Witch. The vanished girls are lost, their absence becoming a grim footnote, underscoring the terrible price of Akinah’s ritual.

A cautionary whisper rippled through the remnants of Ekon turning into a legend of ambition that reached into the darkness and found only perdition. The swamp, a tangible scar of Akinah’s endeavor, serves as a somber reminder of her folly, a caution against the hubris of mortals conducting rituals that seek dominion over forces that dwarf their understanding.