Sound of the trees

In the Weslanan, lovers believe they can hear each others splinter after one of them has died. They will look for a tree when they are still alive. This tree has to have a hole in its trunk, large enough to put your hand through and high enough to look through it into the sky. There are not many trees that have such a hole, so some people started to manipulate the trees in the Dark Ages by splitting the young tree, then let both parts grow together again. Nowadays, this believe is not common anymore and only the more isolated hamlets still have lovers who go actually looking for a good tree. More orthodox believers are only content with a natural hole in a tree.

Once the couple has found such a tree, they hold each others hand through the hole and make a vow to each other:
Will you remember me when I’ve died?
Yes, I will remember you every night.
Will you look for me in the singing of the tree?
Yes, I will come for your splinter to see.


If one half of the couple has died, the other will go to the tree at night, a menoth after the funeral. If this person looks to the sky through the hole in the tree, he or she will see the splinter of his or her loved one in the night sky. The rustling of the wind in the treetops is the “singing of the tree”, and it is believed this is the voice of the deceased lover. Some communities have Viklins who claim to understand the singing of the trees, others say that everyone can understand it.

The ritual bears no similarities to any of the rites known in the major religions of Daleth and its neighbours. Scientists in Ciniz suggest it might be a ritual that used to be part of the forgotten religion of the Ainahawair and the mysterious Ancient Temple in De Prinya.


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