The Soul River

In the north there is a mountain whose ragged peak is hidden by a thick band of mist. The mist flows upwards in a strong torrent, swirling and rushing over the cold grey rock like a river that is desperate to join an ocean in the sky.

A river of souls, and an ocean of those that came before.

You see, this place is where spirits of the dead pass through to their uncertain fate, for just above the Soul Mountain’s peak is an opening: an always bleeding injury in the fabric of the world. Through it souls enter either the glorious Halls of Volsegus, or the dread Vaults of the Undeep.

None can ever know for certain which place awaits them, but it is better that dead spirits take the risk, rather than stay on this side; lingering by our hearths and making them cold, or darkening our skies in their weary wanderings, or - gods forbid - forcing their way into our living bodies in a cursed attempt at life again.

The slit is narrow, though, and the trickle of souls passing through it is slow. The rest collect and impatiently wait on the rocky plateau that sits below the mountain’s peak. They churn and torment themselves in their haste, impatiently awaiting their own turn to pass through. They form a whirling fog that slowly grows as each new soul joins the rest.

The laws of Time and Nature are not observed in this fog. Time cannot penetrate the unnatural mist, and the river is too hostile for any living thing to make their home: with two hardy exceptions. The first is a tree as old as the mountain. A yew, warped and withered by many eras of harsh weather and loneliness - and a man, almost as withered as the tree and just as lonely. Alone in the river. Alone with the souls of the dead. Alone and losing his mind.

^This passage is about a setting in my book series: the Soul River. My account’s cover photo is a picture I took in Italy some years ago that formed part of the inspiration for this place. I loved the idea of a river of the dead that flows up into the sky, forming an environment (the plateau) that works a little differently to the rest of the world: where the rules can be broken. Both the setting and the man within it are pivotal to my overall series!