Thousand Dreams

In a monastery overlooking Coldflow Lake from the foothills of the White March, there once resided a clandestine order of monks known as the Thousand Dreams. Through a powerful form of pain-induced meditation, these monks were able to walk through their past lives as though they were dreams. Each traversed these memories in ultimate hopes of achieving complete understanding of his or her soul's identity. They believed that after experiencing one thousand lifetimes, total enlightenment could be attained.

Greatest of their sect was Rî Golan, who had an ancient soul and was said to have walked more lifetimes than any other. But when she came to the end of all her lifetimes and found there was more to experience, it became clear that she would never come to know herself completely, for there was simply not enough to learn from.

Unable to accept this fate after her endless trials, Rî Golan sought a way to take the experiences of others for her own, that she might reach one thousand lifetimes yet. She channeled her unquenchable hunger into her favorite sword, and it became an instrument of her will. With it, she claimed many lives in the surrounding area. Each drop of blood on her blade was a new experience, each killing blow a new lifetime for her to claim.

When the rest of the Thousand Dreams came to learn of her actions, they banded together and confronted Rî Golan upon her return to the temple. In the end, amid a courtyard of slain monks, she did indeed come to understand her soul, and it is said that among the many experiences contained in the blade are all those of Rî Golan herself.