The Bánóg
Realm of Áine
Location: Outlands / Tir na Og
Bánóg, the realm of the Celtic goddess Áine, is a place that’s as beguiling as it is beautiful, a realm where the boundaries between the natural and the supernatural blur into an otherworldly tapestry of enchantment and abundance.
Nestled in the heart of an ancient forest in Tir na Og, Bánóg is a clearing unlike any other. The trees encircling the clearing are colossal, their trunks twisted into intricate patterns that seem to dance in the moonlight. The leaves of these ancient guardians shimmer with a spectrum of iridescent colors, whispering secrets of long-forgotten fortunes.
In the centre of this clearing lies a pool, its waters a mirror to the shimmering air, reflecting stars that don’t exist in any known sky. The surface of the pool ripples with the slightest touch of the fey dancers, sending cascades of sparkling light into the air, like fireworks of liquid starlight.
The air in Bánóg is warm and thick with the scent of summer flowers that bloom in radiant hues and emit a soft, pulsating glow. These flowers don’t follow the rules of any botany known to mortals; they bloom and wilt in the span of a heartbeat, only to rebloom again in an endless cycle of growth and decay. The colours are so brilliant that you can actually smell them, and the scents so strong and intoxicating that you can feel them as they waft against your skin.
Áine herself, the goddess of wealth, summer, and plenty, is an ever-present force in Bánóg. Her laughter is the music to which the fey dance, her radiance the light that illuminates the clearing. She appears sometimes, as a vision of translucent beauty, her form shifting between that of a regal queen adorned in summer’s bounty and a playful sprite, darting among the dancers with mischievous glee.
The fey who gather here are a motley assembly of sprites, pixies, and other mystical beings, each more bizarre and beautiful than the last. They dance in a frenzied yet graceful ballet, their movements telling stories of ancient wealth, bountiful summers, and the untamed joy of the wild.
As night falls, the clearing transforms. There’s a moon here, larger and more luminous here than anywhere on the Prime, that bathes Bánóg in a silvery light that turns everything into a dreamscape. Shadows play across the clearing, telling tales of old, while the pool in the centre glows with an otherworldly ghostly light, its waters singing songs of summers past.
In Bánóg, time doesn’t flow as it does in the mortal realms. Hours can feel like minutes, and a single night of revelry can span what seems like seasons. The realm is a reflection of Áine’s power over abundance and the fleeting, ephemeral nature of summer, a place where the surreal and otherworldly are as real as the ground underfoot and the stars overhead.
Source: Jon Winter-Holt, mimir.net
