Hill of Werewolves

The Hill of Werewolves is a hill in Amalo used for pilgrimages of Ulis, as well as a popular promenade and garden. It sits atop the crypt of Hasthemis Brulnemar, last praeceptor of the Wolves of Anmura. At night it is haunted by the ghosts of those killed in the massacre of the Wolves of Anmura.

Appears in
The Witness for the Dead

The Grief of Stones

Details
“The Hill of Werewolves was in the northern corner of the Veren’malo”. There is only one gate into the hill, which can be locked with a key. “The land around the Hill of Werewolves was a public park, beautifully laid out and beautifully maintained. Despite the stories, the Werewolf Gardens were in fact a very popular promenade, although people were careful to go in pairs and everyone left well before dusk.” At the top of the hill was an ancient ulimeire called the Ulimeire of Werewolves “where once the soldiers of the Warlord of Amalo had received their burials.” The path up was “paved in ancient flagstones, meandered a good deal”, and the stairs at the top of the hill “were very steep and the treads very narrow, so that the effect was almost more like a ladder than a flight of stairs. The middle of each step was deeply bowed”. At the top of the hill, the ulimeire itself was in ruins. “It had been round and almost as small as a chapel. . . . There was just the rocky, mostly barren crest of the hill and a circle of stumps where the columns had been.” The pilgrim's cache of tokens of pilgrimage was in the hollowed-out top of a short, square pillar, and the “tokens were square glazed tiles painted with the sigil of Ulis in his aspect as the god of dreams”.

On the northeast side of the hill is a drop-off, with a wasteland, leading to a dry creek bed. Moving towards the hill is a grille. Beyond that is a set of catacombs, sacred to Ulis, filled with floor mosaics of jaguars and jackals, as well as carvings of the moon or wolves, representing Anmura, friezes, and statues. There is a crypt deep within for Hasthemis and many others, with name plaques for them, as well as the place to perform the ritual to turn someone into a revethavar.

The Wolves of Anmura once had a compound on the Hill, and the group supposedly became “greedy and corrupt, arrogantly assuming themselves above the rule of the emperor, above the rule of the Archprelate.” Part of this involved mingling imagery of wolves and jackals, which is heretical, and seemingly occurred over the course of years, if not decades. Archprelate Vinvedris eventually revoked his protection from them, and the mysteries of Anmura were proscribed, giving the Warlord Tobaris Clunethar of Amalo the excuse to loot and burn the Wolves' compound on the Hill of Werewolves" and kill everyone they found.

Hasthemis "committed suicide by ritual to become a revethavar" with the help of Ulineise prelates, to guard the wolves' treasure of books. The revethavar killed any trespassers and treasure hunters, creating at least some of the hauntings. The revethavar was put to rest by Thara Celehar.

After the tomb's official (re)discovery in The Grief of Stones, the 23 bodies within were removed and given proper burial in Ulvanensee.

The hill is haunted by the ghosts of soldiers and Ulineise prelates, locked in ancient battle.

There were many rumors about the hill, includes tales of ghosts turning into wolves and guarding the supposed treasure buried within on moonless nights, as well as disappearances and of ghosts.

Around five years prior to The Witness for the Dead, a man attempted an overnight pilgrimage during a trial on the hill, claiming Ulis' direct blessing, and “was found at the foot of the hill in the morning, weeping uncontrollably and with his clothing torn to rags.” Thara later undertook a trial by ordeal where he made a pilgrimage to the top of the hill and stayed there until dawn before returning.

Trivia

 * Aäthis Rohethar is a scholar on the dissolution of the Anmureise mysteries. Lisava Ormevar is also an knowledgeable about the reign of Tobaris, and made notes of the inside of the tomb.
 * Ulthora Csathamar was the Witness for the Tomb of Hasthemis Brulnemar during Prince Orchenis Clunethar's investigation.