The Ashbound

A heretical sect that rejects the Woven Path’s belief in the Skyweave, claiming the great pattern is not harmony but a prison that traps souls in endless cycles of suffering. They call this torment the Endless Knot. To the Ashbound, fire is not a sacred rite of release but a weapon of oppression used by the faithful to bind spirits back into the weave. They wield that same flame only as a tool of destruction, turning it against shrines, cairns, threadbinders, and any who uphold the old rites.

For them, true mercy is burial. Every foe they slay, and every fallen brother, is interred beneath the earth, sealed away from the pull of the Skyweave. They believe this frees the soul from the endless cycle and grants it final peace. Those they “liberate” are said to return briefly as crows, guiding and guarding the Ashbound before moving on to a place beyond the weave’s reach.

They give devotion to only one deity, the Dark Lady, a figure they claim stands outside the Skyweave entirely. According to Ashbound doctrine, she whispered to their first prophet the truth of the weave’s torment and showed them the path of escape: denial of flame, rejection of cairn-stones, and burial beneath cold earth. Through her guidance, they believe they carry the only true salvation, a release that even the gods of the Woven Path refuse to grant.

They wrap themselves in rough fabric bindings stained with ash and mark their skin with tattoos of the Dark Lady and stylized crows. The ash serves as a veil, a ward they believe conceals them from the watchful spirits of the Woven Path, while the tattoos ensure that any fallen Ashbound will be recognized by their kin and granted burial so their souls can escape the Skyweave.