To all who have weathered them, a storm has many faces and many forms. It can come as a gentle rain upon the grasslands, or as the violent cutting of sand against the skin. However, the entity who had accepted the offering of patronage to the cult of Storms had only been able to become intimate with a single form; that of the thunderstorms that forever embrace the Storm Peaks. Seeking ways to advance the power of their entity, the leaders of the cult of Storms decided that this lack of understanding may be why their entity had up to this point been unable to evolve further, an idea granted by visions to their veteran seer, Lalitana.
Gathering before the altar, the stormtouched and their entity began a ritual to expose Echleru's essence to these constructs; sand from the Shaahri brought by Cordilia, and snow from the fields of Gyannis brought by Airamaya, were offered to the clouds that surrounded Echleru, which quickly absorbed the offerings and changed the clouds from blizzard to sandstorm and back to thunderous turbulence. However, the visions had unknowingly been influenced by a greater storm vortex elemental that had been once trapped within a bronze medallion carried by the entity Echleru and the seer Lalitana, and as the foci are given, the elemental that is trapped as the clouds surrounding the entity draws from their power as well. A storm formed overhead, and the nearby lake stilled to mirror-like quality that showed those gathered the destruction of the world at the hands of the untamable storms. As the entity grew closer to see the visions there, a great disembodied hand of wind and clouds broke from the lake and pulled her within to the surprise of all gathered to witness what they thought would be a seamless evolution.
A cackling laugh of thunder sounded overhead as vortex elementals ambushed the cult members. After a brief struggle, each was slain and from their corpses dropped crystalline fragments, the edges of which pieced together to form a latticed crystal box drawing the greater vortex elemental out of the lake and returning it to its normal self. The greater elemental then turned on the stormtouched gathered there, attacking them vehemently until it was slain.
As its cloud-formed body blew away and into the storm clouds above, the crystal cube was left behind, the image of their entity swirling in its dark surface, trapped. Knowing not what else could be done, they hastily stomped upon the prison, and the smoky form of Echleru was released once more, though in her weakened state she became unable to hold her form as she evaporated into the clouds above as the greater vortex elemental had before her, leaving behind only words of thanks for their instruction and guidance in her time with the cult of Storms. As the last of her essence joined the storms above, a great flash of lightning brightened the lake and surrounding prairies, revealing a dark form that had taken shape high within the clouds. Descending now with the rain that pelted the surrounding area came forth Xuli, the Storm-forged, and the sect of Storms weathered on.
Penned by my hand on the 16th of Tenebrae, in the year 46 AM.
