Mjukur

Mjúkur is a young sheep hailing from the northern snowy mountains of Abexilas. He lives a nomadic lifestyle, traveling far across the lands of Abexilas. Though he does occasionally stay in the nations of Khashiva and Durnhol-Sarkaaz in order to be with his wide variety of friends and help them with their endeavors.

His appearance reflects his travels. While his clothes are simple, only a beaten up pair of trousers and a satchel around his waist, the most striking thing about his appearance is the hand-made beads woven into his wool, made from many kinds rocks and woods from around the world.

Early life
His parents lead a secluded life in the highest reaches of the peaks, teaching him the ways of survival in some of the harshest conditions knows to anyone in Abexilas. Unlike his parents, Mjúkur wanted to see the world, from the peaks to the valleys to the darkest caves. He left his parents’ humble home at the age of eighteen to pursue a new nomadic life of excitement and exploration.

Becoming more like himself
Mjúkur was born into a female body, though always knew, deep down, that it was not meant to be. So, shortly after leaving his parents’ home, he decided one of his first missions would be to find a way to make his body match his true identity. Through the avenue of herbal medicine and a little bit of folk magic, he found a concoction that would nearly perfectly mimic the properties of the chemicals that naturally occur in male bodies. The mixture of various herbs and berries stimulated the growth in his already existing horns, making them grow longer and curl into a spiral. They also caused his voice to deepen from his previously softer pitch. As far as anyone is concerned, they would have never guessed he had not been born that way.

Discovery of the Divine
One fateful day, while Mjúkur was conducting his usual routine of gathering herbs and other natural resources for his travels, he stumbled across perhaps the greatest discovery he would ever make.

Amongst the blades of fresh spring grass and soft moss beds, there was a small colony of mushrooms, in a perfect circular formation. Mjúkur was fascinated, he had never seen mushrooms in such a seemingly unnatural formation before, he took it as a sign, of what exactly he was not sure. Something in his heart told him this was not just an ordinary mushroom colony, so he took it upon himself to gather every one of them for further study.

Upon doing so, Mjúkur quickly realized these were not like any mushrooms he had ever encountered before. He divided them into two groups based on their color. In the first group, the caps were nearly perfectly circular, and a brightly saturated cyan, with speckled node of orange and gold that glittered softly in the firelight of his camp. In the second group, the caps were hoods gently set upon the stems, and colored a deep blood-like crimson, with the same orange and gold nodes as the others. They seemed to glow with an aura of otherworldly-ness, as well as literally glowed. An alien nature that could not be understood with the laws people of Abexilas have made for themselves.

These mushrooms were not the poisonous kind as their saturated colors would suggest. Experimentation quickly revealed they held no such harmful toxins. They gave off a sweet aroma, almost like fresh flowers, but more sickly sweet. He had become deeply fascinated by these strange specimens, over just a few days of experimentation, and documenting. Though, strange to him, he felt compelled to consume them. He was not sure why, it did not feel like thoughts of his own, rather something else in his mind. He knew now that no negative consequences would come to his health if he did so, though he still felt aprehensive, as if his subconcious was driving him away from an unknown threat. He could not be sure, everything in him was screaming for him to stay away, but his curiosity got the better of all his better judgement.

He quickly prepared two of each kind of specimen for consumption, took a deep breath, and popped them both into his mouth in quick succession. He could never fully comprehend what he saw that day, but one thing he was entirely convicted of, was that he had seen behind the curtains and glimpsed the universe in its rawest form. Every color one can conceive of as well as the ones one cannot, spiraling and folding in endlessly upon themselves in floral kaleidoscopes. The cosmos itself, as a whole, all its stars, its planets, its grass, its mountains, its seas, and its void sprawled out all at once in a grand tapestry, unimaginably gargantuan and unspeakably beautiful. Anyone’s first instinct would be to cower away from such a terrifying raw view of everything that has ever existed and has yet to exist, but Mjúkur found himself surrendering to it. He came to realize just how small he was, and he was comforted by that fact. He was just a thread in the tapestry of the universe, small when by himself, but incredibly important to hold it all together.

When he came back down to his tiny slice of reality, he found himself instilled with the knowledge of his true purpose in life. He must spread his newfound wisdom to as many people as he could. They deserved to know just how beautiful their grand purpose really is. Thus, the Occult of the Cosmic Mycelium was born.