The Spirit Awakening

Within the narrow strip of arable land that separates the Great Western Desert from the thick forests to the east there was once a small village. Within this village there was tranquility, and there was happiness. There were simple people who led quiet, farmer's lives. One day a pillar of darkness appears standing far off into the desert. It is thin, and perfectly straight, and to distant eyes looks like a tight thread that binds the heavens to the earth. It has no physical form -- it is merely a tower of absolute darkness, and it is growing.