Divinities & Religions · Divinities
Whioma
- Type
- Private resort, and the Whioma Institute of Research
- Location
- The island of Whioma
- Access
- Membership only, with a large fee and a waiting list of years
- Known For
- A hot spring said to cure any ailment
- Danger
- Predatory birds hunt the island from dusk until dawn
- Curfew
- Guests are kept indoors overnight, behind netted enclosures
Whioma is an island that should not be habitable, and a resort that should not exist on it. Predatory birds hunt its ground from sunset to sunrise, yet the wealthiest people on the continent pay a great deal and wait a great many years for the privilege of staying there. Access is by membership, or by knowing somebody who holds one.
The resort
The resort keeps its guests alive by keeping them inside. Enclosures are hung with soft netting, and a curfew empties the grounds before dark. Within those limits it is what its price suggests: comfortable, exclusive, and preoccupied with its own reputation.
Its most valued feature is a hot spring held to be genuinely medicinal. Guests leave it in visibly better health, and regulars are notably vigorous for their years. Two explanations circulate. The first is that the island sits on a congruence hotspot. The second is that something is blessing the water.
The Whioma Institute of Research
The Whioma Institute of Research stands on the same island and is harder to enter than the resort. Only academics are admitted, and only the most accomplished are appointed. Its work is directed at what congruence is rather than at what it can be made to do.
Rumours attach to it, as they attach to anything closed. A noble party is said to have been given a tour and shown nothing of substance. Others are said to have got inside without permission, and not to have come out.
The question nobody answers
Every explanation of Whioma runs into the same difficulty: why. A place of luxury built in a dangerous place, sustained at evident cost, with no doctrine, no following and nothing asked of the people who benefit from it. Guests who notice the pattern tend to conclude that someone is watching over the island, and that they could be anyone — a clerk, or whoever hands you a towel on the way to the spring.
In their own words
Illona Torok, A Collection of Thoughts
The Island from the Outside
To say that the island of Whioma is enigmatic is an understatement. A seemingly dangerous island isn’t necessarily the chosen home for a swanky, high-class resort, after all, and while the wealthy tend to favor beauty and restrictive guest lists, they don’t normally do so at the risk of their own lives. How could one possibly find relaxation on the same island where predatory birds wreak havoc from the sun’s set to its subsequent rise? Naturally, I had to know. Unfortunately for me, the Whioma Resort takes the word exclusive as law, boasting not only a hefty fee for membership, but years upon years of waiting lists and applications. To get access to Whioma if you’re not a member requires knowing someone who knows someone who, hopefully, knows someone that can connect you. Be it luck, the connections I’ve made on my travels, or perhaps sheer tenacity, I finally made my way onto the guest list.
You know, for research…
A Relaxing Resort
My personal research, however, had little (if nothing) to do with the actual Research Facility located on the island of Whioma. Though, I believe even if it had, that facility is even harder to enter than the resort itself. The only folks who are granted access are the academics themselves, brilliant-minded beings who seem to be taking a closer look at congruence in hopes of understanding what it is just as much as what it can do. To work there is an honor, and only the best of the best have been given a position on their staff, but anything that is shrouded in mystery is bound to have an abundance of rumors circulating about. According to some of the resort gossip, there may have been a noble folk that organized a tour, but I imagine even they only saw the surface. Some even whisper that folks have tried to sneak in. Even more fearsome is that those who are rumored to have been caught found their way inside, but might not have ever found their way back out…
The resort itself, however, exists as a complete antithesis to the sinister ambience of the island. In fact, it’s everything you might expect from a ritzy, high-class establishment, even boasting a truly medicinal hotspring. I was lucky enough to pay the spring a brief visit, and I will certainly say that I felt like the best version of myself afterward, but I’m also lucky enough to be in good health. To think that something as simple as a bath could fix all ailments is a promising thought, and perhaps this medicinal pool is the reason that nearly everyone at the resort looks to be in the prime of their life. As to why this spring works as well as it does, many of the regulars believe it’s because the island rests atop a hotspot of congruence, but some have whispered that the resort, and perhaps the island itself, has been blessed by a mysterious Divinity. Congruence will forever be a mystery that we will learn more about bit by bit, but a Divinity blessing a dangerous island and using it to keep those who make it here in their prime? Now that’s enticing.
Conjecture and Speculation
If I’m being honest, the more that I looked into the idea of a Divinity here on the resort, the more it started to come together. It explained the soft netting that surrounded the entrances to the enclosures where folks resided in the evening, as well as the curfew at the resort to ensure patrons safety from the dangers of the island around them. Perhaps the netting was infused with this congruence? Maybe even blessed by this same Divinity? What if the medicinal hot spring was first used to heal someone who’d been damaged by the dangers present on this island, and this mysterious Divinity kept the pool's blessing just in case it ever happened again? I met a charming fellow at the resort who was just as curious as I was, even stating that there were whisperings of the Divinity themselves roaming about the resort to keep a watchful eye on the patrons, though nobody truly knew who they were. They could be a clerk at the front desk, or the kind face that offered you a towel on your way to the spring, but they were always here. Always watching. If one wanted to, they could create an unending amount of stories when it came to this mysterious marvel, but what I have yet to understand is why? Why set up a place of luxury in a land of treacherous danger? Why do something of the sort and not have a following or a doctrine of praise established? What could a higher being possibly want with a place like this? Was it just for fun? Perhaps an experiment of their own? Who’s to say?
At the end of it all, my lucky travels to Whioma filled my head with more questions than the answers I’d found. To any who find themselves fortunate enough to pay the island a visit, I do hope you ask every question that comes to mind, and I pray that you learn more than I did. Also, you must enjoy the herbal tea crafted from the imported Silvia flowers; it is absolutely divine.