Inspiring Illustrations - Horse in a Boat

3) Horse in a Boat

The people of the north still venerate the ancient pictograph drawings of their ancestors and the drawings still have power even though the stories they told have been forgotten.

The skalds and priests can draw power from these drawings and commune directly with the various northern deities; the Raven King, the Stormhammer, the Fox-God, the Green Goddess, etc... so while each of these locations is considered holy no single deity claims them as their own.

Shamans are said to have been able to draw forth visions of the events depicted in the crude drawings so that their entire tribe could experience them. Some individual creatures or items of power or even heroes from the past could be brought forth, for a time, to help the shaman or the tribe before fading away to their place in the long ago.

Part of the early path to power for a shaman is said to have been through waking quests that involved stepping into the past or to dreamscapes whose gateways were these carvings and paintings on the ancient rock walls.