"All gateways call to you. It is the purpose of them: they are supposed to, designed to, required to call out to the adventurer in your soul. But Henges, those titanic elder passages to place where man was not meant to go… They call in a far more prescient way. This isn’t the faint, ethereal call of the space beneath a tall ledge. This is the far more urgent and pressing pull of a riptide, promising grey fins in the surf and sand weathering the flesh from your bones."
-- from "Henge-Wizardry and Such Curiosities", by Rudolf Bergobilt
The Henges are scattered across the lands of the north. There are seven in Endon, each with its own precise location, inhabitants, and its own temperament. They are strange sites, each quite different from the others: Greenmarsh Henge, for instance, is the very centre and lifeblood of the Kingdom, where the annual New Year Festival takes place – but the Iron Henge, in the southern pass over the mountains of the same name, has long repelled any travellers trying to reach the kingdom by the way.
They each have a particular energy associated with them, some kind of magical pervasion that slightly alters the world around them and, like all henges the world over, respond to the solar calendar. Every Henge is angled and constructed to revere a particular time of year; even the Dwarrow Henge, constructed underground.
From a Time of Magic
Stories abound about the exact function of the Henges, and the prevalent theory is that they were made for a world different to the one in which we live now. Once upon a time, it is said, when the First Ones roamed the world and the mountains were yet young, the Henges fed off and amplified the abundant energy that radiated from the substance of the world. Their existence was the key to the early achievements of the mystical ancient races, such as the giants – perhaps their abandonment is the reason that there are so few giants left.
That being said, the Henges are still a source of magic to be desired, for those that can feed off it. Most attract the attention of wandering magical creatures, or practitioners manage to siphon the energy off to fuel their experiments. As such, wandering to one of these sites unprepared is not recommended.
A Key for Every Lock
Every door can be opened, if one only knows which way to push. But if the door has a lock… it becomes necessary for one to find the key, and turn it. Most of the Henges are not so complicated: they act now as waystones between our world and others, but the key to most is a particular time of year, which will activate the dormant power in the stones. Whether or not you would want to be around when that happens, however, it up to the individual.