In the wooded mountains northwest of Yanagihama, at the far end of the overgrown Pilgrim's Path, stand the ruins of the Okusugi Monastery — the reason the town exists at all. The monk Shan Lian of the Path of Returning Waters founded it in 2,927 AC around an ancient cedar of legendary size, and Yanagihama was raised to support the builders, then the monks. Shan Lian's parting gift, the Eternal Lantern, still burns in town; her monastery fared worse. After her death in 2,961 the community dwindled and scattered, and by 2,967 the halls stood empty.

Then came the Night of Splintered Steel. In 2,969, woodcutters sent to harvest the great cedar returned to Yanagihama at dusk — dead, walking, and carrying their broken tools. Dozens of townsfolk perished putting them down. In the forty-six years since, almost no one has walked the Pilgrim's Path to its end, and the monastery's name is spoken with a warding gesture. Whatever lives up there now, the town's firm policy is to let it.