While most outsiders, and even former members, had good things to say about the Aether’s Way community, one outspoken critic saw things differently.

Pashog Qashog, himself a former member, shared his experiences in his memoir, Carried Away: My Time With The Aether’s Way Cult, published several years ago. Qashog has since grown strangely silent, refusing to comment on their sudden disappearance, but his recounting of events is still intriguing, to say the least.

“There were many rules back in the early days at Thanalan,” he wrote, “Such as when members could leave the compound. Everyone had to sleep with a spoon under their pillow. The only flavor of ice cream available at any given time was Pistachio.” Qashog also had many things to say about their leader, G’rhuhnu. “He’s an ambitious man, to be sure. And despite his eccentricity, I thought he had good ideas, especially in the wake of the calamity.”

Qashog wrote that G’rhuhnu had founded Aether’s Way with humble intentions, with the general claim that he wanted to guide his people away from the “corruption of the city-states” and form his own community focused on peace and prosperity “for all.”

“This is what I was led to believe at the time, and for a while, that’s how things were. It wasn’t until G’rhuhnu took a trip away, for undisclosed reasons, that things changed. When he returned, he began ranting about some kind of hidden space vessel. Something he said was in plain sight, and when the time came, we’d be carried away, leaving a doomed Hydaelyn behind us. That’s when I knew Aether’s Way was no longer for me.”

Qashog would leave Aether’s Way before they moved to La Noscea.

Another former member, who we’ll refer to as A.M., tells a slightly different story. “Qashog was easily startled,” she said, “I don’t remember anything about space or doomsdays. He was usually off on his own, anyway, so who knows where he heard that.” A.M. allegedly spent time within the group’s inner circle, though couldn’t commit to being as involved as she’d wanted to.

She recalled conversations with G’rhuhnu himself. “I do remember,” she said, “Once or twice G’rhuhnu mentioned it. After the calamity, he said he had a dream of a staircase that led deep underground. He followed it, and at the bottom there was… an abandoned complex, where he saw ancient records, or documents of some kind. He couldn’t make out what they said, but…well, I guess it doesn’t matter now.”

Of note, and what led me to eventually investigate their last known location within the Black Shroud, were A.M.’s comments regarding her reaction to the news they had vanished.

“Not long after I learned they had gone missing, I took a walk down one of the dirt paths Ingvil and I used to travel,” she said, “It must have been my mind playing tricks on me, but I thought I heard faint whispers…”

Read Part Three of The Mystery Of Aether’s Way in next week’s issue of The Babbler.