Yester Hill

Yester Hill was a landmark in western Barovia, barely accessible except by an old dirt trail leading south from the Wizard of Wines. It was marked by a massive Gulthias Tree that had stood atop the rise for ages, creating Blights to defend itself and the corruption of the land. Hundreds of cairns were assembled around the hill, and a great, 250-foot diameter collection of rocks and boulders were rolled up the hill circularly. This great fane was said to have been made in worship to The Huntress of the Ladies Three, and strange metals in some of the boulders caused lightning to be attracted to the ring in great bursts. 

After the rebelling great houses of the valley quelled after the Wedding That Never Was, the last of Strahd von Zarovich's great campaigns across Barovia occurred in the Desecration Of The Mountain Fane. The hill-folk who occupied the area made a last stand against a bulwark of Strahd's Undead forces. Led by the Blood Chief Kavan and the planar traveler Jaghr of the Longtooth, the fearsome Barbarians fought in the name of the Huntress; however, Strahd's forces scattered the hill-folk while invoking a horrible Dark Power.

The failed battle left the Lady of the Mountain without worshippers, and she recklessly attacked Strahd. The blood spilt from that battle fed the Gulthias Tree, which blossomed from the Huntress's corpse. It grew over her true fane and Desecrated it, hidden beneath the soil. Strahd subsumed her powers of Barovia's wildlife and established complete dominion over the valley.

In the years following the battle, barbarians would occasionally create great effigies to the Vampire lord, as some believed he had subsumed the power of the Ladies Three. This created conflict within the clans, however, as others believed that Strahd was an enemy to be feared, not worshipped; these druids built a new fane, not realizing the other had been buried by time and magic.

Incredibly thick mists encircled the hill entirely, and visions of the past could be seen from atop it. Witnesses not native to Barovia could glimpse their homelands on one side of the hill, but were impenetrable past the deep fog. From the other, images of a white Castle Ravenloft and the Village of Barovia stood tall, as they had appeared before Vampyr had consumed the land.