A Prayer for the Crown-Shy

Dex and Mosscap approach the village of Stump, encountering many 200-year-old trees that are still considered young. All the old giant trees were cut down during the Factory Age when humans did not take good care of their environment. A giant stump at the edge of town has been made into a shrine, and it is from this stump that the village takes its name. The shrine is dedicated to Bosh, and the village has decorated the stump with brightly colored ribbons. When Dex offers a prayer to Bosh at the shrine, Mosscap questions the purpose of doing so. Dex explains that prayer is not for the god but is rather for people. By praying, people demonstrate that they are paying attention to Bosh’s work in the world.

Mosscap relates Dex’s need for prayer to its own sense of wholeness. It says that it does not need ritual or objects to connect itself to the natural world. Dex replies that humans need shrines, festivals, and special objects to remind them of the “bigger pictures.” They imply that the meaning of life is bigger than daily details. Dex notes the irony in Mosscap’s statement: It says it does not need objects to feel whole, but in reality, Mosscap is a constructed object itself.