Song of Cettaric

The Song of Cettaric is a saga of several tales concerning the supposed founder of Aldbourne, Prince Cettaric, and how he and the city came to prominence. Though archeaological evidence for the tale is scarce, it is accepted even by Imperial scholars that the Song is several thousand years old, dating back even to the dawn of the Age of Many. It is particularly important as the founding legend of House Cettaric, which to this day rules the city of Aldbourne, albeit now only as vassal Lords not independent Prince-kings.
==Sources==
The main sources for contemporary scholars are the ancient tablets erected in the Seastone Temple, and patronised by the ruling house of Aldbourne. The oldest of these is supposedly more than a millenia old, and it is the base upon which the current version of the legend has been copied (and at times embellished). However variants and additional strands of the saga can be found within the common folk of both the city and countryside who speak or once spoke a variant of the Cettarian language.
==Plot==
At a very basic level, the Song tells how the first Sea Prince, Cettaric, was the first human to visit the rocks and beaches of Aldbourne, having been washed away from his home by a great storm while fishing in the ancient homeland of the Cettarians; and that while there he glimpsed upon the shore a woman of great beauty bathing in the surf. Smitten, he swore that he would have her hand, only to become aware that this was a daughter of the Merkingdom. Determined to uphold his oath and in a rage at the Merking, a legendary figure still blamed for the occasional shipwreck and storm in the Narrow Sea, the Saga tells how he built the first ships to sail the seas in war against the Merkingdom, and challenging the right of that people to the sea and shore he built upon the coast the first foundation stone of the Prince-Tower. After a hundred battles and ten attempts, he finally won his bride, built House Cettaric's stronghold in Aldbourne, broke the Merking's Trident, and his descendants became famed mariners and merchants.
==Criticism==
Foreign scholars old and new have been critical of the Saga, in particular those of the elves and Empire; the former because they claim primacy over the first voyages, and the latter because assimilation and standardisation of history were favoured in the Imperial Age. Religion and sectarian strife have also played a part, due to how interlinked the tales of the Seastone Temple and the Saga have become.
Category:Culture