Legends of Tyr

There are many legends and tall tails in the world of Tyr. Below is a brief synopsis of some of them.

## Major Stories

### Creation Myths

#### Star Seed

A story that says the world was all water until a star fell from the sky. When it crashed with the seas, the land, plants, and animals were created. The first god, and his evil twin were inside the star and influenced the lifeforms of the planet, creating all the mortal races of intelligent beings. The good brother created lifeforms with a desire for creativity, justice, etc., while the evil brother created slaves to serve him and monstrous creations to attack his brother's creations. The theme of the star falling is a common element of many creation stories in Tyr. For instance, some scholars believe stories like the dragons being forged from a gem (see bellow),

#### On the Backs of Turtles

This story says the gods created the world on the backs of giant sea turtles, a common legend in Tyr, especially amongst island and coastal dwelling cultures.

#### Narrav’veth

The gods crafted a massive gem which contained all the light of the universe. They then shattered the gem into millions of pieces, each shard becoming some group of life forms.

### Origin Myths

The following are tales of how various races and creatures came to be.

#### Dragons

Dragon legends say they were forged by the gods themselves from the shards of the great gem (see Narrav’veth), and charged with keeping the balance of the world. The story puts more importance on dragons than other versions of the Narrav’veth myth. Normally, entire groups of plants and animals are attributed to a single shard of the gem, while this myth says that each dragon was an entire shard, implying that a single dragon is equally important as an entire race or species of other lifeforms.

#### Elves

A dragon-centric story says that Elves were created by the dragons, and were their most beloved servants, while other more elf-centric tales state the elves came from Narrav’veth, or that the grandfather and grandmother of all elves road the Star Seed like a chariot to Tyr.

#### Dwarves

The stories of Dwarves are wide and varied depending on clan, culture, and region. The most common story is that each great king of old was a meteor of pure mithril that fell to Tyr. The Storm Born clan of dwarves in the Southern Sea believe that the world was formed inside a great maelstrom, and that their forbearers were pieces of glass created when lightning from the maelstrom struck the surface of the newly formed world. The Northern dwarves have stories of giants ruling vast kingdoms, but becoming bored after slaying all the great monsters of the world. They sought fiercer and more terrifying foes beneath the earth, where in the small and restrictive caves the giants became small, but retained their strength and ferocity, becoming modern day dwarves. The Gray Dwarves of the Rocky Waste believe they were forged by elemental lords of fire, to be used as weapons and armor in a great war. But they were too heavy and sharp, and so could not stay in the fire realm. They spilled over into the material plane where they were quenched by the frigid air and water, finalizing their forging and causing them to gain life.

#### Men

The creation myths of men are the most widespread and varying of all the intelligent races of Tyr. In the Southern Sea many believe that the 12 aspects of creation worked together as a crew aboard a ship, and upon sighting Tyr, sailed down from the sky and decided to live there. They each took pieces of the ship and carved them to their liking, creating all manor of lifeforms and aspects of the world. Men of the North tell tales of the first men simply forming from snow. Elves have a story with a somewhat negative slant in which a mischievous Elven goddess slept with a dwarf as revenge against her husband, becoming pregnant and creating the first men. Some believe this story, but do not have a negative view of it. Others use the story to claim that men are a bastard race beneath their stature.

#### Halflings

Most Halfling creation stories center around the idea that they simply sprung up from beneath the earth like burrowing animals or vegetables. Some stories say the Halflings were once rabbits, who were awakened by a kind and gentle god that taught them how to stand, wear clothes, and eat properly with forks and knives. Others portray the hobbits as literal potatoes, carrots, or radishes which gained sentience and taught the other mortal races how to properly farm. Very few creation stories about Halflings exist outside their own culture, but the most prevalent one simply implies that halflings are an offshoot of men, which halflings find to be deeply insulting.

#### Gnomes

Gnomes are not often known to fraternize outside their enclaves hidden away in forests and caves, so their legends are not widespread. The only known creation myth of gnomes to the outside world is that Tyr was once a ferocious and wild beast that ate stars. All gnomes lived on the back of the beast and existed in harmony with it and each other. They rode the beast through the heavens for an eternity until a many faced deity called The Hunter came to slay the beast. The beast and hunter battled across the heavens, and in the end destroyed each other simultaneously. The body of the beast formed the world and the decapitated heads of the hunter fell on to Tyr. The lice on the heads of the hunter scattered everywhere, and living in the fur of the beast changed into all manner of life forms.

## Minor Stories

**Diokles the Invulnerable**: Diokles or Diocles was a legendary warrior in the Southern Sea, although different versions of his character have proliferated to many other regions. The story goes that no sword, spear, or arrow could surmount his impenetrable shield. But his shield could not protect him from being devoured whole by a gigantic monster which takes different forms based on the region. In the Southern Sea the monster is usually The Shyrghra, the great worm of the Searing Sands. Some lesser known versions include his friend Tolis the Bard, who saw that while Diokles was devoured, the shield itself was indeed impervious to the teeth of the monster, before also being swallowed whole. The story often has a comical tone due to the nature of his greatest strength being useless in the end.