Earth 35 - Folk Tales

### Mythological Interpretation of Interplanetary Settlement

This is a common story told across civilization. Many details have changed from the original history.

"Back in ancient days, 10,000 years before any one still living was born, the first ones left the Eard and came from across the sea.

They came slowly, for the sea was longer in those days. And they knew that by the time they reached the land they would all be dead as dust. So they used the secret magics of their homeland and they changed, like caterpillars emerging from cocoons.

Now cruel aging and wanton sickness would never touch them, but their minds had changed as well. For though some could think, and feel, and want, none could do all three.

When they reached the land that would one day be ours, it was nothing but rock, and smoke, and stream. But the first ones were clever, in the rocks they placed plants and animals. Soon the land was alive as it is today. So they placed the ogres and dragons and other monsters so that no one would take the land from them and their descendants.

But others came to the land after them. A new folk came from across the sea. They brought stories and songs and all the languages of the world.

When they reached the land they built towers and planted wheat. It was these ones who founded the Old Empire, a thousand years before Veiiun had conquered anyone.

The first ones did not know what to do with these strange people. These new folk were far less powerful but far more numerous, and clever in their own ways. The first ones retreated into the deep caves and the thick forests. They hid beneath the sea and behind the moon. They watched.

After some time, the Old Empire met the monsters that the first ones had made. They fought, and by the end the monsters were beaten and scattered across the land like seeds in the wind. But the old Empire was dying now. Within a generation they were no more, their people were scattered like the monsters they had defeated. Without their unity and their old magics to protect them the people were vulnerable to the monsters. They hid and slowly died of fear, until the first ones revealed themselves.

The first ones came down to them in the manner of gods. They taught the folk below the skills they had forgotten. They taught them how to make bronze and breed animals. They instructed them in some of the old ways, and taught them the new magics of this land.

The new folk forgot their faith in the true God worshipped the first ones instead. And so the first ones became the pantheons of Veiiun and of the North. They became the Elders of the South, the Old Ones of the forest folk and the old western tribes, and the Demoms still worshipped by the barbarians in Waeland and the east."

## Stories from the 2nd Heroic Age

* As the first age of Empires ended, the empire of Reimin managed to hold out despite numerous rebellions from within and raids from without. The emperor Zhang Hu used his mighty army to squash each mutiny and attack.
	+ The clans of the Vagii lived in the central hinterlands of the Jing Fu peninsula. Many times a Vagi clan would raid the coastal cities under the leadership of various Dux. These raids were mostly a nuisance but became more sever as time went on.
	+ Eventually, a Vagi leader emerged who was more powerful than any of the others. He was called Titus, son of Otho. He united many clans under his banner as Prindux of the Vagii and eventually he launched a raid larger than any in history.
	+ Titus attacked the mighty city of Wěi Yan, and achieved a great victory. His victorious army sacked the city over the course of several days. But while Titus was distracted, the emperor arrived with his army of 500,000 men (probably 200,000). Titus had only 50,000 (probably 20,000) but after an initial defeat, his soldiers retreated to the Great Market at the center of the city, shifting successfully to siege tactics and using its moat like canals, and decorative walls to mount a terrific defense.
	+ For a year and a day, Emperor Hu besieged the city, three times he grew impatient and ordered his army to assault Titus's strong position, but each time they took terrific casualties and were thrown back. Even so, Titus's force dwindled, until only 5,000 remained.
	+ In Emperor Hu's fourth and final assault he pierced the walls and at long last cornered Titus and his Honor Guards. Things seemed grim, but the Vagii claim that the god Aeilus intervened and turned the tide of the final fight. Emperor Hu was struck down by the divine force and his army disintegrated.
		- Historians think that Titus may have originally been a mercenary working for Reimin, which is probably how he learned siege tactics.

## Stories from the Second Age of Empires

* In the days of old, the Sarukh empire did battle with the Empire of Khenzanel for power and prestige. The Emperor Omar III established the House of Knowledge, a University and Library which trained scholars and magicians as agents of the Empire. Perhaps the two most legendary of these agents were Zawar Rmady and Morineh of the Atar.
	+ Zawar was a noble scholar who discovered that the world was around and improved navigation, allowing Sarukh to spread across the islands of the central sea.
	+ Morineh led a mission that scored a great propaganda victory, stealing the sacred flame of Khenzanel.
	+ The two were allies and worked together first to promote the prestige of the Empire, and then to elevate the power of the Wizard class and become the most powerful people in the empire.
	+ Eventually, the two quarreled and Morineh left secretly, stealing some of the most important and ancient texts. Enraged Zawar pursued him across the continent, until at last losing Morineh when the fugitive entered the Deepwood.
	+ To protect himself and his work he built a fortress their which he shaped into Labyrinth over time as he developed more and more traps to protect himself from Zawar's wrath.
	+ For years Zawar researched, until he created a spell that could locate any person by using their blood, which the House of Knowledge still had a sample from Morineh.
	+ Zawar found Morineh's Labrynth but was unable to get through, although he tried three times and even almost died all three times.
	+ Eventually Zawar killed Morineh through trickery, luring him out of his home and then having a Panahandeh bowman kill Morineh from a distance.

## Stories from the 3rd Heroic Age

### Stories from the Years of the Oger King

* A Saedic warrior traveled to the Empire in search of his fortune. He fought for the Governor of Austiamma at when Austianna rebelled against the Ogertithe. In the battle he lost his right hand but he trained to use his non-dominant left hand if the future. He came to be called Lahn Onehand.

* The governer of Aaspata, Pratibha the Bold, declares herself Queen of Austianna and Secedes in response to the Ogertithe.
	+ Her rebellions starts out successfully when half the human garrison of Austianna defects to their side and easily defeats the other half. At the battle of Pahalapul the human garrison of Rimskia is also defeated. However, the Oger Legions soon arrived.
	+ The Ogers destroyed the Austiannan empire after a single battle. Pratibha's whole family was killed after two years of Geurilla fighting, except her son Sarvesh who was serving in the Emerandian legions in Transfluvior under a false name.
	+ By the time of Aerton's rebellion, Sarvesh was a great conqueror who had retaken parts of Gaurciya and had successfully defended against the armies of the twelve princes (a brief united Ebueland) who had tried to conquer Fervox.
	+ In order to appease the people of Aaspatal, the Ogre King appointed Sarvesh the Governor-King, thinking that he would be loyal. Thanks to his military genius and disdainful attitude toward the Ogres, he became called the second Tarkan or the Tarkan of Austianna. Eventually he rebelled against the Ogers and took back his homeland with Aerton.

* Adjunct-Professor and Wizard, Lia the Watchful, leads a guerilla army of students to defend the Imperial library of Pagewall from Oger looters. The defense is successful but during negotiations with the Carrion King, Lia had to turn herself over in exchange for the libraries safety. However, she escaped and began a quest to find the mythical Codex that contained pre-ancient history.

* A young confidence-artist of Ealdon, named Jackin the Cunning, traveled to the south of Flusfeld during a festival that he knew the Oger King would attend. He cheated the Oger King out of a fortune in gold, silver, and jewels, but the Oger King realized was tricked a pursued Jackin. The boy fled, only able to take with him a single emerald from the great treasure he procured, but to save his skin he agreed to be the squire to a Knight Errant named Cinaed from the Tuathnor highlands. They traveled together, relying on Jack's cleverness and Cinaed's skill with arms. Cinaed taught Jackin to be morale and chivalrous before he died of an infected wound at a battle in Garulynce. Jackin traveled the empire for several more years, carrying on his teacher's legacy.

* A young Friar, named Chibueze, from Ailewu refused to abide by the reign of the Ogre king and preached openly against him. He is known for peace making, stopping a war between Marouland and Gostia, which allowed them to send troops to support the Stormhills when the Ogres invaded. When a squad of Ogers was sent to deal with a peasant rebellion, Chibueze spoke with the commander and convinced him to leave the people in safety.

* The ogre commander Sbghat abandoned the empire and traveled the land as a pacifist and vegetarian after speaking with Friar Chibueze. The only time Sbghat took up arms again was at the Battle of Greenfire.

* A pirate baroness from the Shards, Hallaveig, defeats the remaining imperial navy in as she raids Imperial camps along the LietendnRiver.

* The famous bowman Thorne of the Deepwood, wins an archery contest with the greatest archer of the empire. Supposedly he splits the arrow that the other archer fired. Other stories say he worked with Lia the Watchful to invent the first Longbow.

* A disgraced knight errant named Eustoph from Gaurlynce wanders the Empire, he becomes famous for jousting and dueling. Supposedly he kills an oger in a drunken fist fight. When the empire abandoned a town after it was attacked by a wild dragon, Eustoph swore to liberate the town and slay the dragon. He succeeded though he was permanently scarred by burns and he lost his pet and only friend, his horse Brusque.

* A mercenary named Daneald travels south from the Tuathnor lowlands. He is famous for combining pike fighting with pole-vaulting.
* Incanus is the most famous Wizard in history. He was already a living legend from his youth questing for the Codex and his middle age as Vizier of the Emerandian Empire. He was the Magistrate of the City of Stormlamp before being forced into exile by the Carrion King. He wandered the rim of the empire where he met Aerton in the legions.
	+ As a youth he braved his way into the Deepwood and found his way through the Labrynth

* Most famous of all: Once, miles away, in the day of the Oger King, a boy was born in a town that bordered what is today Ebueland and the Oger ruled Empire. His parents, simple farmers, named him Aerton. His intelligence and strength of will impressed several of the townsfolk, so they taught him their skills. The local priest taught him to read and write. A merchant taught him to speak half a dozen languages. Perhaps most importantly, a long retired soldier from Crisian's army taught him the ways of the longsword.
* When the boy was 14, a long winter and dry summer caused a famine, killing his parents and half the town. To survive, the boy joined the local army and toured around the empire fighting as a common soldier. But he never stopped learning he learned the way of the short Imperial gladius but also began to learn other paths
	+ He became close to the Brigade doctor, a civilian named Ink. Eventually he learned that Ink was really Incanus, the famous Wizard. Ink helped him along his journey and taught him a little bit of medicine and magic. Most importantly, Ink was a moral guide and taught him the skills he would eventually use to recruit his fellowship and take down the empire.
	+ One day, Aerton's legion was ordered to massacre a rebelling village in the north of Flusfeld. The boy's commander refused, but the cruel Carrion king merely sent Ogers instead to do his awful bidding. Aerton and Incanus fled into the Stormhills. There he began his quest to travel the land, learn all the sword arts he could muster, and raise an army to topple the Oger King.
	+ He learned the sword-dance of Southmark, the ways of the Caerelds and the Austians.
	+ First, for seven years he traveled all the countries that bordered the empire, learning their secret sword arts from whatever masters he could find. Then, for seven years he traveled within the empire, recruiting all the heroes mentioned above. His Fellowship quested around the world, until at last they united an Army to overthrow the Ogre King himself.
		- His most important allies were Lia the Watchful and Jackin the Cunning. His mentor was Incanus.