Markovad the Maker

> "Though the Order of Equilibrium has long held that Markovad emerged during the time of the First Flash, skeptics insisted it was impossible. 'That would make Markovad no less than 4,369 years old when she disappeared,' they scoffed – and indeed it would, but it doesn’t make the account untrue. Rather it serves to add to Markovad’s mystery, posing the question as to how an elf could attain such an age. But as Chroniclers and historians we owe it to Andovan to seek answers to this question, and not to simply try to erase the question from existence." -- Gimel, *Aizendore's Vault of Tragic Treasure*
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The historical truths we know of Markovad the Maker could be writ on no more than a thumbnail. So, in this instance, we take our lead from the myths surrounding the legendary artificer, for at the heart of every myth is some grain of truth.

By way of prefacing these myths, we must highlight that Markovad is more than a construct of legend, as some misguided historians have tried to assert. Aizendore’s own journals provide ample evidence of her existence. The real difficulty for Chroniclers is separating fact from faith and faith from fiction, which feels at times a vain pursuit, for there is seldom an order or creed that does not hold Markovad as some sort of prophet, savior, or herald of the end times.

Over time, mention of Markovad’s mentor slipped from myth and legend and Markovad began to appear as a solitary savior figure. Whoever trained her, be it celestial, deity, or mortal, she grew and learned and became independent of their mentorship, whether by choice or necessity.

Legend began to paint her as more than a survivor come apprentice; she became instead a war-hero in the furthest reaches of the continent, leading her people to victory by summoning Mother Earth’s own brand of arcane deliverance; a professor, founding schools of arcanum and artificery; and, perhaps most peculiar of all, a humble shipmate on a whaling vessel, learning the art of navigation and reading the patterns of the tides and the moons.

It is said that when her time on the oceans had come to a grisly end, she returned to the Island, having harvested the most powerful arcane materials from the four corners of the earth. With levels of skill and precision that only Markovad could exact, she tempered the very essence of north and south, east and west into a helm. The materials within were so finely balanced and so deeply attuned to their roots, that she was able to navigate the skies on her island with more speed and precision than the dreaded Captain Greenfin sailed the Skova Straits. Thus, she is credited by Theonidis Dorrovay in The Art of Magic as having been the first to discover the Law of Arcane Belonging:

> “Just as a weary foot soldier having been long at war, feels drawn back to his homeland, so the pull of the arcane is always back to where the magic was birthed. No matter how an arcane material is mixed and forged, channeled and changed, its essence will ever be drawn back to its place of belonging.”
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With these achievements under her belt, it is little wonder that Markovad’s reputation grew to mythic proportions and her services were sought by outcast and ruler alike. It is said that she forged a sword so fearsome for the King of Kiltrae that it bolstered his allies’ resolve just to see it, and when it dubbed a knight into the King’s service, they arose from its touch as men afeared of nothing. Yet, despite her fame and growing wealth, she did not deem it beneath her to forge a simple ring for a young lover of modest means, who could not afford a diamond for his betrothed. With signature compassion, generosity, and ingenuity Markovad crafted a golden ring that would keep his beloved daily supplied with her favorite flowers.