Fleshcrafter

## Origins

According to legend the three progenitors came from one of the human tribes that lived around Vâle. This tribe, known as Ghârâtza, played the role of the seers and shaman in the deep valleys as one of the eight great houses. The highest of all shamanines, Hrâranâ, who led the tribe at that time, had a vision prophesying the fall of all of Vâle. In
 this vision, she saw a great beast that devoured the population alive,
first eating its highborn to gain strength, and then
destroying the common people. This
 vision drove her insane until she demanded from the heads of the seven
other houses to leave Vâle and move to a safe region. Since the winter was coming, they rejected her demand. In her anger she imposed a curse on all the chiefs, who condemned
them to a dreadful end, in which they were to suffer all the torments
they inflicted on their people by their stupidity. As
 the leaders took the words of such a mighty seer very seriously, they
offered her to remove the curse or leave the land forever. Eventually she was driven out of her own halls, followed by her most faithful servants and childers.

This
 tribe, once the head of Ghârâtza, roamed the slopes of the great
mountains, seeking a new valley that promised them safety. The only thing they found was death in the jaws of early winter that hit them high above Vâle. Desperately,
 they wanted to force their seer to go back to their old home and drag
her forcibly with them when the old woman refused. The
 icy chill and hunger finally devoured much of
 her former followers until there were barely a dozen men and women
left. In the cold, they finally found the body of a huge creature, which was cleared of an avalanche. Hrâranâ recognized that this was a fallen god. In their distress, they cut open the dead skin of the dead Creator and began to feast on his flesh and his long-withered entrails. To
 their surprise, they soon lost all control and began to eat like
animals, only pausing to rest or scare away other scavangers. On a night when the blizzards raged particularly badly, the tribe had to retreat deep into the womg of the long dead god. However, their endless meal was interrupted by terrible cramps as their bodies swelled and begann to move on her own. In their bodies, both men and women, something strange grew up that they had taken in with the cold flesh of the dead god. According
 to legend, their cries were still heard in Vâle as their bloated bodies
 burst. From their bloody remains rose strange creatures. The few people who survived this bloody birth were devoured by their newborn children.

As
 the snow thawed and the first day of spring came, the Glacial River
Giârza washed a pitch-black skeleton down into the valley, blank and
gnawed. As night fell over Vale, the Scêreba, the cursed children of Hrâranâs, rose from the shadows. Her
 figure was described by the thralls as that of a pale, crippled human,
 deeply bowed, with large jet-black eyes and a mouth containing an
absurd number of jagged rows of teeth. The rest of her figure could not be described as it changed constantly. The sound of raging flesh followed every movement as her body reshaped with each step.

In
 the beginning, these creatures were nothing more than mere legends, a
nightmare that plagued the ordinary people in their dreams. When
 summer came, the cattle began to disappear in the pastures, and the
only thing the thralls found the next morning was bruised skulls and
skeletons. The rumors about the Scêreba became more and more credible and disturbing. The
 highborn of the big houses, on the other hand, suspected a great carnivore
 who had come from the mountains, and called out a
great wolf-hunt.

However,
 the Scêreba, living in the dark forests and swamps of Vâles, watched
the humans from the shadows and their hunger for their flesh grew with
each passing day. With each summer night another farmer disappeared, always at the darkest hour of the night. Only the flesh of men allowed the scêreba to develop a mind that far surpassed that of an animal. Her intelligence grew equally with her desire to drink the blood of humans and gnaw off their bones. The
 screams, which could be heard more and more often from the woods and
bogs, indicated that the Scêreba now preffered to devour their victims alive.

On the
night of the first day of autumn, the Scêreba invaded the
stronghold of the house of Lemên, the hunters and guardians of the
people of Vâle. The night was filled with painfull screams, and
the next morning, when the hunters who had been sent on a raid into the
swamps returned to their stronghold, they found the festivities empty. When
 they finally entered the throne room, they found a gigantic throne
composed of all the living nobility, that structure was no longer
capable of screaming, but the loud gasps spoke for the pain that
the former rulers of the Lemên suffered. The Scêreba took their seat on this twichting throne and on top of it, fat and heavy, sat their ruler.

Only a single hunter escaped from the empty fortress and spread the horror story. When the Highborn heard this, they gathered Vale's armies and sent all the forces they could mobilize to the Lemèn main fortress. When their scouts did not return, the Highborne, who led the force, ordered to set the great hall on fire. The warriors gathered around the building, pointing their spears at every conceivable exit. The gasp that the living throne emitted when it burned could be heard all over the field, which only increased the tension of the warriors. As the entire fortress caught fire, the Scêreba burst forth from one of the gaping gaps, roaring with hunger and pain. The
 line of warriors broke almost immediately and the rest of the force
followed them in panic, when the monsters broke free.