Reya

There are as many legends about how the world began as there are cultures in said world. But despite the number of stories claiming to be the truth, there's only one thing they have in common: if it weren't for an outside influence, Sornieth wouldn't exist at all.

Though an unpopular legend, Sylvaranti claims it is Sornieth's true origin - that a creature known as They Who Walk Behind the Stars is the one who created the universe. They found it, grew it, left it, and have now come to reclaim it.

While this theory has been under scrutiny from scientists for a myriad of reasons, there remains a sliver of hope that it's true. Several new alien artifacts have been unearthed within the Arcane District as of late that give credence to a cosmic horror.

In the swirling vortex of space, dust was gathered by a lonely creature. In eons, it was shaped into the universe as we know it. And while They were proud of their accomplishment, They were also alone.

They looked through the galaxy They had created for another life to share such news, but there was nothing. There was only darkness. And so, as a solution to their problem, They shaped the darkness with vast limbs and gave it life with a single breath.

The darkness pulsed beneath Their gaze. The empty twisted, shaping into new life, for beneath the void came the world's consciousness - Prime, and the world's hands - Proteus. They had not expected two creatures to split from Their design. And so, pushed together, Prime and Proteus were made to make more like Them.

Nestled deep within the core of Sornieth, they set to work, or so the legend goes...

Darkness is defined as an absence. It is zero. It is nothing. Yet how can one define nothing without also understanding that there is a something? It is a balance that must co-exist. One cannot exist without the other, nor can one be judged alone.

The hands that shaped the darkness had also dug too deep. Proteus unearthed the first semblance of light - the Herald; Ji Xue. It was then, and only then, that the darkness could be defined. For it did not shine like Ji Xue. It harrowed over the earth with a threatening aura. It was the Harbinger; Krokus.

Krokus and Ji Xue fought for ages. Time rewound. Time moved forward. Their game of war had turned ancient, and was burried within the earth. The slow beating of their hearts formed the mountains, and said mountains gave rise to the first civilizations of Sornieth.

Among the crumbling ruins of the past sits the remains of a golden statue. It depicts Maban of the Mountains - a selfish king whose greed caused the demise of his people, and the resulting rebellion tarnished his reputation for a millennia.

Sornieth is no stranger to cruelty. For as many great leaders it could claim, there were twice the number remembered for their brutality. Such is the legend of Masaka, the Sun.

It is said that Masaka ruled with anger. Her fury was as blinding as the sun, and the sun did not care who it hurt. It was the boon of her people. Her anger, so hungry, devoured those around her until nothing of her kingdom remained - not even the light that powered it. With nothing left, she fell into a slumber, where she stayed until she too, passed without feeding from the sun.

The mask she wore is on display in one of the many museums within the Light District. It is off limits to touch.

The Water District has always been prosperous. Their affinity for divination has given them the clarity to avoid most natural disasters, allowing its multiple civilizations to flourish. It isn't the world around them that has caused things to fall. No... It was the people.

It began with Praetor Severus, one of the Council of Oligarchs during the Second Tidal Age. He was a sour, bitter man who the others held a strong dislike for. However, if there was one thing he was known for, it was for speaking the truth, as ugly as it was. Those wrapped in greed and corruption did not care for the truth, and so they drowned him. Then he would stay silent, and their shady workings would not be uncovered.

Ironically, it was his drowning that caused the Third Tidal Age, wiping out the previous Council. A plaque for him sits on the shoreline as a reminder to never cover up the truth.

There are many prophets noted in Sornieth's history. Several are notable for their miracles. A handful are known for predicting travesties, and were feared as harbringers. But none were more feared than Chordeva, the False Prophet.

Travelling the lands before boundaries were drawn was a simple task. There were no borders. There was no authority. It's what allowed Chordeva to spread her gruesome prophecies unchecked. She spoke of plagues and infections. Pestilence and death. Never once did she divine something good. And yet... she was accurate. Every tragedy merged with reality sooner or later.

It wasn't until hundreds of years after her passing that her prophet status was called into question. Unearthing the prophet's satchel revealed the source of her power: she caused her own truths. Chordeva harvested the infected organs of the dead, and soaked them in the local water sources so that her predictions would be accurate.

Her organ satchel is currently under study at the Blight Sanctum.

The majority of cities and villages in the Ice District are littered along the shore. With the main income of Ice being their fishing exports, it's no surprise that populations ran up and down the coast. Unfortunately, after an ugly natural disaster, the waters were tainted. No one could harvest fish. While the larger cities were able to scrape by from other means, this was not the case for isolated villages farther south who could not grow crops on the bitter land.

Several religious leaders from the capital were sent to help manage these smaller villages. Like many leaders of the time, they were corrupt, and pinned the blight on the nuns that had accompanied them. The nuns were sacrificed, in hopes it would revitalize the economy. Not long after, the townspeople mysteriously disappeared. The only sign of life when additional missionaries arrived was the lone word "ESTHER" scrawled in blood on the local church.

Nowadays, the village of Mayfair sits empty. Not even tourists visit.

While the Light District boasts about its advancements, it often prefers to hide blemishes of its own. None is more apparent than the history of Cascabel Amor.

Cascabel was the Prince of a local noble family. Set to be King upon their father's death, Cascabel longed for nothing more than to rule as Queen. She thought that her people, which had loved and worshipped her as Prince, would accept her as their Queen, rather than continuing to hide under the mantle of a supposed King. Her hopes were dashed at her inauguration.

Cascabel's family was overthrown in rage. Her castle burned. Her body destroyed. The only remnants of Cascabel are in her diaries, smuggled out by loyal servants, as history has scrubbed their hands clean of the travesty. Her writings currently reside within a vault at Schwartz Industries.

Tensions mounted between districts. With famine, greed, and lack of resources, many leaders teetered on the brink of war for something as basic as survival. Wishing for nothing but victory in the upcoming days, a once revered leader, (Agape the Soulful), offered themselves as a vessel for the Valkyrie Verdandi. If she were to descend from the heavens and lead the fight on their behalf, then their people would surely be victorious.

While their sacrifice summoned the spirit of the Valkyrie, the result of a single battle did not satiate her need to fight. She brought war on all those who crossed her path under the guise of peace. For if there was no one to fight back, then peace would grace the land.

There are several tapestries within the Gale Sanctum that depict her leading troops into battle.

In the Ancient Historia, there are many records of the battles that occurred during The Foundation. Of these, it appears that the Fire District was hit the hardest. While they were often seen as the ones who would reap victory simply because of their ability to produce weapons and armor, they were also the District that suffered the most from lack of resources. Without trading for other supplies (such as food), Fire became a wasteland. Everything was scorched. It was a barren, empty place where troops could fight and die. There was no retreat from the molten grounds.

It was then that Fire allied with Arcane, and built massive automatons - forged from the metals in the earth, and given life by the magic of the stars. They ravaged the battlefields until nothing remained. They continued to roam until the magic in them died. Most of them have been dismantled and scattered. One, carved with the runes 'NIKANDROS,' remains mostly intact. It serves as a reminder to never use such dangerous technology again.

Much of the history around The Foundation comes from post-war Sornieth. There are few records that exist before such a time, and even less from those who lived through it. However, the journals of Meridian were found next to a skeleton, curled in a fetal position. Said skeleton was named Meridian for its exact position between two districts, and the journals found nearby are attributed to him.

Meridian was a self-described 'cowardly man' who couldn't choose between sides. He was so torn about his decision that he ran and hid in a small cove he knew about from childhood. When he finally gained the courage to fight, the fight was over. The fields were stained with blood. There was no one left to fight for.

He returned to his hiding place, and it was there that it's speculated he starved to death from his own grief. The story is heartbreaking to many. So much so, that it has been adapted into several books and popular movies.

The Ice Fields escaped much of the damage during the war as it wasn't sandwiched between multiple elements. Arcane kept to itself, sealed off from the world with a forcefield. The others were separated by both distance and deep oceans. It produced little, and needed less. Thus, during The Foundation, it was a sliver of sanctuary.

Many families retreated higher into the mountains to avoid small skirmishes at the border. Unfortunately, the winters were not kind during those years. Multiple avalanches and cave-ins resulted in isolated, documented incidents of cannibalism.

Surviving records from the time indicate a widespread fear of a creature named Ohkmhaka who was said to roam the mountainside for food. However, no real evidence of a creature exists, as only humanized bite marks have been recovered.

Milla, (estimated to be twelve to fourteen at the time of her disappearance), was a young girl who wished to escape the grim realities of war. Her diary consisted of pages upon pages of the same sentence; "I want to be the wind, so I can fly away from here."

There is little evidence as to what happened to Milla after the war. There are no records of her person after The Foundation, save for the diary, which has recently been re-discovered after the excavation of local farmlands.

A statue of Milla was recently erected as a reminder of childhood innocence. It rests near The Aergate to honor her wishes to become one with the wind.

Both men and monsters wait for the perfect time to strike. If there is an advantage to be had, the lines between man and monster blur. Never has it been more apparent than during The Foundation, where there was profit to be had. Regular factories had turned to produce machines of war.

Tired of being used to propagate a war they had no stakes in, a small exodus of disgruntled factory workers that fled into the desert to escape the daily grind. Of the twenty six that left, only one returned.

While he returned in less than twenty four hours, the man claimed he had been gone a decade, if not more. He told investigators that the others had given in to the Xolotl - a creature that promised respite in exchange for their eternal souls. The man said he survived because he had rebuffed all of the temptations the creature offered until it tired and let him go.

While there is no documented evidence of such a creature existing, there remains a superstition surrounding the desert sands at night.

Much like how the summoning of Valkyrie Verdandi had started the war, the summoning of Valkyrie Brynhildr ended it.

With the population collapsing on itself, various governments disbanded. It was anarchy. It was chaos. Yet despite the destabilization of the gears of war, the people did not stop fighting. They used everything in their power to continue. Every Valkyrie known by name was summoned to stop the rampaging Verdandi. All but one failed. The last of them was Brynhildr, who is said that on her descent from the heavens, her blinding light healed the scars left in the earth and removed the darkness from the hearts of men.

A statue of the Valkyrie Brynhildr stands where she's said to have fallen after defeating her sister. She is considered to be the one who ended the war and to have drawn the lines to solidify The Foundation.

The Foundation had caused a monstrous loss of life. It's estimated that more than sixty percent of the population perished from the war and its after-effects. Few pieces of land were left unharmed. One of the only sanctuaries left was that owned by Lady Salome, a daughter of a once prominent noble lord.

Her land had escaped the clutches of war by some divine miracle. The fields flourished, and many orphaned children came to her for food. Salome was beloved by her community, and remained in high spirits throughout the war. It wasn't until the war had officially ended that she received word that her lover would not be coming back. She had lost her love to The Foundation, and with it, her heart.

Her fields withered. Children stayed far away from the weeping widow. Every night, Salome wandered the property line, lantern in hand, crying out for her husband-to-be. While it's been hundreds of years since her passing, the farmland is still untouched as locals claim it's haunted. There are frequent sightings of mysterious lights and haunting screams.

Part of the Restoration Era consisted of replacing what was lost. Among the list of things to do, replanting of the many ruined forests was a high priority for the Nature District. Their economy relied heavily on harvest, and without product to harvest, there was no money to rebuild.

None was more passionate for the cause than Nythera Styx, an activist who is recorded to have planted more than 250,000 trees in just a few short years post-war. However, while foraging for more seeds to plant, she seemingly disappeared. There were no traces left of the young woman. Even trackers had failed to find a clue.

In her honor, a newly discovered constellation was named after her. It appeared shortly after she vanished, and was called The Sky River Styx. It is unique in that it only appears over the Nature District, and cannot be seen by those outside Nature's boundaries. Many travel from afar to study it, even now.

With The Restoration well under way, many factories that had been used for the production of war machines had turned face to manufacture products for new infrastructure. No longer pushing out weaponry, they began to distribute steel for the reconstruction of larger cities. Using oil syphoned from Earth, and a mixture of Fire and Lightning's innate energy, there were hundreds of upstart businessmen that made names for themselves by capitalizing on reconstruction. One of the most famous from those times was Beauford Rockvell.

Rockvell's fortune tripled overnight as he hit a leyline of gold. From there, it only continued to skyrocket. As he was setting his sights on a political campaign, Beauford made a last minute trip to the mountains with his business partner, Siegfried Von Karma.

Rockvell did not return from the venture. Von Karma claimed they encountered particularly harsh weather, and that Beauford had died from exposure. Von Karma went on to inherit the shared business, but an unexpected collapse in the stock market caused a bankruptcy. With no way to pay the debt, Von Karma too, disappeared into the mountains. Neither body was recovered.

Nythera's efforts went down in history. For as many trees as she planted, she inspired a dozen times more. People from all over Sornieth gathered to donate their time and effort to planting new and rare species of trees. The more exotic plants were collected in the Everbloom Gardens, curated at the time by none other than Trellissia Trebellis.

The Trebellis family had watched over the Gardens for centuries, dating back to The Foundation. Trellissia was the last of her progeny, and was thrilled to look over the new species. But that thrill soon turned to mourning. Servants of the estate report her moping and crying at the windows. She refused to come inside at night. One morning, as they knocked on her door, the servant who had come to wake her was greeted with an empty room. Trellissia had simply disappeared.

Local authorities searched the vast property. Nothing out of the ordinary was found, although the employees of the Trebellis Estate are adamant that an art installation of humanoid-shaped flowers wasn't there prior. Said 'art installation' still exists, though it is off-limits to visitors and remains behind a magical barrier.

Parents are no strangers to stories. They seem to have one for every occasion. Don't forget to close the door. Always leave a glass of water out for the full moon. Never stay in the deep woods after dark.

The story of Kevin, Lost but Seeking, is common on the tongues of wary parents. They tell their children that Kevin was too pompous - that because he hunted in the forests every day that he didn't need to be back before the moon rises. Kevin always boasted that he'd find his way out.

For many moons, he did. Kevin returned again and again after the moon rose, until one day, he didn't. While he set out with his trusted gull and dog each day, only the gull returned. Several townspeople followed it back into the forest, but it circled an empty clearing. Those who tried to enter the clearing disappeared before the others' very eyes.

Parents say that if you're lost and you hear the sounds of a gull deep within the forest, run as fast as you can towards home before you too, disappear from the moon's gaze.

Less of a tale and more a horror story is that of Ristelle the Perfect. What makes it the most frightening legend is that it's undeniably real. Ristelle existed. Her obituary is available on microfilm in most District libraries. Unlike Kevin, a precautionary tale for children, Ristelle is a warning.

Born to a father from the Ice District and a mother from Plague, her father deemed his newborn Ristelle perfect, until he saw that she inherited her mother's eyes. It was the one thing keeping her from perfection. And so, in a demented tale of horror and woe, Ristelle was molded into the perfect doll. She was bound to only sit. She could not eat. She could not talk. She could only smile, and sit. And that is how authorities found her - perfectly embalmed with a smile on her face. Her father claimed she had achieved perfection.

Despite Ristelle's story being a tragedy, many use it as an example to not chase perfection, less you find it in death. If they question the moral, Ristelle's grave is accessible and open for flower tributes.

More of an urban legend than anything, the story of One is expected. It's every science trope in imaginable; a group of scientists thought that messing with things they didn't understand was a good idea. Lo and behold, it wasn't. They had opened a portal to something grotesque and learned the consequences of their actions.

And while the lab's location is in dispute (though rumored to be in the Plague District), and no one knows quite what the creature they released is... One thing in common in the many tellings of the story was that the creature named itself One. And One claimed it was "the First of Many".

The moral of the story is to not mess with things you don't understand. Unfortunately, the urban legend has inspired some of the more adventurous people to go looking for it.

Recently unearthed, Hallow is a new form of being previously thought to have been a legend. While details of automatons that contain a synthetic memory core have been written about, none have remained from before The Foundation (that is, of course, until Hallow's discovery millennia later). Replication of the discovered technology has failed, and thus, Hallow is the only one of its kind.

Hallow has the unique ability to project a 3D image of each person from the civilization within its archive. It contains the full memories of each person, and is fully literate in ancient tongues.

As it was found within the Tourmaline Archives, Hallow is currently under observation by the Oculus of the Eleven.

While legends differ from district to district about the creation of Sornieth, many share folklore about the end of days. It's almost uncanny, considering that the legends arose during The Foundation when many districts did not interact with one another and prevented travel between borders.

The similarities in the legend of the end of days are as follows:

CRVEHEEAOD

"There will be a Culling.
The lands will grow dark with Rot.
The Void to surface anew.
It is Nil.
It will take all it touches.
Those that survive will bare witness to the End.
It will descend on the stairs of Heaven.
There is Eternity within its Embrace.
It is the Alpha and the Omega.
It is Dumah.
It is Death, and rebirth."

While many regard this as nothing more than religious fearmongering during The Foundation, other claim it has merit, as the Stairs of Heaven are meant to be the modern day Mirrorlight Promenade. Artifacts inscribed with remnants of the mythos are scattered between the various Sornieth Universities for study.