The Young Queen of the North

The Young Queen of the North as told by Ancient Sage Gabriel full transcript:
In the large, open halls of Excellion, the Young Queen used to playfully run around to find her toy animals. ‘I found you!’ she used to cry every time she found one. The castle nobility always used to tell her to stop hiding and finding her toy rabbits and foxes and to instead rule the kingdom that needed her. The Young Queen used to stop and wistfully think about what they said but she would always reply ‘I don’t hide them, they run off on their own, and I need everyone I love in this kingdom around me, not just the grown-ups.’ This continued for an awfully long time, until one day the Young Queen sat on her bed, crying a river. ‘Melveil, dear’ The maids used to say, ‘whatever do you have to be so sad about?’ ‘It’s my animals,’ she wept, ‘They’re gone!’ The Young Queen’s advisors didn’t know what to do, and when they tried to make new toys for the Young Queen, she immediately knew they weren’t the ones she was looking for. One day, the Young Queen gazed upon the Iceplains. She started to look day and night out onto them to find her animals and asked, ‘Will daddy know where they have gone?’ The Young Queen’s maids said, ‘The king is sleeping amongst the plains under the quilt of snow, and you shouldn’t disturb him from his nap, Melveil.’ The Young queen pondered and said, ‘But my animals aren’t under a quilt of snow, they’re probably really cold out there all alone!’ And so, the Young Queen made up her mind, early one morning, she snuck out of the castle walls and ventured out onto the plains in search of her long-lost animals. She looked for days and nights with no sign of them, but she wasn’t going to give up on those she loved so dear. The nobility was worked up into a fright. Days passed without any sign of their Queen and they were panicked and nervous until a knock came from the castle door. They were relived and quickly made to open the doors, but the Young Queen wasn’t there, there was no sign of anybody. They looked down in sorrow and saw the Young Queen’s toy animals sitting in the entranceway and brought them inside in tears. The nobility ventured outside to find the Young Queen themselves, but they became caught in a terrible blizzard. They lost sight of each other and were frozen and alone. They gave up on all hope. They all drifted off to sleep. When they awoke, they were warm, inside castle walls and healthy. There was no sign that a blizzard had happened at all. All of them said they had a peculiar dream. They all dreamt of the Young Queen Melveil helping them when they needed it most. ‘I found you!’ The Young Queen cried when she found them in the dream, and she brought them back to Excellion. ‘You weren’t under a quilt of snow, you looked really cold!’ they heard her say. And from that day forward any person who was untimely bested by the Iceplains had a dream of a young girl who said, ‘I found you!’ ‘The Young Queen Melveil became one with the plains.’ the nobles used to say, ‘Melveil loves everyone in this kingdom, and she always loved to find those who were once lost.’

Summary

The story follows the Young Queen Melveil, a 6 year old Queen, who ran away during a snowstorm to find her lost subjects who she loved dearly that were held at the mercy of the storm. The Young Queen never returned but it is said that those who are trapped and lost in the plains during terrible storms have a dream about a young girl saving them, and miraculously awake to find themselves safe and sound, out of harms way. It is said that the soul of the Young Queen still patrols the Iceplains to save those who can see no hope to carry on.

Historical Basis

The myth is based off of the Young Queen Melveil who ruled Excellion for 3 months and disappeared never to be seen again. The only evidence that supports the myth is that the phenomena reported by a very small minority of people in the Melveil Ice Plains began not too long after the Queen's disappearance, and even then, it is deeply rooted in coincidence.

Spread

The myth was localised only to the Melveil Ice Plains for a very long time, with only a few travellers being able to tell the story to the rest of Adremesis. It was only in 556 BFB that the Ancient Sage Gabriel popularised the myth to the rest of Adremesis in his compendium of ethereal tales which eventually became known as part of the Ancient Tales of the Sages.

Variations & Mutation

The myth was significantly altered by Ancient Sage Gabriel when he adapted it to be told throughout Adremesis. He condensed the myth into a short story and gave the Young Queen dialogue and motivations to leave which can not be validated. He wrote the myth with a more ethereal tone and implied that the phenomena was a common occurrence

Cultural Reception

The residents of the Melveil Iceplains hold the myth as a large part of their culture and is passed down from generation to generation, often in the form of bed-time stories, or wonderous tales to travellers and merchants. By the fall of Barrodor, the myth had almost no significance on the rest of Adremesis, with many not knowing it at all, but the tale is still popular with enthusiasts and scholars who are interested in mythology throughout Adremesis.

Date of First Recording

677 BFB

Date of Setting

678 BFB