Lady Asmye

This mythical character was created long before Arburg came to be, and has been altered a little bit by bit as it has been passed orally down the eons. This one is a story that likes to be told around the fireplace, with all the children gathered around. June is one of the children of Arburg that was told the legend of Lady Asmye:

---

"Sit down, children. It is time that I tell you about Lady Asmye."
Two pairs of wide eyes stared up at him sitting in in his rocking chair. One scowling teenager rolled his eyes and left the room. Harry had always been a difficult child, and being a teenager didn't make it any easier on Paul and Martha.
Paul sighed, but continued. "Lady Asmye was the goddess of the ocean. It was her job to sculpt the land and decide which parts would be fruitful and which would be fruitless and barren. The land that Arburg is on was once all desert, and then one day she decided to bless the land. The people who lived there had a hard life, but they still persevered, so she wanted to reward them for their determination and stamina."
It seemed like only yesterday that he had been the child listening to his father's word that all seemed so filled with wisdom. Paul had been so innocent back then, not aware that life had many troubles in store for him, but also many blessings, like in the story. His eyes had been just as wide as his children's, and the thought that there was once a goddess of the ocean had fascinated him for many years to come.
"Daddy, keep telling us the story," his daughter's small, eager voice pulled him back to reality.
"Ah, yes, sorry my dear! Lady Asmye decided to bless the land. So she went over to the coast and blew over it, in one big breath." He then proceeded to blow out one such a big breath, causing his children to giggle. His father had done the same thing. "Soon after, the land around that coast began to flourish, and the soils became fertile, producing much greenery. One part of the coast received sands as white as snow, and other parts became fertile, marshy, alluvium-filled floodplains. We call them Pearl Beach, Spoital and the Ashdare Delta now. The people of the land wanted to show their gratitude, so they began to build what would would one day become a great city, and they named it after the great Lady."
"Asmye," June sighed to herself, her voice full of awe and wonder.
"And that's why Arburg is the great country that it is today!" Paul had heard that exact sentence so many years ago, and back then Arburg had seemed like a perfect, flawless nation. Oh, the truth had come to him much later in his life: that it was a broken land filled with broken people, just like every nation in the world. The flaws are often covered with illusions like dirty plasters, but every plaster has to come off at one point, and dirty ones often reveal an infected wound. Only if the wound is treated right can it be healed. If only the world could be treated as easily as a small cut or bruise with Cetrobur.
"Now off to bed with you, you munchkins!" this brought on a chorus of squealing and protesting. 'Well, maybe not all the world is so bad,' thought Paul. 'After all, if a child can laugh without a care in the world, then something must still be okay with the world, and I must be doing something right.'