The Glimmer Jaw

The Glimmer Jaw is, or was, a relic said to be the actual jaw of a deity's physical avatar, dating back to the time of the Dreaming when the world was born.

The goddess in question is Elnirani, affectionately called Nira by her followers in accordance with centuries of such casual references, themselves said to come from the goddess' request while she walked the world as a physical avatar--not quite a mortal, as she felt no pain and regularly still performed miracles, according to the lore. Nira is an earth goddess of fertility, though she is not a mother goddess, as that role is taken by her mother, the goddess Giagana. Elnirani is, however, more powerful and influential than her mother, one of the most powerful gods in the pantheon. This comes of her role as a creator. Her mother's creation is limited to children, whereas the virgin Nira's creativity is bound only by her imagination as she weaves things into existence.

She once spoke much of the world into being. It existed, but it was chaos, an ever-changing deluge of dreams and nightmares, torrents of colors and tendrils of darkness in equal measure. She made the trees, the animals, and all the species of the world. Different cultures have it different ways, but most cultures recognize her in some form. Elnirani enjoyed the process and made one flower after the next, one animal and the next, and on and on.

But she noticed after a while that the wild colors of the sky were calming into a monochromatic gray and undulating land was becoming a single, flat honey-colored landscape. She realized that she was setting too many things and too quickly. Worried that everything would freeze, she spoke it partly into motion again...not into the chaos it once was, but she left skies the moved through glorious oranges and pinks and purples on the way to and away from the day. She let the land take wild shapes again, but she stopped them when the shapes were mountains in one place, hills in another, plains and canyons and lakes and cliffs in others. And then, so as not to be tempted to impress more of her single vision on the world, she removed her jaw and set in on the peak of a mountain. Smiling with her eyes, she grew larger and larger, simultaneously becoming more and more insubstantial until only her eyes could be seen as stars above...a pair of stars called Nira's Eyes to this day.

It is said that she left the world its imagination, and granted the people of the world the ability to shape the world as they saw fit, for better or worse. She gave people the world. Her world. Now everyone's. And it is that sacrifice, and the great freedom it offered, that she is revered and worshiped for.

Theories abound as to the location of the jaw, which mountain it was set on, and where it might be found now. The taigi elves claim to have had it in their possession according to ancient texts, but even that is in question, and it has not been seen reliably since the time of myth. If found, its power is said to be legendary...the power to shape the world itself to one's will.