Creation of the Badlands Ravine Myth in Erina | World Anvil

Creation of the Badlands Ravine

The Earths are quite odd with what they believe is natural and what was caused by a single person. Mountain ranges springing out of nowhere and biomes that make no sense are simply attributed to the Gold, but one giant ravine shows up, and they decide now that its suddenly someone's doing. The aforementioned ravine lays in the southern part of the western continent, Ravager controlled in modern times. As such, most Earths will never actually see this ravine that they attribute to Tiana.   As the story goes, Tiana was visiting the other Elemental kingdoms in the south after the war to act as a peacekeeper between two factions that had begun to be aggressive to each other. The three rulers agreed to meet for the talks in the badlands, which no one had settled yet. The arguments between the two rulers grew louder, and neither was willing to agree about who should rule the badlands. Slowly but surely the threats worsened, each threatening war if one took the land before the other. Neither were agreeable to any form of split of the land, they simply wanted it all. This continued despite Tiana's best attempts to reasonably calm the situation. She raised her scythe at the two rulers and declared that if neither of them would ever own the entire region if they would not come to an agreement. Striking the ground with her scythe, the ground in front of her split and fell into the ravine. The crack continued until it reached the entire span of the badlands. Not wanting to lose access to any more land, the rulers agreed to each take a side of the newly created ravine.

Historical Basis

While Tiana was a powerful Earth and a Royal, it is extremely unlikely that she created the ravine. Parts of the story, such as the peace talks between the two rulers, is very real. And these rulers were indeed fighting over who should have control of the region. However, is it much more likely that the ravine was already there, and that Tiana simply talked down the two into choosing the easiest natural border available, and agreeing to trade the resources from either side of the ravine with each other with no tariffs. Which is what the written records say happened.   Internationally, this story is seen as one of many that the Earths tell, posing Tiana as to be all end all judge. In reality, Tiana was never someone who used force unless it was pessary and preferred to find the best neutral ground for differing people to stand on. She didn't go around swinging her scythe, forcing others to conform to Earthren ideals.

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