Nyxian Starchart Myth in Ravare | World Anvil

Nyxian Starchart

Lost Relic of Solith.

Images by Unsplash/Game Icons and edited by Wired.

The Legend

When Solith was young, and the Garkith still lived in vast mountain cities devoted to their gods of earth and sky, it is said Nyx the Constellation Smith first forged the heavens. As the daughter of Ourano the Seer God, Nyx was tasked with chronicling the past, present, and future into the starry night sky's brilliance. On the darkest nights of the year, Nyx would ascend the Astral Anchor into the dark heavens and chronicle her people's knowledge of the cosmos by sculpting the stars and constellations as if ink upon her skin. The Garkith became the first astronomers of Solith as they learned to read the work of Nyx, believing that it held all the wisdom the mortal world had to offer. Through the stars, the Garkith learned to count the passage of time, reliably travel across Solith, and even divine the future of the continent. Yet still, they could not stave off their inevitable downfall at the hands of the Udrithi Empire.
When Gaul marched upon the Garkith of the Throat of the World with the full might of the Udrithi Empire at his back, he ripped Nyx from the heavens and slew her upon the slopes of Ourano's Peak. Thus legend has it that the stars ceased to change and halted their movements in the sky, forever frozen with their great sculptor's death. Gaul then ripped the knowledge of the cosmos from the still-warm corpse of the Constellation Smith, in the form of a perfect map of the heavens eternally preserved upon a ragged sheet of her star-speckled onyx skin. The Nyxian Starchart, as it became known to the Udirkith, contained more than a mere map of the stars, hiding many secrets the Garkith had uncovered about the cosmos in its shifting patterns. Many Udirkith believe this legendary artifact laid bare all the mysteries of the universe, and with it, one could travel to Realms beyond Solith. With the fall of Gaul and the shattering of the Udrithi Empire, the Nyxian Starchart inexplicably vanished into the darkest depths of the Black Roads. Though lost to the annals of history, lesser recreations of the Nyxian Starchart adorn countless walls of libraries and naval quarters as a vital tool for navigating the chaotic waters immediately surrounding Solith.
There are 3 secrets on this page.

General Information

Related Species
Related Locations
Related Organizations

Changeless Stars

The Stonekin commonly believe that when Nyx was slain the stars became immutable and have stayed exactly the same since then. Only the sun and moons still move in the heavens above, while the stars remain as still as the corpse of Nyx. Meanwhile, those sophonts not native to Solith find the stars above the continent strange and alien things. Both Humanity and the Elvenkyne and detailed records of when they first glimpsed the brilliance of the night sky, only appearing upon first setting sight on the shores of Solith.
Nyxian Starmap
The night sky as it is seen above Solith.

Highland Dwarf ancestry is required to know this secret.
 
Traveling beyond Solith on Ravare is required to know this secret.
 
Obtaining the Nyxian Starchart is required to know this secret.
 


Cover image: by Logo by Garret Grace Lewis, edited by Oneriwien.
This article has no secrets.

Comments

Please Login in order to comment!
Jul 4, 2020 19:42 by Geoff Washam

This is awesome! It's so evocative!

Jul 5, 2020 05:31

Thank you, it was a two-day labor of love. Completely not the lore we needed to be working on XD but i liked making constellations

Jul 5, 2020 12:17 by Dr Emily Vair-Turnbull

There's so much interesting lore here, I love it!

Emy x   Etrea | Vazdimet
Jul 6, 2020 01:53

Thank you! It, like much of Ravare's lore, was the product of a single random question and a need for a map of our multiverse. It's got many implications and plot threads that connect Solith's checkered history to the rest of the cosmos. And allowed us to both have the stars never change or move, alongside letting the rest of Ravare have a starless and black night sky.

Powered by World Anvil