Gariela and Sandalius
The story of Gariela and Sandalius is a famous love story among Lanterns worldwide and is especially popular in the Kingdom of Kantoc where this event supposedly happened.
Summary
Gariela was a holy warrior serving the god Zarthus who was in love with a healer among Mera's Tenders named Sandalius. Gariela would often visit Sandalius for magical healing between her adventures. Sandalius was a prolific potioneer and kept Gariela well stocked with healing potions.
One day while Gariela was away, Sandalius' temple was attacked by minions of the god Maylar. Almost the entire temple staff was killed including Sandalius though they left a survivor to tell the story.
Gariela swore vengeance and spent whole life fighting Maylar’s Testers and his various pet monsters.
Spread
Gariela took on two apprentice Lanterns, and these apprentices went on to take on apprentices of their own who formed Gariela's lineage of wisdom.
Centuries later, there are at least a dozen Lanterns claiming Gariela's spiritual lineage. The lineage of Gariela will aggressively fight Maylar's minions and will go out of their way to protect Mera's temples and followers whether they ask for the protection or not. Most of Gariela's legacy holders focus on swordplay, stealth, and wilderness survival skills as their core skill set though versatility is highly prized with this lineage, so they are hard to pigeonhole.
Gariela was originally from Kantoc (or possibly Kantoc's predecessar the fallen Kingdom of Gerlaria , but she traveled a lot after her true love's death and her forebears were mobile too. Thus Lanterns claiming the lineage of Gariela can be found in almost any land.
The Lanterns of Gariela's lineage (and Lanterns in general) love to tell this story at any opportunity and it has been picked and retold by many storytellers and bards around Scarterra.
Variations & Mutation
In some stories, Gariela and Sandalius were actual lovers. In other stories Gariela was in love with Sandalius but could not find the words to express it, so Sandalius never knew she wanted to be anything other than a work colleague.
While most Lanterns deny that the tragic lovers ever procreated. Some bards like to say that Gariela and Sandalius had an infant child and that the child was staying with Sandalius as the primary caregiver so Gariela could keep going on her quests. According to these storytellers, the child was slain along with his/her father meaning Gariela also was a vengeful mother and not just a vengeful ex-lover.
There was a bard that told a yarn about the love child of Gariela and Sandalius being kidnapped by the Testers and raised to worship Maylar. Unknowingly, Gariela's bloodline lineage is actually at war with her spiritual lineage!
That bard was tracked down some Lanterns of Gariela's spiritual lineage. They beat him half to death. Magically healed him, and beat him up again....six or seven times.
He retracted his story the next day,
Cultural Reception
The story is popular in the civilized world, even among cultures and people that are not particularly fond of Zarthus or his followers.
Many princes and authority figures wish all the Lanterns would run off into the wilderness to go fight Maylar creatures rather than stick around town protesting every tax hike or supposed act of oppression.
It should be noted that it is hardly unusual for Lanterns and Tenders to become romantically entwined with each other (though it rarely ends this dramatically), possibly reflecting the gods themselves. It is commonly believed that Hallisan, Zarthus, and Mera are in a love triangle
While not as prevalent, there is speculation that Mera, Greymoria and Korus are also in a love triangle. Or a love pentagon because some believe Khemra and Nami are also romantically interested in Korus. According to some storytellers, Korus is also sometimes romantically linked to the male deities as well. It is noteworthy that a lot of Korus' core mortal followers are non-binary.
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