Zargyod and the Sailors

The myth of Zargyod and the Sailors is widely told in coastal and insular areas throughout the Sea of Jars and beyond. It has no known literary origin but is widely attested in art and folklore going back to the earliest days of Zarggyod's cult.

Narrative

The narrative of the story remains fairly consistent through various tellings. After his victory over the serpent Qotrophay Zargyod stood on one of the outcrops of rock left by the monster's fangs in the western Sea of Jars, bereft of a way back to his siblings. A ship happened by, and they saw Zargyod's ginger-coloured robes and understood him to be a wealthy man. A boat was lowered from the ship and he was brought on board.
Introducing himself as a wealthy man of Loros, Zargyod thanked them for their aid. As they sailed south, covert debates began to take place among the crew as to whether to return this stranger to his family as a gesture of compassion or hold him hostage for a ransom. In some versions, this begins as a discussion over which course of action is likely to yield the greatest reward. The sailors are unaware that Zargyod could judge their discussions and opinions very clearly by watching their eyes when they look at him.
Late in the voyage the boat was hit by a dreadful storm and suffers knockdown. As the sailors floundered in the water they called to the ginger-robed stranger - unaffected by the knockdown - for aid. Those who argued for compassion found their fingers and toes webbed, enabling them to swim back to the ship. Those who argued for ransom found their boots full of gold, which pulled them under and drowned them. The compassionate sailors righted their ship, sailed it to Loros, and enjoyed fair weather and prosperous voyages until the end of their days.
Some versions of the story Zargyod turns the compassionate sailors into Manatees in the Sea of Jars, allowing them to live happily, easily and productively at sea for the rest of their days. This is likely the origin of the common belief that these creatures are beasts of good omen.

Literary/artistic tradition

The story is essentially folkloric, lacking any solid pre-Wesmodian literary attestation. It does not appear in The Spring of Many Waters, for example, despite directly referring to another Zargyodian myth - that of Qotrophay - in its early stages. It is undoubtedly pre-Wesmodian in origin, however. Some of the earliest scrimshaw ever found on islands in the Sea of Jars depicts sailors swimming away from capsized ship with fins or flippers while a lone figure stands on the keel of the wreck. These artefacts not only attest the story but seem to imply that the ending that sees the benevolent sailors transformed into sea creatures - less common today than the one that sees them rewarded at port - was once rather more popular. Several of these artefacts are possessed by both Tamela Wesyan and Ezynon Moronyad two major researchers into the maritime cult of Zargyod, who agree that they demonstrate that Zargyod was once far more focused as a god of the sea; his association with money and luck appear to have surfaced later. These two thaumatologists detest each other personally, however, and have repeatedly declined to combine their efforts in this research.
This personal enmity has also prevented them from comparing notes about the extensive tradition of maritime music dealing with the myth. Moranyad has a volume in his collection of sea shanties exclusively containing songs and poems retelling the story and Wesyan claims to have recorded multiple dances re-enacting it, but neither will co-operate with the other. They have been known, however, to share their research with appropriately polite, qualified third parties. Some of the songs related to the story can occasionally be heard in taverns and inns on city waterfronts, particularly in Loros, where the story is understandably popular even today.
The most spectacular demonstration of the tradition, however, are the murals depicting the story that exist in several of the customhouses of the Commercial Guilds descended from the pre-Wesmodian cult of Zargyod. The oldest and largest of these is at Chogyos Customhouse and depicts the sailors swimming back to the ship; the richly-painted mural is two storeys high and fourteen metres long still features the gold leaf used to pick out Zargyod's robes. It depicts the sailors swimming back towards their ship, as do the significantly smaller murals at the customhouses in Loros and Pholyos. Those in Ramoros, Oluz and Halumay depict them turning into manatees. Those in Oluz and Halumay are famous as ostentatious displays of wealth, with brass and gold leaf on Zargyod's robes, various green and blue gemstones used to accent the waves of the sea and onyx used for the eyes of the manatees; that in Halumay is famous for using actual scarlet coral to depict a large coral tree rising from the sea.

Commentary

The myth clearly focuses Zargyod as a maritime deity with power over the sea, but perhaps also depicts him in the process of broadening his remit to include general matters of chance and fortune; this would be why, in the earlier version of the myth, he turns the benevolent sailors into sea creatures, while in the later versions he rewards them with wealth.
The myth also associates Zargyod with transmutation, a power he displays increasingly prominently in other myths, with the added complication that the results of his transmuting powers can be influenced via the moral fibre and actions of the targets. This is a matter of considerable interest to thaumatologists.