The Clash of Light and Fire

Listen to a story from before the mortal age, a story of a battle between gods.

How did a land like Arrboth form? No mortal eye was there to witness it, and no mortal lips could speak of the tale. But mortals still ask, and the spirits whisper back. They speak of a time when the world was new and empty, waiting to be filled. And in this time, a great conflict of divine proportions would take place.
First, a serpentine form descended from the storm, a form of brilliant flame filling the emptiness with warmth and motion. And with it, the land rose like bread from the heat, pit becoming plain, island becoming mountain. The light, angered by the chaos, descended in the form of a brilliant orb, its rays striking down as spears upon the serpent. With it, the land was given color and beauty, but in a reflection of the flames, it was in reds and yellows and whites. The serpent's scales fell upon the land as ash, blackening the west, and it roared in pain and fury.
The serpent lunged for the light, and in its anger, the land it slithered across dried out into sand. It wrapped itself around the light, but could not pierce it with its fangs. The light tried to rip it apart, but every time it did, it would only grab another shed layer of skin. And so, it threw its skins away to the south, where they sank into the sea, and dove in. This harmed the snake but caused it to harden, so it could bite its nemesis, its shining crystals breaking off and sinking into the sea.

Why would such beings fight? Why did they not speak?

It was not the way of such beings to communicate, only act. What quarrel, then, did they have? Their nature of such beings puts them in conflict. The light cannot foresee the chaotic movements of the flame, and the impulsive flame will respond in kind to any slight or attempt to control it. While they seem like close illuminating brothers on the surface, their hate runs deep.
The light could now grab the serpent and throw it all the way to the north, where it broke up the land and created the Beios Mountains. But by the bite, it had been poisoned, and as it tried to approach, it stopped over the deserts as glass bled out of it. The serpent took this opportunity to strike, breathing white-hot flames upon its wounded foe, but it pushed back with a spear of light. The spear pierced and dispersed the flame, skewering the serpent and slicing the mountains behind it in two.
Could such a wound ever stop these beings? No, for the serpent feared nothing from death. As it lept for the light, its head was severed by a shining blade, but it rose up and lept again. Six times the light would kill the beast, and six times it would rise anew. The light could always see its foe coming, but this would not deter the serpent. In the endless persistence of its foe, the light started to grow weary of the battle.

If death could not stop such a battle, then, how did it end?

Before allowing it to rise the sixth time, the light held the serpent down, smiting it with ruinous brilliance. In that spot, the land was forever seared with death. With immense struggle, the flaming beast escaped its skin and launched the full might of its flames upon the light from below. It blasted its foe away, and kept blasting until it would never come down, fixed forever in the sky as the Daystar. However, after many deaths and such an exhausting display, it wanted for nothing but rest.
Slithering back to the west, the tired snake dug its way into the ground until it reached the center of the world, and curled up there to rest. Even now, its stirring brings lava and ash to the surface there. In time, the ash it left in the west and at the foot of the Beios would become great forests, and the flattened lands where its skins fell the great swamps. Where its bodies fell, the spirits say, they sank into the land and became the beds of the greatest lakes of Arrboth, except for the sixth, which would forever be barren. And that is how the land was scarred, but what one may call a scar can be a beauty to others.

Historical Basis

There is, of course, no way to verify the old legend of Light and Fire. Many scholars believe it was a retroactive explanation given for the strange phenomena of the region. However, some strange phenomena in Arrboth seem to defy other explanation, such as the great ravine through the Beios Mountains. Rather than being cut by water over centuries, it shows signs of being cleft in two all at once by an immense force, as the story claims. The glass formations in the Trebon Desert similarly seem nonmagical but have no known natural process attached to them.

Cultural Reception

Some scholars note that this story seems to match the idea of The Observer on High coming into conflict with The Source of Chaos over the creation of the world. However, this does not hold up to scrutiny for many; The Observer is not believed by any serious occultist to be the Daystar, nor is The Source said to reside in the center of the planet. Further, many believe such a fight between Elemental Lords upon The Eye would have far greater consequences for the world. Some reconcile this by claiming that these were not the lords themselves, but avatars or Aeons they had called as proxies. Others claim the battle was symbolic, holding some but not the full truth.
Regardless of the truth value of it, many commoners who know the story associate the two events closely. They match in theme if not in fact, and many of the historical events of Arrboth seem to echo the story in a way that makes it especially memorable.