Legends of the Old World

There are many myths and legends that are told of the Old World. They often seem fantastical and are often deemed alegorical by those Loremasters who study such things.

Notable Characters Within Old World Myths

Heroes of several legends:

• Gelin the tailor
• Houre the unwound
• Stev the cunning (in some tales called Stev of Aan)
• Kembrali the sad

Deified personages within many myths:

• Father Blue - A figure of great authority and source of fear
• Lady Sphinx - A figure of mystery and beauty

Comedic and villainous individuals of the tales:

• Frog - prone to do the wrong thing at the wrong time
• Ochre - prone to say the wrong thing at the wrong time
• Pig - a charismatic, yet disgusting figure who attempts to use others
• Hawk - a kind façade looking for a weak spot to attack
• Bardin - often sings of his companions foibles, but rarely participates

Historical Basis

Only a few books and scrolls were brought to the Bright Lands during The Crossing.  Of those, very few survived the intervening centuries between then and now.  A mere fraction of those documents were related to the myths and legends of the Old World. Thus most of the tales that have survived have been passed down in an oral tradition, leading to regional variations between the five duchies.  This leads to the regrettable circumstance that there are no reliable original sources to determine, with any veracity, if these legends hold any historical accuracy of mankind's time in the old world.

Spread

Being told by parent to child from generation to generation, these stories have changed some from whatever the lost original tales were. The various legends have shifted over the centuries to the point that, for example, the same tale told in a village in Fellmire and one in Vindemia will have noticeable, and sometimes drastic differences in their tellings.  Differences are even present between the legends told in noble households and those told in commoner abodes.
As these myths are almost exclusively an oral tradition, it is unclear how many of these stories have been added whole cloth by enterprising tall tellers over the course of mankind's presence in the Bright Lands.

Fanciful tales from a lost land across an ocean of damnation?  Fine enough for little children I suppose.  But adults of vision and purpose must set aside such childish things, and pursue loftier goals and courses of inquiry.  Such as statecraft.

— Loremaster Rovert Ornald