The Boar of Plenty

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The Boar of Plenty originates in the Alurr Isles, and tells the story of how Vilmaris, in the shape of a boar, saved a starving child.

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It was during the season where the leaves fall wet instead of dry that a child laid starving. It had been a year of meager means and scarcity. His chest was hunger-swollen and he had barely the strength to throw another stick on his fire.
"I shall send him a beast," said Vinca Resolute.
"Shall you?" asked Valor, seeing the Beast's bones push at the skin. Vinca observed this too.
"No," said Vinca, "I shall not."
They watched as the child chewed a stick, imagining food beyond measure.
"I shall forage mushrooms for him," said Valor Resolute.
"Shall you?" asked Vinca, seeing that all that grew held only death instead of life. Valor observed this too.
"No," said Valor, "I shall not."
They watched as the child laid down, too weak to sit. Vinca turned her head.

Vilmaris did not speak. She wore the skin of boars, and approached the child. He did not have the strength to look in her direction. Vilmaris-as-Boar walked to his fire, and laid herself upon it. The smell of roasting fat stirred the child.
He ate of the boar for three days.
The first day, he ate the fat. The boy became man.
"It is a miracle," said Vinca.
"It is dreadful," said Valor.
They cautioned him to leave the skin and bones.
The second day, he ate the meat. The man became strong as ten giants.
"It is dreadful," said Vinca.
"It is a miracle," said Valor.
Again they cautioned him to leave the skin and bones.
The third day, he cracked the bones and ate the marrow. The man stole the secret of shifting.
"Greedy," said Vilmaris Broken, speaking storms that broke against the island.
"Greedy," Vilmaris Broken repeated louder, and the storms washed the Alurr people into the sea.

Her siblings covered her mouth then, and the storms quieted. The man taught his people to breathe like fish, and they dared not come back up onto the island for as long as the Gods walked the realm.

The Boar of Plenty

This Alurran tale can be dated to the Middle Spoken Era, which is the Gods still walked the realm.

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Reframing the Myth

Prior to the Alurran Exchange, when the Alurran people and the Castellite people first met, Vilmaris was the villain of the story and the boy a trickster-like figure who both dooms and protects his people from the capricious deities.
As the Castellite people adopted the myth, Vilmaris became a saviour wronged instead.

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Epithets

Two of Vilmaris' epithets originate in this myth. Vilmaris-As-Boar, later Vilmaris Provider, in which her flesh is synonymous with all game and hunt and therefore sacred. In reverence of Vilmaris Provider, hunt is humanely slaughtered and the bones are preserved to the best of the hunters ability. Deliberately breaking or eating the bone marrow is sacriligeous among the Castellites, who believe it to be at the very least offensive to Vilmaris, if not outright harmful to the deity.
Vilmaris Broken is the second epithet provided by this story. In this aspect Vilmaris soothes others who are disabled.

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Remnants of the Old Ones?

Some scholars claim that the tale provides evidence that Tritons are the remnants of the Old Ones.
A large storm along the Siren Sea during the Middle Spoken Era drowned several of the lower Old One settlements. As no bodies or skeletons are found in these Drowned Ruins, these scholars claim the Old Ones were washed out and became the Tritons.
It is supported by a handful of these Old One ruins also existing on the Alurr Isles.

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