Legend of the Four Children

This legend was compiled by Dilligas Husty, referring to the work of the Ruin Raiders. Ca 256 AC.

The Child of the Sun, searching for his kin in the Fiach woods, saved the Child of the Hunt from a family of hungry of dire wolves.  In a world filled with monsters it was best not to travel alone, so they two went forth together: the Sun’s Child to help the farmers and towns prosper, the Hunt’s Child because hunting was his nature.  

In Duelog they met the Child of the Moon, and the Child of the Storm, who both hailed from the great cities.  As they discovered that they were kindred spirits – and imbibing of spirits –  the four became one, a team, the Four Children.   

They began to delve into the ruins of old times - times before the Cataclysm.   There they found monsters, corrupted wolves and mangy bears, and they took the beast’s pelts.  There they found the undead, and returned those to their eternal rest.

To a magical zoo they traveled, seeing the dangers of keeping as pets on display noble and ancient beasts.  They found corruption and saw unclean treatment.  This they stopped, and the beasts were set free.

Mad Eye, the Hill Giant, they removed as a threat to settlements.

By river they traveled to the great lake, yet a great mansion tried to eat them.  They prevailed.  

In the corrupted towns they found traces of the purging flame; the Forest had declared war on the Settlement.   

To the great cities they traveled, warning of the dangers lurking, but their cries were unheeded.  The merchant princes, the nobles, and the cheese mongers all dismissed them.  

In caverns deep they found the red plague spores, and then learned a means to battle them.  Some in the settlements listened to them, while others sent The Four Children on their way.  

To the Tower of Challenge they strode, vile monsters to slay, raising funds for the poor and the oppressed of the great city of Rauviz.

Unlike most, they came out alive with trophies of their victories.

To the cold north they trod, braving the ice and the forgotten monsters of old.  There they cleansed the Hunter’s home of the purging flame’s influence.     

To the Sun’s temple they strode, warning the priests against the red plague and the purging flame.  Here were they heeded, as the Son of the Sun returned, yet for many it was too late.  

The red plague struck.  

The four sought out its agents, the purging flame and the false prophets.  One by one brought them to account.  A dragon they slew, wizards and mercenaries they struck down.  

Yet still the plague spread.  

It was beyond the strength of the Four Children to stop it.  The careless and the traitorous both conspired to bring the red spores to the towns and cities.  And they brought fire as well.   

Through the caverns and into the Caldera the four ran, urging the westerners to stop the plague’s spread.  Sabotage in the tunnels to Byssia they foiled, and fey they met.  The infestation was stopped, yet in the heartlands the purging flame spread the plague, fire threatened settlements and farms, and the supply of food for the winter was not fully harvested.  

The mad fool in the far west, self titled as the Master of Beasts, sought to ascend into godhood.  Vile monstrosities he unleashed on the people, and poison he fed their minds.  Far to the east flew the Four Children, and a key to the monster’s defeat they found.  Dragons they befriended, and traitors they unmasked.  

The would-be demigod they ended. The monstrosities were vanquished, saving the lives of countless thousands; the raven queen approved of their success.

But the red plague still spread.  

The fires took Fort Hope, and the portals were cracked.  In Rauviz the traitor was found, so the child of storm smote him and his followers with the fury of the tempest.  

In Kaelthia, the cult’s priest and archmage were brought to account, paying for their part in the plague’s spread.  

And then the Four Children, the harbingers of disaster, were seen no more.   

From the far eastern deserts come tales of the child of the moon, the child of the sun, the child of the storm, and the child of the hunt confronting demons, angels and a demigod.

Great battle there was in a dire wasteland, but none who tell those tales saw it.  

All that is known is that the Prophet was found, and was given the mercy of the knife.

The dragons keep their own council, telling not what they saw or know.   

In the end, Veil was Torn.  

Although the Four Children have passed into legend, by their works they fought to prevent disaster. Despite their many small victories, the ultimate folly of the Prophet and his following – the purging flame – left divine wreckage all across Noefra.

Yet the labors of the Four Children were not in vain.  

Some cities were saved from the starvation of that hard winter.  

Some folks were freed from the monster lord, and returned to their homelands.  

The Isle of Monsters was re-sealed, and the dragons’ long vigil restored to its security.  

But for their successes, Noefra would be worse off.  The cities would all have fallen, and the great populations slain.  Sometimes a great victory isn’t possible, but a small victory is.

Strive mightily, my children, and grasp what victories you can.  It is in the striving that you find your true character.

The child of the sun is now clanless;

The child of the hunt is lost to his kin;

The child of the moon is estranged from her family,

The child of the storm, his fury spent, wanders the world.  

They gave of themselves so that we may go on into the future, despite hardship, and make a better world.