Post by Tersias Tara-Hisakata on Apr 22, 2012 15:09:39 GMT -1
On the History of the Llwynog and the Great Enlightenment
In days immemorial, the Llwynog tribe were a primitive, feral race. They roamed desolate, barren hills hunting for rabbits, mice and other small, hapless creatures, and mated freely and thoughtlessly, expanding in number until their children starved or disease spread and their numbers fell again. Often, a female would be born who seemed somehow different. Distant from the rest, she would talk of what was to come, with eyes glazed. She would be cast off by her family to an isolated gully known as Marwolaeth, or the place of death, and left for dead.
Then one day, a fire broke out in the hills and the Llwynog found their food source suddenly dissipating. With no grasses left living, the mammals they were feeding on had moved on to other places, and it seemed the foxes were doomed to a slow and painful death. Day after day they tramped through blackened landscape, searching for some sign of life or food. And still they found nothing.
On the fourth day of the second month since the fires broke out, the fox leading the tribe, Refah, succumbed to starvation. The tribesmen despaired, as Refah had been a strong and healthy fox, and none of them had much chance of outliving him by very long. So, accepting of their fate, they decided to take their people to be united with those they had left behind over the years, and set their sights for Marwolaeth.
Marwolaeth was a lonely and sullen place between the hills. There was little sunlight and much shadow, and the ground was soggy and marshlike from the rainwater which ran down from the peaks. It took the tribe three days to arrive, and they lost many on the way. On their arrival at Marwolaeth, there were only sixteen surviving. These had been the strongest and cleverest of the tribesmen, and even they were at death’s door.
So imagine their surprise when, as the sun set over the furthest peak, they saw coming to them what appeared to be some of their own. Those same women who they had cast off in this place for their differences still remained, and had settled and built a society. They took the tribesmen in and began to teach them. They taught them of science, of politics, of culture; they taught them of literacy and cooking and dressmaking. This was the period known as the Great Enlightenment, and it was a happy time for them all.
The women abandoned by the tribe formed a ruling counsel, to guide the development of the Llwynog tribe and shape its future. This counsel had seventeen members who shaped its decisions, and they ruled the tribe wisely for many years to come. As the city grew, its name changed from Marwolaeth to Golau, meaning Light.
