A Song of Law and Opportunity

The tale starts long, long ago, before humans and beastfolk and daelin were a concept in the back of the divine’s minds.

Samua, the God of Joy, and Amael, the Goddess of Separation, were together but not content. They wanted children, as the King of Kings once had, to share the beauty of the world with. So they took to the heavens, retreating to their divine kingdom to have a moment of peace from the other gods.

There, Amael would give birth to two children, the twins Valis and Sar.

First was Sar. A baby boy, crying in his fathers arms as Samua attempted to soothe him. Utterly distracted as Amael gave birth to Valis shortly thereafter.

No one was there or ready to catch the child and so she fell, plummeting through the clouds and down towards the mountain tops. Amael cried out for her daughter, too strained and tired to move. So Samael left Sar with her and lept into action, flying down after his daughter.

But not fast enough.

She fell, and fell, and fell, until finally the floor came to meet her. Her impact levelled the summit of the mountain, leaving a crater 30 feet wide in her wake. As she struck the ground a thunderous roar echoed across the land. In that moment, had any mortals been alive to watch, they would have likened her fall to a bolt of lightning descending from the heavens and cracking the ground.

When Samua reached her mere seconds later, he found his daughter unscathed and laughing. With a heavy sih and relief weighing on his heart, he lifted her into his arms, placed a kiss on her forehead, and carried her home to meet her mother and brother.

Or so the story goes…

There have been many retellings of the original legends over the years. The true story has been lost to time, simply because there were no mortals there to witness it. Now, it seems like every retelling has a different detail. The only parts of the original story that have survived are that it includes the twins, Valis and Sar, and that the mountain was Everlight Peak.

Variations of the Tale

By far, the most popular variation is the one taught by the Nightsingers. They say that Sar was plucked from the summit of Everlight Peak by his parents, taking with him the blanket of snow covering the mountain top and using magic to weave it into a pure white cloak. They would then make their way back to their kingdom in the heavens, only to be interrupted by a blinding flash of bright blue light. This bolt of lightning struck the summit of Everlight Peak, in the very spot where Sar had been plucked from, and after the flashing dissipated and the thunder quieted, there in the smoke lay Valis. So Sar’s parents, sensing a connection between the two, took Valis back to the divine kingdom in the heavens as well.

Though there is mention of Valis and Sar’s parents in this variation of the tale, they are never named. Further tales of the twins exoits as young gods go on to say how their parents were taken by a great enemy - Van-Hael, the only other god mentioned by name by the Nightsingers, though they neglect to perceive him with divine status.

In other versions, the timings are reversed. That Valis struck the ground first, lightning crackling around her, and soon after her brother climbed forth from the rubble.

There are those who paint the two in a more equal light - as twin bolts of lightning, Valis striking the summit of Everlight Peak first and Sar following swiftly after as a thunderous echo. And even with this version, the roles are sometimes reversed, with Valis as the echoing bolt of lightning instead.

Reception of Religious Groups

Obviously, the Nightsingers regale the story often. It is central to their beliefs surrounding Valis and Sar and frequently works its way into their teachings.

For others, opinions of the tale vary. Those that worship the Elryvian pantheon tend to agree with the Nightsingers version, although they question who those parental figures were and whether or not they themselves were gods. The Church of Van-Hael see the story as blasphemous - part of a larger lie spread by the Nightsingers in an attempt to paint Van-Hael in a horrible light. Daelin, as the oldest species on Ma’rune, prefer the tale of the twins being dual lightning bolts striking the summit. The beastfolk don’t really practice worship of the gods - they see them more as mortals who were champions of skill and strength, so any origin story of Valis and Sar tends to veer towards them being ordinary people who eventually prove themselves to be a cut above the rest.

Date of Setting

During the Dawning, long before mortals walked Ma'rune

Related Locations

• Everlight Peak

Related People

• Sar
• Valis

“The people… they say your brother rose from the ground and the you descended from the–”

“Descended?” she questioned, interrupting me and as her gaze flickered over my form I felt the air shift. Lightning crackled preemptively in the air, waiting for the call of it’s master. “Do they describe my descent as graceful? Do they cast me in a silver light, wings unfurling from my back, as the storms rage around me?”

The High Queen walked towards me then. Her grin cruel, eyes swirling, pristine teeth bared like lion fangs.

“Lies. Fantasies born and bred from the minds of foolish men and women.”

“But–”

“The truth, scholar, is a simple one. I fell - because no one thought to catch me.”

Excerpt from “The Stone and the Storm”