Stiga Star-Crosser and the Sky-Bridge of Gnet
The Star Druids of the Ice Host center their beliefs around one legend, retold in a thousand different settings under a thousand different suns. This is the tale of Stiga Star-Crosser.
Aeons ago, Gavros was not as it it now. It was much more like the Ice Host, covered in great snow drifts, ice mountains, and glaciers. Fewer stars hung in the sky, and only one moon hovered above: the ever-present mass of the pristine Gnet. You see, Gavros and Gnet were worlds in stasis, frozen in space and time, bound together in space by a huge bridge of ice. These two planets loved each other and froze their love in a blissful eternity.
After millennia of bliss, even planets know boredom. Gavros began to yearn. Gavros wanted more of this beautiful feeling of love and asked Gnet to give him children. She denied him at first, but after eons of convincing, the resilient moon relented, and Gavros and Gnet rejoiced in the birthing of the First Gavrosians.
Gavros was an artist and loved color and shape. If one looks long into the frozen drifts of the Ice Host, a thousand rainbows reveal themselves, a shifting prism of the beauty of simple light. He created all the peoples of the land in all their different shapes and colors and temperaments in turn, an infinite canvas of personality and people. These brave souls took to the ice of Gavros with wide-eyed wonder.
The Gavrosians formed into clans that rode the ice together in great sledgewains. These city-sized sleds were pulled by massive Anaxaurochs, ancient ancestors of the common aurochs we know today. It was in one of these cities, Haasent Ymn, that Stiga Star-Eyed was born. The young woman spent her youth with her eyes stuck in the stars above, for Stiga Star-Crosser, like Father Gavros, yearned.
Stiga believed the stars were speaking to her, distant voices that spoke of universal balance. These thoughts warmed her during cold days on the ice, a guided her path at night. Soon, these stars begged Stiga travel north. Mounting up a single-rider sledgewain pulled by her mighty albino auroch Orn, Stiga headed into the snowy wilds following the voice of the stars.
Many tales concern themselves with Stiga's travels north up to and across the evil of Black Basin, but the Star Druids of the Ice Host focus their beliefs on the tale of Stiga's return. When Stiga came back, she came with tales of a massive sky-bridge of ice that she rode all the way to Gnet herself. Stiga told of the great treasures found there: 1,000 foot trees bearing sweet fruit the size of Orn, wide rainbow lakes of the purest spring water, and mountains of clear glass with crystalline mazes of incredible beauty. She then told her listeners of the Starpool of Gnet, a wide pool made of the night sky that mapped the location of every star in the universe. Above this pool hung a massive stalactite that would slowly drip once every few weeks. Stiga said she only saw it once, a tiny bead of pure light falling to the surface of the pool. When it hit, no ripples were seen across the inky surface, but the stars reflected therein each flashed. Witnessing this phenomenon, Stiga felt the birth of a brand new star, somewhere in the blackness. Stiga named this thousand-foot stalactite pulsing with the hypnotic light of a nebula, the Starmother, for had birthed all the stars in the sky.
Many scholars debate the treasures Stiga found on Gnet, and even the manner of The Shattering, but the Star Druids believe the Starpool to be the greatest treasure Stiga found on the surface of Gnet, prized beyond value.
Stiga returned to Gnet, guided by the stars and leading three great sledgewains of Gavrosians that wished to follow. Among them were Umphara, known for her reckless berserkers who specialized in high-speed raids on enemy sledgewains and executing impossible ice riding maneuvers. They were joined by Stiga's homewain, the Haasent Ymn, and her living bluefruits farms. Last was the Buntoro, the most surprising volunteer, as it boasted the highest population of all sledgewains on the Drift, with large numbers of children, elderly, and infirm. The trio of wains were named the Stigavrym.
From here, no records remain. None of the Stigavrym were ever heard from again. Many believe they are dead, crossing the Sky-Bridge to return to Father Gavros when The Shattering happened. Some believe their expedition became a pilgrimage, and they somehow separated Gnet from Gavros, to have her chase him for eternity. The Star Druids have their own beliefs, divined from gazing within their prized Starshards.
They believe someone, like Kylvas vu Buntoro, a known dissenter, had sabotaged the trip by befouling the Starpool and defacing the Starmother. This enraged Gnet, causing her surface to shake violently with quakes. The druids believe she lashed out at Gavros, blaming him and his greedy children, his discontent, for ruining her perfection and their love. In shame, Gavros turned away from Gnet for the first time in countless millennia, destroying the Sky-Bridge and flying from Gnet's presence. Glittering shards of eternal ice fell to the surface of the now-running Gavros, the bits of the Sky-Bridge losing themselves amidst the endless ice of his surface. His face changed then, the ice melting all around him, only his face remaining frozen against the momentum of his speed. The clans of the Ice Host call this event The Shattering.
Since then, Gnet has chased Gavros across the span of space, begging him to forgive her and reunite their children. He either cannot hear her pleas, or refuses to forgive her. The Star Druids carry this memory within them and the Starshards, bits of eternal ice they use to cast their spells. They say these magical stones are chunks of the Sky-Bridge of Gnet, lost among the many lands of sundered Gavros. Many of the circle's druids hope to one day find all the Starshards and rebuild the Sky-Bridge in the hopes of reuniting with the Stigavrym and repairing the love lost between Spruned Gavros and Penitent Gnet.
Many others do not believe such a reunion possible and that the people of the Stigavrym perished in The Shattering. It was not until The Shattering that Orn, the second moon, appeared in the sky. This moon is none other than that of Stiga's own albino auroch Orn, fallen from the Bridge yet refusing to leave the side of his beloved Stiga.
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