Royal Gift Letter
Secular Recording Accompanying Letter
The Royal Gift Letter is among the most famous written messages in the Dark Lands. A noble wrote it around the year 400 to send a gift to the royal family. It describes the gift, a book, the so-called Secular Recording, in detail and summarises its contents.
While the prosperous past before the Dark Swan events is a legend (as the existence of the Swan itself), the letter is a concrete piece of paper. As such, it is the best evidence validating the myth.
Both the letter and the book are written in what seems to be ancient Nojgraszian, an almost two millennia old language. They are untranslated and hard to understand.
The letter is now lost, and people have started to think of it as a legend.
The Finding
The letter was found in the city of Remnava in the year 1351 and was the first and only document from before the legendary Dark Swan curse. The book it refers to was never found, or at least its finding was never made public.
The letter's content quickly spread through the lands, mostly thanks to travelling alńe and adventurers. It presented a book as a gift, the Secular Recording, and summarised its contents. It described in detail how the current (at the time prosperous) third era was a return to the long lost first era prosperity, following a natural cycle referred to as the Cycle of the Ages.
The effect on people's was overwhelmingly positive. Even though it showed the Abyss was trying to reclaim control over Nys, people could make a difference fighting back to restore order. It sparkled their will to survive in the Dark Lands despite the difficulties until the End of the Dark prophecy comes true.
The Disappearance
The letter never left Remnava. It was exposed in the city's principal building. Soon after, the cities began their quick decline to the dangerous, disorganized place they are nowadays. The building was abandoned and the letter forgotten there. When someone decided to check on it, it was gone. Nobody knows where it might be now.
Some think the Swan's Army is behind this theft. Their goal would be to relegate the past prosperity to the myths, thus diminishing people's will to fight against the Swan and the Abyss. For now, alńe and elders are telling the young about a famous letter once preserved in Remnava but recounting it already feels like talking about a legend.
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