Navec the Bryght
Summary
Navec the Bryght, a young Istyima from Bjália, was fervently dedicated to the worship of Morigana all eyr life. Ey lived in poverty, devoting all of eyr resources to devising a secret prayer that would call directly to Morigana.
After thirteen years of work towards this goal, Morigana appeared to Navec and granted em a blessing of wealth. This was not enough for Navec, whose true goal was to learn the secrets of the immortals. Ey built a sage's tower full of scribes, who worked together for thirteen more years to call to Morigana once more. When Navec summoned Morigana again, ey asked her for knowledge beyond mortal minds. Morigana granted em the keenest possible mortal mind, but with the stipulation that ey must not ask again for immortal secrets.
Navec is satisfied with this gift at first, but eventually grew weary of mortal knowledge, and decided once more to call to Morigana. Ey asked for the blessing of even half of the goddess's sight. She flew into a rage, warping Navec's Soul, splitting eyr sight between the mortal and immortal realms, and crowning em her immortal servant of darkness.
The psychic weight of seeing through space, time, and planes drove Navec mad. Ey locked emself away in eyr tower to write a book of the darkest and most evil possibilities eyr new vision could foresee. Eyr writing hand shriveled and blackened in the process, and ey became a horrifying undead creature. Ey signed the book with a new name, an anagram of eyr former one: Vecna.
Vecna descended eyr tower and demanded the sages and scribes within help em rule over elvenkind. Ey were eventually slain by a hero, but ey live on through the cursed eye and hand, which retain Morigana's power and may resurface if her influence wanes. The myth ends with a warning not to test Morigana's limits or seek secrets beyond what she deems appropriate for mortal minds.
Historical Basis
A powerful dark mage by the name of Vecna the Immortal did rule over Bjália and much of modern-day Scalados and Draxhaven in the seventh through ninth centuries of the Age of Anxiety. Vecna was considered the first Lich, and all those who attempt to follow in eyr footsteps seek the knowledge in one of a few rare, deeply cursed books ey supposedly wrote and hid throughout the worlds. These are known by many names, including the Book of Vile Darkness, the Tome of Ultimate Evil, and the Dread Folio.
The Eye and Hand of Vecna, the "sylvir Eye and blackynt Hannd" mentioned in the ballad, have appeared repeatedly throughout history fused to various liches, cult leaders, evil priests, arch-warlocks, and other powerful villainous figures. They were last seen in Y1070 in the possession of the Sisters of Sorrow. Julien Hawthorne killed the pair with the Scholar's Sword, a blade forged for him by his sister Lida Rose Hawthorne, in the Battle of the Ignan Throne. Since the Y990 Prophecy of Vecna's Demise predicted these artifacts would be destroyed "by the bearer of brother-blade," they are believed by most to be destroyed forever.
Date of First Recording
Y2045, Age of Integrity
Related Species
Related Organizations
Related Items
Comments