Winged Peak

There is a mountain in the Ryuven world, rising between the lands of the Ai and the Ientu. It is known as the Winged Peak.
The name presumably comes from the glaciers which grace the upper reach of the mountain, forming jagged icy "wings" on either side of the summit ridge.
Alternate origins for the name allege the mountain's connection to The Burnings. It is said that the mountain is all that remains of the bridge to another world. When the Ryuven first came to their world, leaving behind another plane, they followed the bridge down toward the earth. The journey was long, and they grew weary, and the gods took pity upon them and gave them wings, so that they might leave the mountain and descend directly to their fertile plains.
But the jealous dragon of the sky, in a rage, smashed against the stone bridge between worlds, until at last the bridge was broken and the rugged peak was left jutting into the heavens, a dead end. So it remains, a monument to what was gained and lost.

Spread

The myth of the Winged Peak is well-known, if lightly regarded as fancy rather than history. References to it are not uncommon and are expected to be understood, but as a cultural reference rather than to fact.

Variations & Mutation

While the Ai myth of the Burnings can vary, it always features a dragon setting fire to the sky. This dragon is preserved in a constellation of twelve stars, found in the south at the start of a new year.
The dragon's reason varies considerably in tellings, from his jealousy at the gift of wings to the Ryuven people, to his misery for a lost love cut off in another world, to his outrage at the treachery of one clan to another. (This last iteration often runs to the markedly political.)

In Art

A coiling dragon over an icy peak is a common motif in Ai art, from mosaics to carvings.

Date of Setting

The Burnings are an origin story or, if not of the beginning of time, at least a tale of the oldest history. It is the beginning of known time.

Related Species

• Ryuven

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