Legend of the Three Heralds

Even here, legends can rise to godhood

This is the whole premise of the legend. To tell a story of the three devouts who took great sacrifices and achieved greatness, not aiming for godhood, but for doing what was correct in their eyes. And being rewarded for their acts beyond their wildest dreams by various pantheons seeking to sink their anchors into this distant world. This is the legend of Inja, Toski, and the mysterious Black Swan.

Summary

This story follows an ascencion, only one in known history to happen in the world. This ascencion tells of three very different people with very different goals, who were as a consequence of peculiar events lifted into godhood by their own people. Later, visages and even rare miracles have been performed by these three who have cemented their place in legend.

Historical Basis

"Heard o' the Three. Heralds beyond compare. Sacrifices made so that thee, might know the truth bare.
Hear o', hear o' The Miraclesmith, the punisher. To others a sword, to others a dove. Inja the Valkyrie, warring teacher.
Hear o', hear o' The Fabricator, the false-keeper. Peace kept at a lie, out of love. Toski the Trickster, lie-forger.
Hear o', hear o' The Sorrowbringer, the omen of woe. Face hidden from view, servant of dim trave. Black Swan, face traded for others growth."
~The Three Ascended

A myth that nearly surpasses common myths, for the background of both, Inja and Toski are clearly known by the earliest settlers who were determined on taking the dark northern forests of the mainland known currently as Godiva. Historically, the forest was once inhabited by a clan of woodland elves who did not take it kindly to the new conquerors spreading their territory so aggressively into the gloomy forests.
Inja and Toski were both friends during these events, and both were leading their people deeper and deeper into the woods of Godiva. Historical truth of the events that followed change depending on who is the one sharing them, but all agree that something happened in Godiva, some unknown aggressor that was not of the elves assaulted the new settlers.
By the elves account, the spirits of the forest were trying to save them or to protect the forest, whereas the settlers and their kin today strongly believe that the elves concocted some unholy ritual in order to attack and maim all who dared to enter the woods, men and women alike.
During these events, three rose from the ranks of those settlers. Inja, who bid farewell to her friends, to Toski, and sought help from the world to the blight of her people. Toski, who began the investigation of these attacks on all fronts. Even risking as much as to venture into the woodlands alone to make contact with the elves. And the mysterious Black Swan. The ultimate herald, whose words herald death. Stories never lamented her role in these events nor did she gain a following, but even as time had passed others had visions of a similar woman so her legend is assumed to be tied to the events of Old Godivan.

Mortality

Inja in her travels learned much from both the high elves and the deep dwarves. Her crafts were as sturdy as those crafted by the dwarves and as elegant and deadly as the designs of the elves. So incredible was her skill, that her hammer united all three to send detachments into Godivan. However great was Inja with a hammer, she was not a fighter. When she returned everyone rejoiced, for their smith had brought weapons so great that even a mere farmer was transformed into a skilled fighter when wielding them.
Toski had spent this time deep in the woodland glades with the strange company of the elves. Naturally reserved towards a settler, it took Toski the same amount of months it had taken from Inja in her travels to craft a relationship of trust with both, the elves and to the people of Godivan who thought he had forsaken them. Through a skillful play of guile and lies, Toski had convinced both parties to forget the other for the time of the crisis and in his masterful words had secured a new home for the elves where they could live in peace, further away from Godivan. A place that the settlers did not know existed, but the elves believed to have bee gifted to them.
With the settlers of Godivan having small detachments of dwarves and elves at their side, and the woods safe from the arrows of the wood elves, it was time to act. The two friends, determined to see everything through, ventured together with these warriors to meet their enemy in the cover of a wood that had grown pitch-black by this time, as if waiting for the final showdown.
It is said that as a large monster (Claimed to originate from some evil plane) had seen its power vanquished by the warriors, that it separated their heroes and itself from the rest of the combat. And then, just like that, the shadow of Old Godivan lifted. As the shadows departed, a mystery was left in its stead: Where did the monster, Inja and Toski vanish?
Weeks of trekking and search parties passed, before a mysterious figure arrived to the village. The village now inhabited by dwarves and elves as well as humans. A woman, unaccounted in all tellings of the tale. Her face either unrecognisable or covered by some mask or hood in every version of the tale, came to tell of the heroics of Inja and Toski and how without them a Shadow would have twisted the ambition of the former elves into its advantage to plunge the settlement into chaos and following it, all of the northern land.

Ascencion of Inja

Following this information, Inja and Toski were both celebrated as heroes to this peculiar settlement. The elves and the dwarves appreciating Inja's craftsmanship saw the humans as a people to guide. Elves took this opportunity to begin teaching the humans as the dwarves tought them about crafting. As the settlement grew, so did the amount of candles lit at the tomb of Inja and Toski increase.
With time, peculiarities started to arise in town. There were whispers of the deep-seething darkness still lingering in the forest and miraculously, as many of the old town widows pleaded for someone to rise as a hero as Inja had risen, a figure appeared. A figure not before seen in the entire realm, for glowing feathered wings sprouted from its back and its words were pure harmony. On its lap, it had brought armaments suitable to slay were-beasts and thought the rare warriors and hunters on skills how to destroy the beasts. When all was done and the being was asked how it knew to came, it told of strange gods and lords that had heard their plea through the lips of another. Not clarifying what the being had meant before it returned to its realm, seeing its task done, this raised even more praises towards the tomb of Inja which was quickly turning into a small temple.

Ascencion of Toski

Toski, the tricksters rise to fame was a slower one. With time both, the former elves of the woodlands and the settlers of Godivan learned of Toski's trickery. But even as they learned of this, a strange truce remained. As if both, the leader of the elves and the settlers had undergone a mental contract in the background not to give each other any trouble again. Unlike the help that was suspected to have come from Inja, Toski took a much more direct approach to those he deemed worthy of his assistance. Small rebellions, acts against injustice and families under persecution would find themselves under minor protection from something that could only be called as minor miracles. Local belief that Toski is behind is trickery arose when these events started at Old Godivan during the horrific acts of Rüerik Darkgalleon to the south. Captured villagers were forced to lead their captors towards Old Godivan, when an innocent-looking squirrel trampled over a letter delivered to the scouting parties captain. Due to the tiny scratchings made by the squirrels paws, the message is said to have read: "Pardon, impossible prolong captivity". Due to the scouting captains understanding, the prisoners were released immediatedly only for them to afterwards understand that a scratch made by the squirrel miscarried the entire message that had already come through from an untrained hand. The letters original message was not to pardon the captives and to prolong their captivity if need be.
This occurance gave its way to Toski's reverance. as many saw it akin to the humor young Toski had performed in the village of Old Godivan. Those released captives became the first ones to honor Toski every year by performing elaborate, miniscule tricks that would cause the greater wheels of bureucracy to halt momentarily. Now, these "False Scribes" are slightly more common and they often focus their attention towards areas ruined by dictators and tyrannical rulers. Spreading false information, documentation, reports and twisting the words of others for both, their own and the worlds benefit.

Ascencion of the Black Swan

Mysterious Black Swan has been a figure lamented most often by the elves, but that seems to have spread its attention among other races as well. Settlers of Old Godivan declare the Black Swan to be the same figure seen by them, but the first actual sightings are from sea-faring folk, who claim to have seen a woman in dark grey and blue robes delivering them messages of sorrow. Whenever a loved one died leaving no trace, was it at the sea or at an expedition, this figure would appear if they lived their life in honesty and in respecting their families. The cult formed around the Black Swan is perhaps one of the more curious ones, as it is mostly formed by widows and orphans. All of whom have lost something vastly important to them, and all of who were originally either approached by someone of the cult or by the same strange maiden.

Spread

While the Order of Delivered Steel was formed by the followers if Inja, they are a rare sight in the world. Specialising themselves in slaying of different monsters and holding the original weapons given by the celestial being as artifacts of immense respect, they are rarely seen anywhere without the need to slay something. Rarely poking their heads in convoluted politics or in anything more "grand" than what their order is built around, many are superstitious about the weapons held by the Order of Delivered Steel. Some say that they have been, in truth, lost to the ages. Others claim that the Order is too lazy in using and wielding of these weapons, that they are zealots who keep to their castles at the end of the world while waiting for Inja's messengers to tell them what to do. But those rare individuals who have seen members of the Order of Delivered Steel often owe their lives to these heroes and monster-slayers. Due to the nature of the Order, rare people outside of it, some other knightly orders or Old Godivan know of Inja, the Miraclesmith.
By nature the False Scribes operate from shadows. Reminiscent of a thieves' guild, or perhaps a group of mercenaries and assassins, their true calling is often misinterpreted by those that cross them. Although the members of the False Scribes are quick to tell that Toski works through little things, actually interacting plentifully with the world and those who follow him, these words are spoken so rarely that the worshippers of Toski are a rare sight indeed.
Surprisingly, out of these three the most common might be the cult of the Black Swan. Often called "Widowers", they have spread out among the coastal areas and different cultures host their own respect of them. Most rare among the dwarves, who serve their own deities and who rarely lost another ddwarf without knowing their whereabouts.

Variations & Mutation

Black Swan - The Hael Drimeiri?

Elves of Old Godivan have believed into an entity known as Hael Drimeiri [Translated to "Kin Unknown" in common tongue] who shares much similarities with the Black Swan. As an oral traditions, information on the Hael Drimeiri has been minimal. All that is known is that this entity serves the same role as the Black Swan to the elves, but in magnified proportions. Where entire clans would come together to spend the funeral of a loved one, and all those important to the deceased get notified of their death one way or another.

Cultural Reception

The tale of the three legends is most often seen as a desperate grasp to be something important, especially by the most southern kingdoms. Yet, all who learn of the tale grow to respect it to a certain degree. Some masked individuals, too ashamed to admit their worship, visit the rare shrines of Inja, Toski and the Black Swan or even hide small altars into their abodes. Legends have power over a mortal heart and a tale of gods ascending from this far-away world ignites hope even in the coldest of hearts.