The Tale of the Wayking

Written for Prompt 17 (2019 Summer Camp)

Written by David_Ulph

This legend originated in Elgerlor in the continent of Elgerlia as a cautionary tale to make naughty children behave and ensure that they don't wander far from the protection of settlements and don't steal things that they find left alone.

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It is a common sight for travellers in the Great Western Empire to see small stone bowls littering paths, mountain passes and valleys along their journeys. Many think nothing of them, simply the relics of some long past age, no doubt, perhaps old fire pits to light the way at night for weary travellers and adventurers. Either way, they are numerous. Moreover, some tend to have coins within them. Something that cannot be stressed enough is that you can place coins within the bowls at your own leisure, but cannot remove any for yourself.

Travellers from time immemorial have believed that placing coins and treasures into the bowls will give them good fortune. They're not wrong. They also believe that a terrible curse befalls any who remove said treasure from the bowls. They are also not wrong. But the precise reason for this stems back to a time long before the current era of life and Terralba itself. A time when life was in its first ages, Gods still roamed the planet, and mortals were still locked in their destinies.

One man, his name lost to history, made his living as one of the first, as well as one of the greatest, bandits of all time. It is certain that, under normal circumstances, his name would be remembered as that of the greatest bandit to ever live, the patron of banditry, for all time. But these times did not work under the same circumstances as they do now. One night, an old traveller in blue robes traversed a path which this bandit was watching, laying in wait for the chance to steal gold and treasure. Blue, being a colour of nobility, seemed to indicate a chance for real wealth. The bandit took his chance, and descended to offer the traveller an ultimatum - his money, or his life.

The old traveller made a counter-offer, giving the bandit an ultimatum of his own - stand down or be cursed forever. The bandit laughed, disbelieving the idea of curses, and goading the traveller on. The old traveller lowered their hood, revealing herself to be the Winter Queen, the first being in existence. The bandit believed himself lucky. He laughed. He believed he had captured the legendary Great Hag, and would be able to use this God to grant him great power, even a noble title. After all, how could this good-natured God ever curse him?

The God smiled playfully. The bandit, his greed blinding him, had made his expectations of riches and nobility known. The God would grant him both. Pointing her hammer-cane, the bandit found himself turning into stone, his arms becoming like the very boulders of the pass he had watched over. Finally, in a touch of irony, the God melted a crown of gold onto the former bandit's head, naming him the Wayking.

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Since he had so dutifully watched over the passage in expectation of treasure, the Winter Queen tasked him with protecting every pass and valley in the realm. She raised stone bowls from the ground, and stated that whenever a traveller placed treasure into the bowls, no matter how small, they must be protected from harm, and that the treasure would belong to the Wayking. Those who stole from him, well the Wayking could do what he wished.

The Wayking was distraught. His dashing good looks had been replaced by a stony visage, his mortal form contorted and twisted into a bouldery vestige of its former state. He descended into a depression, though the Winter Queen tutted at the new bouldery creature - he had what he wanted, a supply of gold for all time, a noble title of great importance, even that which he had never asked for, immortality. The Wayking did not see it that way, but it was now his nature to do as commanded by the Great Goddess, and the Great Goddess commanded this.

Those who travel on the roads since that fateful day often put treasure into the bowls. Some neglect to, and their fates are their own, but those who give to the Wayking are under his protection, and those who take from him would find themselves dead. And even now, travelling through mountain passes and valleys, some can still see rocks atop the heights, with a slight glisten of precious metal signalling its domain over the valley.

"...Wayking, you should know, has the nature of a powerful genius: capricious, impetuous, peculiar, rascally, crude, immodest, haughty, vain, fickle, today your warmest friend, tomorrow alien and cold; ...roguish and respectable, stubborn and flexible..."

By the Third Age after the unshackling of mortals' destinies, the Wayking had become a prominent myth throughout the entire Great Western Empire. While many and most will never be taught this tale or this version of the tale, both children and travellers alike fear the mysteries of the Wayking. Those that will suffer the wrath of the Wayking will unexpectedly be met with lightning and thunder, fog, rain and snow, even while the sun is shining. People say he will look like a stone monk that meets travellers and lost children, holding a harp in one hand and a bag in the other.