The Leijion of Gelatin

This story focuses on the Heno Domina Equita Hroland and his army Leijion XXI Australis. Hroland was an infamous general who was prone to bouts of madness and wild behaviour, and despite orders, he ventured off-course on his way to winter troops at Caer Coed, searching for the Lost Leijions of generations ago.

He received help but also three warnings on his journey to find the Lost Leijons. The first was from a Sarcophaga washerwoman who warned Hroland not to drink from any still waters in the forest. The second warning was from a Gvaneti who warned him to take the last shortcut to Caer Coed or his entire army would die. The third warning was from a wild Pompilia, who warned him to not accept food from anyone in the forest.

Hroland ignored all three warnings and made his way, eventually coming across a murky expanse of wetland which separated his army from their destination. They spend eight days trying to find a way around it, and another eight trying to ford it. Unfortunately, by this time the Fury of the Locii has started. In order to avoid being sacrifices for the emerging Locii hoards, Hroland and his men panic and hide in the waters of the swamp, thinking it will be shallow. However, after a few metres, the swamp becomes very deep and they all drown.

However, due to the contents of the water, the Heno soldiers are all reverted into Coriniaid, and suffer a fate worse than death - strange, half-formed flesh and grease which feeds off the decaying matter in this rotting swamp as winter comes.

In the spring a villager from Magnolia Town visits the swamp and is greeted with Hroland, who has been turned into a strange gelatinous creature. Hroland asks the villager to help properly bury his men, who are stuck at the bottom of the pond. The villager instead decides to harvest his men, as their remains can be used to make gelatin and many other foodstuffs. It seems this was the fate of the Lost Leijons, as well.

The villagers decide to have a feast upon discovering the surplus of foodstuff left by Hroland's army. Each family makes their own special gelatin dish harvested from the swamp, and the villager who discovered him chills Hroland into a centerpiece meal for the Elders of the Village. However, when the chemicals from the Coriniaid interact with the foreign humours of the villagers' bodies, they begin to regain their forms. After most of the villagers are eaten from the inside out, Hroland takes the remaining marrow from their bones and makes gelatin dishes from them. This is the origins of the gelatin dish's popularity in Eskern, as well as local folklore for Lqke Weird and

This story seems to originally take place during the Heno annexation of Eskern, involving the infamous Leijon Lethera Australis. This leijon was lost in Eskern Forest. Later it was discovered they and tried to survive in the forest, before being eaten by the Weird Lake of Magnolia Town.

Hroland, whose name was recorded initially as Xrothland and Tirloth, is a name meaning "famous landowner". So it's possible this was a name meant to reference his title rather than a personal name. It is possible that this referred to the local villager who met with Hroland and was mixed up over time.

Hroland's Leijon as it is told in the story is Leijon XXI Australis, which is not a historical leijon. As the Heno people were famous for their twenty leijons so the twenty first is likely legendary. Two additional leijons, known in legend as the "Lost Leijions", disappeared in Eskern Forest around this time, a particularly disastrous time for the Heno, and those were the Leijon VIII Australis and Leijon XI Australis.

The story is likely based on an old recounting of their disappearance.

This is a very popular story around Eskern proper, but especially in Eskern East. It gained international popularity through the Catu Samonii (Summer Wars), which takes place in Caer Coed, Hroland's initial destination. This is primarily due to the emergence of the Gelatin King Quest, which led to a revival of the three Milenakos who warn Hroland as unofficial guardian spirits of the Ninth Summer Wars and Caer Coed.

The villager's species and ethnicity is different depending on who is telling it, typically shifting bias depending on the culture. However, the village is always a Milenakos and it is implied their people are responsible for the disappearance of the Lost Leijons.

The popularization of gelatin dishes is in particular attributed to Hroland and East Eskern, and many businesses and merchants will use this imagery in their logos and advertisments.