The Rise of Gold

According to the myth, Elgan was born in a small village in northern Silrioch. The village was under the control of a bandit gang known as the Rust. They came to the village every week to demand tribute from the villagers, and anyone who couldn't pay was killed. Elgan's parents were killed soon after he was born and the child had to grow up on the streets. When he was ten though, Elgan rallied the townsfolk to take down the bandits and eradicate them for good.

Once the Rust were taken care of, Elgan left the village to try and learn why people would do as Rust did. He traveled across both Silrioch and Agrotia, going from town to town trying to understand the human propensity to violence. He saw so much evil in the world, petty acts of selfishness, wanton cruelty, and dangerous cowardice. On his travels, he slowly picked up followers who found Elgan inspiring and believed in his rebuke of the violence of the world.

After his journey, Elgan made it his mission to find a way to get rid of all violence in the world. As he despaired over how he could accomplish this goal, he had a dream, supposedly sent from the gods above, that he would find the tools needed in a world of golden light. This dream sent Elgan to the spot where he would famously find the gold mines that now sit under Auronim.

There is very little to back up the veracity of this myth. The only thing known for certain is that Elgan traveled the Shalyb Plains in his youth where he picked up his followers who became the original Scion Council. Rust is a common mercenary name in Silrioch, but there is little proof that a specific Rust operated at the time of Elgan's supposed birth and was wiped out. There was also no record of Elgan's prophetic dreams until after his death.

In Auronim, the myth is treated as history, with little doubt as to its veracity. However, other nations, especially Silrioch and Agrotia, view it as little more than propaganda. In Silrioch, it is rejected, as they do not believe that Auronim could have spawned from them, as their cultural ideas are too averse to the Silrian love of honor. In Agrotia, they reject the myth as they believe only their Mantepa can receive such vivid prophecies, and that the idea some foreign leader received one to be blasphemous. Other nation merely treat the myth as a modern example of myth-making used to fill in the holes of history, not anything pernicious.