Rebirth of the Liad

In ancient Atreus there was a hero-king remembered as the Liad. Many have heard his legend, but there are countless stories of this mythical king who returns to Atreus when its need is dire to protect the Kingdom Eternal and ensure it may never fall. The constant disputes and reinterpretations have led to myths which contradict each other and seem mutually exclusive, yet for those who believe them they persist. This is one such tale.

In the days when Atreus was weak and near collapse from constant fighting, the kingdom stood with enemies on all sides. The Adamanta had taken the mountains, Vel had ensured the south was impassable, and Larathorn's emperor and commanded that no outsiders would enter the wood alive and seemed ready to bring war to Vel and Atreus alike. It was a dark time in the kingdom when the light of blessing had waned to the dimmest of embers.

In these days at the pinnacle of the temple of maji there was a tree like no other in this world. The maji spoke nothing of the tree to the common folk of Atreus, yet tales of the tree were passed from the old to the young. They told of a drop of blood and starlight which fell from Vaedra and struck the land, driving itself so deep a pit was made that seemed to reach to Tyn itself. From this pit grew the maji's tree in a single night, yet none could speak to its growth for those who were witness were struck blind and slient. Its branches were like blue glass and shone with a light of its own. It bore no leaves, yet produced fruit of crystal and light. These fruit the maji would harvest and burn in offering to the Children for they feared the tree and what it meant. They feared that it was a thing of Creator's Blood and what power, of the All-Mother or of Void, which it might hold.

There was, in the temple of the maji, a peasant boy who served the maji. His name is forgotten, if any ever kew it, and he had no family. He cleaned and carried goods throughout the temple, serving at the whims of the maji who had grown distant from the world and the suffering of their kin. As war drew nearer the kingdom resources were stockpiled and became scarce for those without means to secure themselves. Starving and alone as the maji saw to the needs of state and their own, the boy entered the garden where the tree grew and there saw a fruit on the maji tree.

Though he was afraid and knew not what the tree was, his hunger was greater even than his fear of the unknown or the wrath of the maji should they find him in this forbidden place. He took the fruit and ate.

When the maji found the sealed doors of the garden chamber opened they rushed inside, prepared to bring retribution upon whomsoever had profaned this space. Within they found a man sitting calmly before the tree, strength in his arms and light shining from his eyes like the tree. The maji were frozen in his presence, yet they cried out demands that this strange man identify himself and beg mercy for his transgression. The man announced in a voice that was the peal of thunder and the crash of waves and the falling of great boulders down the mountainside that he was the Liad who had returned to Atreus as a boy and now a king. Maji fell to their knees and praised him, but some refused and denied him. When the Liad spoke again these were shattered into dust and ended.

The Liad claimed the throne and sent emissaries to the Adamanta and Larathorn. While the folk in the mountains did as they will and remained safe behind their walls, Larathorn rode out to meet this ancient king returned and together in council they crafted a peace that would last to this day.

Atrean scholarly consensus has determined this tale to be apocryphal, but not heresy.