Marshmallow people

The tale of the marshmallow people is a pervasive folk tradition in rural commnunities bordering the Chondolos River on the Alluvial plain south of the Sea of Jars. It is generally considered a story for children, and a widepsread truism has it that it was once taken broadly seriously as the eitiology of human habitation in the region, though that notion is unsupported. Nevertheless the story remains a popular one, noteworthy in that it provdes an origin for the people most closely associated with the city-state of Chogyos both narratively and tonally at odds with the more widely-known tale of the dragon-slayer Chonyos. Some versions of the story link the tale to the pre-Wesmodian goddess Hayan.    

Narrative

  The Chondolos River is noted for its marchy banks, with patches of swampy ground common along its length, particularly its lower reaches. Impropitious for agriculure, those boggy patches support a wide variety of wild plants. Notable among these are marshmallows, low-growing plants distinguished from the dark foliage around them by small white flowers which bloom in spring and summer. These plants are known for their thick pulpy stems. If picked at the rght time - early to mid spring - these stems can be strpped of their fibrous skin to reveal small quantities of soft, fluffy interior tissue. This tissue has a sweet flavour, and although there has never been any wdespread cultivation of tehe plant as a food crop it is fairly common to find children in communities along the river fossicking for this treat in the marshy patches near their villages.   These plants are said to have been the origin of the human population of the region. One spring when the marshmallow plants were blooming the goddess Hayan is said to have been crusing down the river at the invitation of her colleague Zargyod. Attracted by the dainty white flowers, Hayan is said to have leaned out of the boat and caressed their petals. The gesture of affection stirred within the sweet white stems of he plants, which that year continued thickening and growing until they became human children. These children grew up to be the first inhabitants of the Chondolos region.  

Mythopoeic tradition

  No written attestation of the tale from before the Wesmodian Reformation has been found. Folklorists touring the Chondolos region looking for versions of the tale will find it generally known among the peopel of the area. Popular variations of the story given above omit the involvement of Zargyod, instead suggesting that Hayan was touring the river at the invitation of Dahan. Stll others do not mention Hayan at all, suggesting that the development from plant to human came as the result of an especally beneficent spring rain sent by Dahan.  

Commentary

  There is no immediate reason to beleve this story pre-dates the Wesmodian Reformation. It may well be that it is a post-Reformation story concocted to explain the affinity that children have toward the plant, perhaps spiked with some references to pre-Wesmodian relgion by over-enthusiastic thaumatologists in the early years AWR. The disparate emphasis that different folkloric sources place on different divine actors may be evidence for this; written sources, paradoxically, are less consistent than oral ones, and more folkloric fieldwork will be required before the thaumatological significance of the tale, if any, becomes at all clear.   The involvement of Hayan or Dahan in the story may relate to the medicinal use of marshmallow in some communities, where it is mashed and boiled into an infusion to treat sore throats; the practice is well-attested, though its religious connecton is as yet hearsay. The notion that the story was developed to warn children away from potentially hazardous bodies of water has also been mooted, though the absence of any punative consequences for doing so in the story would seem to render that sheer fancy.