The Emperor's Fish

A Great and powerful Emperor near the ocean gave his blessing to an elusive and strong fish, allowing it to live forever until it was caught and slaughted by the hands of a sapeint, on top of healing flesh that could cure any ailment, physical or mental, before he then sent the fish off to swim throught the oceans of Luxerra, wondering through oceans and rivers until it was finally caught by someone both clever enough to track its presence through the seas via the marks in the sands below or rocks marked with it's oils, and strong enough to hold onto it as it flails around before then slaughtering it for it's healing flesh.

There was in fact a type of long fish, nicknamed the Emperor Fish for the myth, said to live within Luxerra, that, when it's flesh was cut into, actually did have oils within that could cure things like stomache aches, diarrhea and in fact, most issues that involved the gut, though such a fish was rather illusive and lived deep within oceans so most never saw it.

The Myth was spread far and wide, at first, only around the locals of the land the emperor ruled, that slowly spread out to other lands nearby as his reign fell, mostly to any town or city that was close to the ocean, as locals thought this gave the chance of easily getting this ilussive fish.

Some version of the tale include at least two sapeints that atttempt to catch it, one that is able to get grip onto the emperor's fish and even nearly kill it, before it slithered out of his grip to swim off, never to be seen by him again, and another who is able to track it down after it's first escape, only to find themselves unable to grab it at all without it escaping over and over.

The Emperor's Fish was often told to motivate not just self improvement, but to always work on all aspects of oneself, as if brains were given up to brawn or vice versa, then one would never be able to catch the Emperor's fish as it was told.

The variation as mentioned earlier was often made into books in folktale collections, seen as early as around the 14th century CE.

There have been several statues of emperor's fish, on top of many paintings of fishermen holding the body of the Emperor's fish in victory, being made made by the wealthy, many of which where once kept in old emperor's palaces, but, once emperor's in general no longer reigned, the now abandoned palaces were often raided by salespeople to sell off the ancient art for their own profits.