Fables of Burdock
From Praemal
Assembled more than a hundred years ago by the legendary bard Burdock, the fables are a collection of fables, legends, verifiable history and lore of the fantastic, mixed together. Burdock was more interested in collecting interesting stories and setting down oral history than he was in verifying the accuracy of the tales he recorded.
They span many volumes. The more impressive libraries, like the one at Redhurst, have a complete set, but most people have only read (or been read to from) abridged copies, or heard bards' versions of some of the stories. Having said that, there is probably not a human alive in the Tarsisian Empire or the Sea Kingdoms who has not heard at least some of the fables, and most other races of the area and humans in surrounding ones are at least passingly familiar with the fables as well.
An allegedly ancient fable
According to the Fables of Burdock, 20,000 years ago, the Creator forged the world and nine children deities. As he began to populate the world with races, the children wondered what their father had planned for them. A conflict ensued over giving the mortals freedom to choose their own path, and the Creator created no more while the war in heaven raged. Meanwhile, the fourth generation of humans explored their world, having begun to establish permanent settlements and craft metals. They encountered the hard-working dwarves and the aloof elves, and learned to draw the power of magic from the world. In those days, many people were born with a mark on their body that indicated they were to have a great destiny. Some of these runebearers, as they were known, assumed positions of leadership in the communities, while others struck out to find other races and see the sights of their young world.
One such group discovered a plot by a man named Mrathrach, who had made a pact with a group of monstrous beings. In exchange for power, Mrathrach would help the monsters dominate and destroy the world. Though this group of heroes destroyed Mrathrach, they discovered there were actually five creatures vested with the power of the monsters. One, a faceless sorcerer, tore a hole in the veil between the world of the living and the dead and brought an unnatural winter to the land -- and with it, hordes of the undead, which had never before been seen.
To close this rift, the heroes followed visions to a city on a flying mountain. There they won access to a solitary magical tree, which bore a single fruit that gave the power of a wish. The heroes used the wish to access the one thing that could close the rift -- a fragment of the hidden moon of magic, made entirely of vallis, the green stone that enhanced arcane power. The wish allowed them to bring a piece of the moon into collision with the tear in the veil and seal it in a tremendous explosion.
One piece of the moon escaped and became the comet Alhazarde. It has been a portent of great change ever since.
Some subjects covered in the fables:
