 |
 |
|
|
|
|
The work contained on this page is the property and copyright of Jared Rascher. It has been formatted for viewing on the web by the Scribes of Candlekeep. Candlekeep claims no ownership for this material.
The Legend of Iakhovas
By Jared Rascher
What follows is an account as written on a huge stone slab, nearly ten feet tall by five feet wide, written in a variation of the Infernal tongue. The slab is currently resting with other artifacts similar to it in a tower on Evermeet, having been recovered by Sea Elven scavengers. While the stone does not radiate magic of any sort, it seems to be remarkably resistant to any form of divination magic, and elven sages debate the veracity of the account, though they admit they have no information to either confirm or deny what is carved into the slab.
Since before there were world, and as soon as there was an ocean, there was Sekolah. Sekolah was the first hunter in the sea, and none dare enter his waters without his leave. But Sekolah was not a creature to be contented by simple appeasement, nor with only the pleasures of killing for the sake of appeasing base insticts.
And so Sekolah brought forth his hunters, the greatest of all the creatures that latter species would know as the sharks. Sekolah made them the perfect hunters, sleek and powerful, with endless teeth and an endless appitite. And of all his hunters, one was the finest, the largest, and the most cunning.
For untold time Sekolah and his hunters commanded the waters of the lower planes, given tribute by the fiends that came near their waters. But Sekolah was not content to dine on their sacrifices, nor to hunt the other feeble creatures of the sea. Sekolah knew that the land dwellers had secrets and power unknown to him, and he desired it as well.
Sekolah called forth his finest hunter, his most cunning child, and blessed it with the ability to change his shape to that of the fiends, and to walk on land, outside of the deadly waters of the lower planes. Sekolah sent his child to spy on the fiends and learn their secrets.
Sekolah's child, known as Iakhovas, walked on the land like the fiends did, and he walked among them. He learned of their greatest secret. The fiends knew that the gods had planned on making a new creature, mortals that would live and die and spend their whole lives elsewhere before dwelling forever with the gods, and these mortals would have great potential.
The fiends had endless plans to temp and corrupt the mortals, but when Iakhovas told Sekolah of the plans of the fiends, and the secret of the gods, the design of mortals, Sekolah knew what must be done. He knew that the mortals, being subject to death, would know fear, and thus could be dominated. He knew that they had great potential, and thus might plot secrets on the land that his children would not learn.
So Sekolah acted according to his nature.
Sekolah blessed Iakhovas with a new gift, the gift to change into the form of mortals. He charged Iakhovas with the task of bringing fear and reverance to the mortals, and he also tasked him to find their secrets and spread them among the children of Sekolah. Sekolah gave Iakhovas a host of his best hunters, and told Iakhovas to swim far away, toward the grey light that marked the end of the waters of the Lower Planes and the begining of the Lands Still In Chaos.
Iakhovis arrived with his hunters in the great primordial ocean. He sent his hunters to the four corners of the ocean to seek out the greatest threats and the best prey, and to establish their domains. And he himself took the form of a mortal and walked the New Land.
When he arrived, Iakhovas found that the gods still argued over creation. They had yet to put into effect their plans, as the darkness argued with the light, and the with the earth herself. Iakhovas mocked the gods for their quarelling, and taunted them the fate of their mortals.
The light and the earth were enraged, but it pleased the darkness to hide him, and so Iakhovas dove into the ocean, to await the coming of mortals, to cause in them great fear and to walk among them and learn all of their secrets.