Mythic: The Myth of Everlight

It starts with a story...

In the early days, when the world was young and stretched wide across the horizons of all creation, things were not quite as they are now.

The mortal races lived in small communities, unknowing of any concept of kings or countries; Dragons frequented the mountains and lowlands not as terrible monsters, but our friends and caretakers, wielding their aspects of creation; and the goddesses of the Day and Night fought an ever-present war for dominion over the skies.

The Divine Beast, the goddess of the Night, won far more often than the goddess of the Sun, plunging the world into darkness for decades at a time.

That is the way the story has begun for as long as the myth has existed. Exactly as written here, it has been passed down from generation to generation, from grandparents to grandchildren, and finally from me to you. For over a millennia, those final two lines have not changed, despite the fact that that is — regretfully — still how things are today.

Even now, the goddesses remain locked in war, and there are those among us that have lived our whole lives without seeing the sun because of it. The Nights still stretch long, and the nocturnal creatures it invites still stalk the darkness beyond our sight.

I suppose we all hope for a time when it will not be so — when the sun comes with such regularity that those lines are necessary to explain the story.

It is a pale hope indeed, but one we carry all the same.

But we have something our ancestors did not: Fire.

In those times, Fire had another name. It was gentle and warm — able to be held in one’s hands. For as bright as it was, it could not hurt your eyes. Everlight was the first name of Fire — an aspect of creation given as a gift from the Sun goddess to the dragons and, sparingly, from the dragons to us.

Fearing the dark and what lay within it, the mortal races begged the dragons for a piece of their aspect of creation, and they agreed.

To protect the cities and towns of us fragilefolk from the Night, the dragons gifted each a single instance of Everlight to be placed like a beacon at the center of town. Even one could chase away the darkness enough that the monsters of the Night would not dare to come close.

They knew this would not be enough though, not forever, so atop the nine tallest mountains of the world, the dragons created nine forges marked by monoliths of stone, from which light and smoke billowed year-round.

The forges were massive — built to accommodate their draconic forms and ensure that they alone would be able to use them. Powered by Everlight, the possibilities of what a Dragon Forge could create were as boundless as the stars. Much of this power they kept for themselves, but not all of it.

Towns and cities grew, and the single instance of Everlight was not enough to keep their outlying buildings safe. Knowing of the existence of the Dragon Forges, and unable to forge for ourselves, brave souls from near and far would hazard the journey, surmounting any of the nine peaks to plead with them for a dragonforged item.

Most asked for artifacts like magical weapons that could slay any beast or armor that could withstand even the harshest of blows — anything to keep the Night’s creatures at bay.

Very few had their requests granted. The dragons were benevolent and kind to the mortal races in those times, but their motives were still enigmatic. Some versions of this story may claim that the dragons did it to keep us safe, or because they were greedy and wished to keep the Everlight’s power for themselves. In truth, they were (and are) beings that live far longer than the scope of mortal comprehension. Even if their exact motives were discovered, understanding them on the scale of existence we take part in would be nigh impossible.

In any case, the dragons were stingy with these items. They considered each request carefully and gave only to those who proved themselves worthy of this honor.

When one Night grew especially long, the mortal races grew more desperate. Convinced that the sun may never rise again, they flocked in droves to the forges to ask for more Everlight. For more items.

During this long Night, a human came to one such forge, pursued by the nightbeasts and stumbling into the light just in time. The forges were safe from the creatures of the Night. The beasts had no qualms with the dragons, nor the inclination for any, and would not come so close to the Everlit forges.

The human had come from a land far away to ask for something to protect their people. The dragons of this forge had heard this plea many times. People came from far and wide to ask for their gifts, and many of them left empty-handed, even in these times.

They asked the human what they sought, but the answer they received was a surprise to them.

The human did not ask for a sword or magical arrows. They did not ask for armor that could not be pierced or horseshoes that left a path they could follow home even in darkness.

This human asked for something different entirely: a bag that could carry anything.

Normally the human would have been asked to prove themself, but they had piqued the dragons’ curiosity. It was not often that a dragon was surprised, much less by a human.

“Tell me,” said the largest among them, in a voice that shook the ground. “You are human — Godborn is what you call yourselves, is it not? Made in the image of the Sun goddess. Certainly, the Everlight is enough to protect you and yours.”

“I am human, yes, but not Godborn,” they stated plainly. “The Godborn stay in the lands they consider sacred. We do not. My people and I are travelers. Hunters and gatherers. We do not have Everlight.”

“I do not understand,” another dragon asked, craning her head down to observe this human. “How will a bag help you brave the Night, little one?”

“Not just any bag — a bag that can hold anything.” By now, all the dragons of the forge had gathered around to see what this human had to say for themself. “Everlight cannot be moved far from where your kind have placed them. We cannot travel with Everlight to protect us, so the nightbeasts steal our food and kill our people. With a bag that can hold anything, we could store all our food within and never risk them being able to starve us. Of course, the bag must be able to keep all sound, light, and smell within. It cannot be affected by the weight of what it holds.”

“Certainly you must already have bags,” another scoffed. “The mortals come to ask us for that which they cannot make themselves. Are you to tell us that your people do not have bags?”

“No, certainly not,” the human explained. “My people have many bags! They are woven from plant fibers, or made of animal skins. They are strong, but they can be worn and torn with time and conflict. The bag I request must resist the strongest of strikes and the tax of time, and it must be able to carry everything.”

Back and forth the conversation went between the dragons and the human, the dragons always posing one more reason why the human need not have the item they sought and the human returning with a rebuttal. Their bags were small and could only hold so much! Their bags could be burned! They most certainly needed a bag that could hold anything, and it must be able to protect what was inside.

It was a very strange request indeed, but they could not find a reason to refuse. The human spoke at length about all the uses of a bag that could hold anything, and all of them were small and almost pitiful to the dragons.

Eventually, they obliged. Each contributing scales from their own hides, they cast them into the Everlight and from them created the bag that could hold anything. The bag glinted in the light, covered in iridescent dragonscales. Just as had been requested, it could not be worn or torn, burned or destroyed, and, most importantly, it could hold anything.

Grateful, the human requested that they be allowed to rest within the safety of the Everlight before they set off once again for home. The dragons agreed, and after several hours the human exited the forge with the bag that could hold anything.

In the months that followed this strange encounter, all the dragons at the nine forges found that far fewer people were coming. Some were happy, believing the mortal races to be content with what they had, but others grew worried. Perhaps the Night had stretched too long, or their original Everlight gifts had begun to dim and leave the mortals to die out!

The forges were massive — tunneling through far more than just the peaks of the mountains. Legend has it the great halls of the dragon forges were so extensive and bore so deep into the earth that a loud enough noise could echo for years — and only stop when it reached the bottom of the world. It was not rare for a dragon to not leave the inside of the mountain for several months at a time.

When they did though, they were surprised! Instead of the vast darkness many were worried would confront them, there were instances of Everlight dotted all over the known world!

It was then that they realized they had been tricked.

The human had stolen Everlight within the bag that could hold anything, and distributed pieces of it far and wide across their travels. The mortal races were not coming to the dragon forges because they were intent on creating forges of their own.

The dragons were furious.

They had given the mortal races so much of what they had asked for, and they had been repaid in treachery!

What's more, they knew that even if they reclaimed all the stolen Everlight, it was too late. So long as the knowledge existed that Everlight could be stolen, it would not be off the mortals' minds any time the Night drew long.

Everlight had been stolen once, but never again.

Together, with heavy hearts, they wielded their magic to curse Everlight to be as greedy as the hands that had taken it. Everlight became Fire. It grew hungry and enraged, consuming all that it touched.

The known world burned.

The mortal races were left shocked, their countryside charred and their skyline irreparably changed.

In addition to cursing the stolen Everlight, the dragons had destroyed their forges. The nine beams of light that had marked their locations had vanished from the horizon, along with any other evidence of their existence. The skies were dark, and the dragons were gone.

They flew North, South, East, and West until they reached the unsettled lands surrounding the known world. There they stayed, and there they have stayed since, their hatred for the mortal races only festering. They never forgot, and they never forgave. Once our protectors, the dragons are little more than monsters now. Terrifying, gargantuan creatures capable of speech and reason, but monsters all the same.

With Everlight gone, the mortal races were terrified this would spell their doom. However, in making fire, the dragons had left the mortal races with a valuable tool. Mortal forges could use fire to create weapons and armor of their own design, and it could be carried on torches and in lanterns. It could roar in fireplaces just as easily as it could be fired on arrows.

It would take some time to discover all these things, what with so much of the world reduced to ash. But soon, fire would be recognized for its potential, and it is only through fire that we were able to keep the nightbeasts back and arm ourselves against further incursions.

Over time, the true locations of the nine dragon forges faded from story into legend, and legend into myth — the knowledge lost to time or else burned up in the initial calamity. Even most of the famed dragonforged items have long since fallen into obscurity, though that hasn’t stopped rumors from spreading of their locations, nor treasure hunters from looking for them.

To this day, travelers and adventurers from all walks of life still surmount the tallest peaks of the known world in search of the dragon forges, and to this day, none have been found.

This tale remains our clearest record of what happened, and it and all its versions have been picked apart year after year by Myth hunters looking for clues. So many times have they thought they had a lead, and so many times have they been wrong.

Still, nothing that is lost can be lost forever. It is in the nature of these things to resurface where one least expects them. Be it a hundred years, or millennia beyond count, everything comes to light eventually.

Somewhere out there, the remnants of the forges still stand.

All it takes is one person to untwist the riddle woven by time and fire… and the courage to go on an adventure.

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