Tales of the Echo Isles — October 2012

Long ago, the Peoples of the world lived in darkness. There were the troll people, the insect people, the animal people, the reptile people and the bird people.

Life was cold and hard for there was no sun, nor moon, nor stars and the People complained until a great meeting was held.

It was decreed that one of each of the People would set out to try and find a solution to the problem.

Much time passed and one by one the searchers returned, all of them empty handed.

All expect Spider who everybody thought must have been stepped upon in the dark, as she was so small.

But Spider was not squashed. Spider had crawled to the highest place she could find and spun two silver strands, one connecting east to west, the other north to south. This connected the four corners of the earth, with Spider as the centre.

From here, she travelled the world safely until in the east she saw a light. The light was high in the sky so loosing a silken thread Spider let the air, warmed by the distant light, carry her upwards into the sky.

Soon, Spider saw the great fire burning before her and thought how she could return it to the earth so the Peoples could see and warm themselves.

Slowly, Spider wove a great net, which she cast about the great fire. As she pulled it behind her, small flames leapt free to litter the sky and these became the stars.

When Spider returned to the web she had made, she tied the fire to the centre and made to leave so she might let the people know of her success. A voice spoke to Spider asking why she had tied the fire to this place.

Spider replied ‘the People need light and heat that they might grow.’ The spirit of the fire looked down at the world and saw the chaos of the dark and took pity on the people.

‘Spider, if you take me closer to the People, they will burn. My light is too bright. I will give you a portion of the flame to take back to the People and you shall teach them to use it.’

Spider agreed and the spirit of the fire balanced a small flame upon her back to take to the People.

When she returned to the meeting place, many of the people mocked Spider for she was very small and the flame she brought was tiny.

‘That will never be enough to light world’ cried the birds and the reptiles and they left the meeting place and never learned the secret.

The insects and the trolls and the animals were more patient. They waited for Spider to explain what had happened.

Spider was puzzled for she knew the Spirit of the fire had agreed to light the world and the fire on her back had lit her way back perfectly well. So, holding to her promise, she taught those of the people that remained how to use the fire.

After a time, the People wanted to see the great fire for themselves despite Spider’s warning so she reluctantly took them back to where she had tethered the great fire.

The people began to suffer in the heat and soon they cried and wailed that Spider had brought doom upon them.

Spider ran to the great fire ‘I am sorry’ she said. ‘They are burning as you warned me they would.’

‘You must release me Spider’ replied the fire spirit.

‘But the world will be dark again.’ Spider cried.

‘No Spider, I will drift above you, my light and warmth will travel round the world and behind me the small spots of fire will light the sky. The People must use the portion you took back wisely so they will never be in true darkness again.’

And so Spider cut loose the great fire and the people learned to use the gift she had brought them wisely and there was order, for a time…

Once upon a time, there was a mason, who lived happily with his family: his beautiful wife and his nice children.

He was happy, as the works he did, earned him enough money to live happily among good circumstances.

One day, a rich man passed in front of his house. He was carried in his cart by four strong men.

The mason became jealous: that man is richer than me, he has minions, when will I live like him.

I want to be in his place!

A spirit, who passed that way, heard his cry and granted him his wish.

The next morning, the mason woke up in a king size bed, with hundreds of servants and thousands of gold.

One day he took a walk on the street with his slaves, but the sun was shining very brightly, scroching the land and brought terrible heat.

He looked up to the sun and cried again: It can not be! The sun is stronger than me! I want to be the sun!

The spirit granted his wish again.

From the next day, he was the sun. He rose and shone, causing fires and drying rivers.

But one day... a cloud floated in, casting shadows over the land and gave relief to the people in the form of soothing rain.

The mason got angry: a cloud? A little cloud can overcome me?

I want to be the cloud!

And again: his wish was granted. As a cloud, he poured rain, caused flooding and landslides.

He was sure, he is the strongest thing, that man knows.

Then the wind came and the cloud was dispersed and blown away. But before it happened, the mason cried out for help to become the wind.

Being sure, that none can stand his power he made tornados, storms, rose the ocean and sank ships.

The cities on the shore, became flooded, people ran.

But there was one thing, that stood against his power: a hill. No matter how hard he tried, the hill didn't move. Not even a little rock moved away.

This hill, he said, stronger than the wind, that is stronger than the clouds. Even stronger than the sun! I want to be this hill!

And it happened. He became the hill. He stood against the city, giving shadows to those he wanted, protecting the people from the wind.

Then...

One day...

He felt some itching on his side.

He looked down and he saw a mason, mining rocks from him.

He understood, why the spirit granted all his wishes to him.

And asked the spirit for the last time, to make everything back to its original state.

And from that day, he lived even more happy, than before.

Knowing: he is one of the most powerful beings of the world.

It is the true story of the destruction of the draenei city of Auchindoun.

We are told today that it was the summoning of Murmur and his subsequent going out of control that ripped the city apart and destroyed the lands around it.

But this is not how it actually happened.

Picture Shattrath's Lower City. The slums, the poor, the smells, and the dirt.

There lived a blind girl who worked at one of the kitchens catering to the poorest inhabitants of the city.

Well, to call her blind would not be a precise description for she could "see" the souls of the people near her.

She saw them as colourful auras reflecting their current state of mind. And all those souls she could "see" usually displayed only a single colour.

Oranges of people in love, greens of jealousy, blues of tiredness and so on.

But day after day on her way to work she passed a soul, a person, whose soul showed two colours: a blinding golden radiance and a deep purple dark.

She found it curious that this one soul would behave so differently from the rest and she began observing it more carefully.

In time she began to spot minute details about this special soul. She deduced that it belonged to a draenei woman, and as she "watched" it she felt drawn to it.

And with each passing day she could read the owner more and more as if she had known her for a long time.

During one such observation something happened that caused their souls to be inexplicably linked together and the blind girl learned everything there was to learn about the draenei woman.

Her name was Hylgwen and she used to be a shrine maiden at a temple in Auchindoun. A temple that was the house of an order of knights that fought the Burning Legion.

Hylgwen herself was a rather frail woman and she couldn't train with weapons and armour and so she had been assigned a different role at the temple.

She was what they called a Maiden of Pain - a person who took all the woes and suffering of the temple knights upon her so that they could fight the Legion without a thought or care for anything else.

This pain and suffering had been transferred upon Hylgwen in the form of arcane tattoos: a child's face for a mother who had to abandon her family, a boat for a fisherman who had to abandon his trade and so on.

And with each pain inscribed upon Hylgwen's skin her own personality would be diminished by this suffering of others she was forced to bear.

And so that she could fulfil her role without distraction she had to be separated from everyone else in the temple. And the only person she was allowed to see was the high priestess who conducted the tattooing ritual.

Thus the remaining shreds of self had been nearly stripped off Hylgwen completely.

But one day a wounded man had been brought to the temple to be tended and through some error on somebody's part he was put in the same part of the temple where Hylgwen's cell had been located.

After he recuperated a bit and started wandering the grounds, one day he saw Hylgwen staring out the window at the garden. They began to talk and soon she was desperately looking forward to the short time she could spend chatting with him.

She was learning a little about the world and soon found that he was a small beam of light cheering up her miserable, painful existence.

However, the high priestess soon learned about this and had him removed to another part of the temple grounds.

After this, Hylgwen's wellbeing and mood rapidly declined. There was very little place on her skin that wasn't covered in the terrible tattoos and she was in danger of being overcome by other people's nightmares.

The high priestess noticed this as well and ordained that the staking ritual be performed in preparation for choosing another Maiden of Pain.

Resigned to her fate, Hylgwen meekly obeyed and was taken to a vast chamber deep underground which was full of skeletons and dead bodies of her predecessors.

Soon she joined them, her hands and feet pierced with wooden stakes pinning her to the floor.

As she lay there, she suddenly saw her friend's face looming above her. He was kneeling next to her and stroking her cheek with a smile.

She tried smiling at him but then she saw the high priestess standing above him, a big cleaver in her hand.

She brought it down on the unsuspecting man's head, killing him on the spot. And as he fell, his head was very close to Hylgwen's and she could see his life dying in his eyes.

It was then than she was overcome with the suffering inscribed upon her skin and the ink drained into her eyes.

All the pain she had been bearing turned into living malice that exploded outward from her eyes.

So powerful was all the pain she was bearing that even the walls of the city couldn't withstand it and the city was blown apart by the pain turned into hatred.

The effects remain until today in the form of the Bone Wastes and the ruined city.

How Hylgwen managed to get out of there is a mystery, but from that day on she lived as a mad beggar in the streets of Shattrath's Lower City.

The blind girl brought her a meal every day and eventually took pity upon her.

Having learned the terrible tattooing ritual from her connection with Hylgwen she decided to end her torment and took upon herself all of Hylgwen's pain.

On the next day the guards found Hylgwen's body in the street.

She was dead.

Apparently from natural causes, but there was one person who knew the truth.

But when the guards tried to find the blind girl who was reported seen with Hylgwen on several occasions, she was nowhere to be found.

She never came to work in the poor kitchens anymore.

Now, please, if you ever visit the ruins of Auchindoun, take a moment to remember Hylgwen.