Editing Durgaz's Stuff he knows (section)

==QUOTES, MYTHS, LEGENDS, STORIES, AND BELIEFS==

''The destiny of the world is Shadow.'' — Anonymous note penned in the margin of the Academy’s Commentaries

===The Hero===
All my life, I’ve looked up to Eanos, our village smith. Eanos towers over every other man in the village. In a show of strength, on midsummer's eve, he lifts the round stones in the village square over his head and heaves them a full three lengths of his body. The other men can’t even lift one, let alone throw it.  <br>  Eanos is always the first man up when there’s work to be done and there is nothing he can’t fix with the strength of his body and the tools he’s been allowed to keep. The orcs constantly bait him, ready to test their strength against his, but he never rises to their taunts. It’s clear that the local legate despises him, but Eanos has never given him cause to vent his wrath until now. <br> Four days ago, a traveling tinker came to town bearing news and small items for barter. He had healing salves for burns and red rash that we desperately needed. He offered to give us the salves if Eanos would repair a small chopping axe and a handful of metal tools. Eanos knew the laws forbade use of the forge without permission, but he saw no harm in repairing simple tools. The tinker was a spy, sent to lure Eanos into violating the law. The legate and the tinker, with almost a dozen fully armed orcs, came for Eanos just after dawn. The penalty for his crimes was 30 lashes. Eanos, who could easily snap the legate's neck, walked meekly to the wooden post hammered into the center of the village green. He gripped it while the orcs leaned into each lash. Eanos screamed but never let go of the post. When it was over, we washed his wounds as best we could and carried him to his bed. It’s been three days and he still hasn't regained the strength in his left arm and some doubt that he ever will.

===The Covenant===
The wars with Izrador spawned many great heroes from all the races. The memory of these champions helps to keep the faith among human insurgents and inspire fey defenders who still battle the Shadow today, and some say the strength they gave in the fight against Izrador persists in the weapons they used. <br> Legend says Elenial, an elven girl whose family was killed in the orc raid on Althorin, killed 27 raiders with a single arrow. Sneaking through the burning remains of the town with only one arrow left in her quiver, she would shoot an unsuspecting warrior, watch him die, and then sneak to the corpse and recover her shaft undamaged. She did this time and again, until the entire orc host huddled together in fear and set to hunting her. It is said she killed their leader with her final shot, just before they cut her down. Still today, elven archers running low on arrows recite her name as they loose their flights, asking her boon in guiding their aim. The quiver of Elenial, should one be able to find it, is rumored to never run out of arrows.  <br> Puldur was a great dwarven weaponsmith and a stalwart warrior to whom countless fantastic exploits have been attributed. One of his best known feats is the Long Duel of Hanigor Pass. The last survivor of Hanigor’s defensive unit, Puldur held it alone for three days and three nights against an orc raiding party numering in the hundredst. The songsmiths say that in days past, when the orcs still had some semblance of pride and honor, they could be goaded and challenged to single combat; this is what Puldur did, they say, a hundred times and more without rest, holding that cold, lonely ground. Individually, the orcs were no match for Puldur’s stamina or the mithral axe he wielded, and he took them one after another. By the dawn of the second day, the bodies were piled so high they blocked the pass, and the remaining orc fighters skulked away under the cover of darkness. Bards claim it is because of this battle that every mithral axe forged in the dwarven lands is still engraved with Puldur’s clan mark, and it is said that he who wields Puldur’s axe itself can never be defeated in single combat and knows not the meaning of fatigue or despair. 

===Born and Bred===
Couthlin wrinkled his nose at the rank smell. The odors of sweat, blood, and less polite bodily fluids wafted up to him as he strolled on the elevated walkway. The commoners milled about below in their usual mindless herd. <br> “Civilized!”  <br> The large canine creature preceding him stopped and looked up at him, cocking his head in confusion. The legate frowned and kept walking, yanking on the chain attached to its collar.  <br> “Stupid beast. No, they are not civilized. I was exclaiming in disbelief. Being facetious. Go back to your sniffing.” The astirax-possessed hound obligingly returned to scenting the air. <br> The legate frowned. It was pathetic that he had to rely on one-way communication with a magic-hunting beast. His skills at dialogue and manipulation would be all but blunted by the time he returned to Theros Obsidia. Asnort from the astirax snapped Couthlin from his thoughts. The canine form was watching a passing figure below, quite intently. Couthlin’s dark eyes.followed as well, noticing a suspicious narrow shape jutting out from beneath the figure’s cloak. Roughly hilt-shaped. “A weapon...magical?” he asked in a hushed tone. The astirax growled in assent. <br> “Then follow,” Couthlin said eagerly, releasing the chain. “Return to me at the temple when you’ve tracked the criminal to his lair.”  <br> The beast slunk into the shadows and trotted after the offending figure...towards its demise, Couthlin hoped. The mage-hunting beast had been witness to too many of Couthlin’s intrigues and coups. The mercenary it now trailed had agreed quickly to his terms: kill the astirax in exchange for the sword the legate had given him. <br> Meanwhile, below, the astirax salivated in anticipation. The scent of magic was heavy in the air...not just from the sword, but from at least a few enchanted crossbow bolts. All of them aimed at the walkway above, where his master walked.  <br> Rather, his former master

===The Other Lands of Aryth===
''The peoples of Eredane know little of the lands that lie beyond our seas. Some say the elves of the First Age traveled to all the corners of the world, but even if such legends are true, this lore was almost certainly lost in ages past and was never shared with the wise of other nations. What little we know comes from the records of Dornish and Sarcosan settlers who traveled to Eredane from the eastern continent known as Pelluria in ancient days. Sadly, these records are often little more than folktales and must be held suspect in the light of reason. <br> From fragments of the Histories of the Old Empire, we gather that Pelluria is a land of greater aspect and extension than Eredane, as <br> “a youth shall gray and come to infirmity before crossing the breadth of the Kalif’s dominion.” <br>  Even allowing for the excesses of a culture known for its vanity and embellishment, this suggests a vast continent unconstrained by the great oceans that embrace our land on three sides. Nor is there reason to believe that the “Kalif’s dominion” ever covered all the realms of Pelluria. It is known that the Sarcosan Empire conquered the Dornland river valley in the north. It is believed, however, that the fall of the Old Empire in the Third Age had as much to do with a war against a rival power in the east as with internal decay and the loss of its overseas colonies in the west. <br> The Dorns describe their ancestral home as a land of cold, rugged hills, glacial valleys, and deep, snow-laden forests. In the Sarcosan records, we learn of vast grasslands, endless deserts, and great cities of stone built in the oldest days by the first men of Aryth. The elder races of the fey are unknown in these lands, but the stories speak of stranger peoples that share no blood with the elder fey, of fearsome races that hate all others and feed on the flesh of men. Tales of serpent people and beastmen must be considered little more than fables told for the benefit of wayward children.'' <br> — '''Ilsrid of Highwall''', The Lands of Aryth