A treatise on melons.Before the Darkness fell, there was a time o'er history and even prehistory, before the dawn of Man, Mer and even Dragon. Twas a Golden Age, they say - and many are the grottoes and dungeons left over from this time, laddie.
It was a time of peace and plenty - even the frigid tundra lands where the Tower o' Will lies, even the blasted Shadow Realm that ye see far away? They were heavenly winter wonderlands, gifted with shining trees o' crystal that would grow fruit ere the sun rise. This blasted, lifeless desert? T'was once a marshland where one could catch fish with 'is bare hand! Dig ye down to the bedrock o' the desert if ye cannot believe, and ye shall see the mudstone, the fossils and other traces of their passing.
At that time, there lived legendary creatures, Dragon-beasts so vast that they could encircle Selk a hundred times with their tail - the dragons ye see today are puny, selfish creatures compared to the wise behemoths that wandered the world, beatific birds whose song would reduce ye to gibbering tears o' joy - and there were the Melon-tans. Human-like creatures they were, of firm form and nurturing heart, their name is lost to us... lets just be calling them Melon-tans.
Why melons? Because, laddie - the lush fruit that ye can find in Frenga farms is descended from dem, ha!. Aye, according to ancient legend - they were once living creatures like ye or yours truly. Of gentle build and waif-like form they were, women of earth, sky, fire and water. They walked the world long before man did, bringing life to the world. Where they walked, flowers bloomed and great trees sprouted, deadlands springing to life under their care. The great forests of the mainland is proof of their passing.
Some say they were womenfolk - female priests of a religious order of nature-worship. Others claimed them tree-beings, a' one with nature. Others swear by the 8 seas that they were nature-goddesses who saw this world barren and took pity on it. We know not the truth, for their time ended long before the first Dragons drew breath upon the world.
There be a small temple, far north of Selk, a ways east of the Pirate Guild that offers a glimpse into what became of these beings. Upon a sand-weathered stelae, there is an inscription in a language none have yet know. But the graven image carved into the unyielding stone by a craft-smith long ago speaks across lang'age and time.
There were four melons, One of earth-warming fire, another that transformed the barren rock into loamy soil, one of air that gently nurtured the trees, and the last, one of water that brought plenty.
It is here that the records of these ancient life-creators become muddled. No, the prehistory of the world is shaken - from scattered records, graves, and the Deadpit down southwest of the Pirate's Guild, we know a plague passed across this land - a plague opposed to all of existence, and bringing oblivion to all it touched. P'raps this is how the Ancients died... by simple virtue of starvation as the world died around them - their lush farms and trees shattered into lifeless wrecks, the fruits poisoned and rotted. Tis the fell lands that you see today, produced by this plague.
As mysteriously as it appeared, the plague was struck from this world. But alas, the scars remain. The only clue of the end of this evil plague comes from a folktale of Nekor.
"When the dire cloud came, four sisters fought it."
"The oldest, a Knower of Earth, speaking to the world as easily as cats meow."
"Next, a fiery warrior whose bravery outshone a thousand skybeasts."
"A young maiden, whose gift of flight would aid her sisters."
"Last, a young child gifted in the art of water-crafting and healing"
"Three of the sisters perished to cast away the curse."
"They died giving their lives so that the youngest could live"
"The youngest of the sisters ran from the field, and swore to nourish the earth in their stead."
"Her tears became the first seeds of the Melani, the delicious fruit loved by Nekor."
The Nekor word Melani is today's watermelon. The end of the melons, the foul plague they fought, even the Age of the Ancients, it is a mystery that has remained unsolved to this age. Perhaps you, adventurer, you may find the secret?
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Found in an old, crumbling book in the Pirate Guild, author unknown.
