Tale of the Four Brothers

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Folklore

This is in a series of articles about oral traditions, tales, folk practices, and folklore.

topics cult1 or oral history from the island of Krotolat-ten-Azri, largest of the Azri Isles. It is likely an allegory of actual historical events, when more advanced settlers from the mainland arrived in the Beryl Epoch, though with few written records the real history is unknown.

In the days before time, to the lands of Krotolat came four brother wizard-lords, vast in power and wisdom, attended by their disciples and servants. The four brothers divided the land into four parts, and lived in peace for a thousand years.

Lenqestes, the youngest, was vigorous and enjoyed the company of men, particularly hunting, feasting and riding. With his followers he built the great city of Lenqestar, which he ruled with a fair hand for a thousand years, administering justice and good order.

Hindran, the eldest, loved nature and the quiet of the forests of the west. He drew about him strange creatures, and people with gentle souls but twisted bodies, whose purity of spirit could only be beheld within his kingdom.

Bakorf dwelt in the mountains of the east, a dwarf who despised the sympathies of his brothers towards mankind. Like his brother Hindran he too gathered strange creatures to himself, but unlike his brother's people who were twisted on the outside, his were twisted on the inside, no matter how fair they appeared to the eye. He raised up beasts from the bowels of the earth to build the ziggurat city of Tatenkun, filling it with gold and gems dug from the living rock. To shield his creatures from the burning sun, he set a cloud of shadow across the island, formed by the smoke he drew belching from the mountains, veiling the land in darkness.

Zemas did not interest himself in the affairs of his brothers or the world, spending his time in the study of ancient texts, devising new lore and observing the stars. He spent much time travelling across the face of the world, and, it is said, even venturing to other worlds beyond. From his travels he gathered five disciples who dedicated themselves to the pursuit of the mysteries. As his home he took the plains to the south and a solitary tall tower in which he dwelt, but during his long absences, the land faded and died from neglect, forever becoming rock and scrub.

For centuries the brothers lived in peace but in time, Bakorf grew jealous and full of spite for the richness of other lands, and the simpering banality of his brothers. So, he sent forth his spies, creatures called neirgans, bred in the pits of Tatenkun, slippery, ever watchful and full of spite.

Warned by his disciples, Zemas returned to challenge his younger brother. But caught unawares, and using knowledge and arts forbidden by the High Powers, Bakorf entwined him in a veil of spells which disempowered Zemas, and banished him forever from the world. His disciples were destroyed or fled, never to be seen again.

Darkness and pestilence spread forth from Tatenkun, so that only the forests of Hindran, and the bounds of Lenqestar, remained untouched by evil. Using devices from his tower of Tatenkun, Bakorf challenged and mocked his youngest brother Lenqestus, taunting him with images of the dead waste that had once been rich groves and fields. Enraged, Lenqestus challenged Bakorf to single combat, a trial of strength which rent the land. But the younger brother's skills failed, and he was encased in a pillar of eternal ice, placed in the centre of fallen Lenqestar, to forever taunt the people of their lost lord.

Bakorf's evil hordes now spread out across the whole land, and did battle with the remaining human armies on the plain before the Gate of Groans, where the vile creatures were driven back. Meanwhile, creatures poured over the western escarpment, smashing and pillaging the valleys of the west, not daring yet to challenge his eldest and most powerful brother. Pleas from the ravaged cities remained unheard, darkness spread across the lands, and the years passed.

Then one day, a stranger appeared at the Stone of Reckoning, at the centre of the isle which marks the boundary of the four lands. He was clad in white, so bright he burned even the eyes of the neirgans, and to Bakorf he remained unseen, though the evil one trembled at the rumour of his coming.

Little is known of him, but he was said to have the power of many tongues both known and unknown to man; to walk on air without wings; to bend all things to his will. Some say he bore the spirit of Zemas, others that he was something stranger. Many tales are told of his journeying, for he seemed to appear across the lands, even entering the bowels of Tatenkun from which he bore the broken body of a forest creature, beloved of Hindran, which he laid at the feet of the forest lord. With this dreadful evidence the gentle eldest wizard was at last roused from slumber. At once he flew to the enslaved lands of Lenqestar, and smashed the block of ice to set his brother free.

Together the three shook the earth and threw down the foul city of Tatenkun. The clean light of the sun burned into its vile depths, and Bakorf lay crushed and broken beneath its fallen towers. The light returned to the world, and it was healed. The dread creatures of darkness were driven back, returned once more to their lightless domains beneath the earth.

Lenqestus returned to his city to rebuild his torn land, but he was so drained and grieved by battle against his brother that he took long absences, eventually never to return. Likewise Hindran faded slowly into spirit, that infuses the forest still. His voice can be heard in the wind in the trees but he was never seen again.

As for the Bright Stranger, some tales say he dwelt for a time in the north, or wandered the Shadalan, and will appear anywhere there is a great injustice, to punish the wicked and the evil. Others say he has departed the world like the Brothers, but watches us, still.