Hyrule Haeresis 8
This is the story they used to tell in the lands of Ordon.
A long time ago…
Many generations passed, before these lands were called Hyrule, its spirits sang a different song. The first people to land on these shores were the People of the Art, and thunder and lighting heralded their arrival as they rode their storm-ships down the sky into the barrows and fields. The People were very skilled sorcerers and oracles, and as they wove song-lines across the mythic landscape it was said The Art must have been part of the very fabric of their being. And when they spoke, their voices and those of the spirits were one.
The People were ruled by a well-loved and well-respected Shaman-Queen, who was unmatched in beauty as she was in spiritual power. The Queen ruled from her palace in the hills. She was very wise, consorting and allying with the Wolves and the Birds, whose language she could speak as fluently as her own and with whom she discussed the Mysteries of the Universe. The Queen rarely interacted with her subjects directly, but took questions and answers relayed through a male attendant and companion. Though she was rarely seen, her work was strong and kind and she was said to give very good counsel.
This is how it was for many years and many cycles, until one day the foreigners came to this land. The People of the Golden Goddesses came, and they brought new customs and new ways and new gods, and after a time the old arts and the old gods weren’t welcome anymore. There was a great war between the native people and the settlers, with much great and terrible fighting. The settlers did not like the ways of the land they found, and desired to change them to be more like their own. The natives fought back using all manner of magical weapons and techniques. Some of their warrior-shamans crafted a special mask used for hexing rituals and gave it to the berserker soldiers. It was said those who wore it were possessed by a fiery spirit of vengeance and wrath
The Queen predicted the natives would be see early victories, and this was true: For a time they were successful in repelling the invaders, but eventually their descendants got tired of fighting and stopped. The younger people, who had grown up knowing the ways of the settlers and alongside their own children couldn’t see what all the fuss was about. Eventually, it came to pass that the People of the Art would retreat through the mountains and the barrows into the Otherworld, waiting for a time when they would be Remembered once more. In time the younger people even selected one of their generals to be king, but even in those days they loved the Queen very much and did not want to forget her, so the king would have to go to the hills as part of the coronation ritual to ceremonially ask for her counsel and protection.
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