Folklore & Legend | Stone of Reality

Poems & Songs

Verses passed down through generations — some sung, some spoken, some written on the walls of places no one visits anymore.

Fey Bedtime Tale

The Glittergold Gem and the City Beneath the Dust

Where dusty winds and silence roam, Beneath the roots of shattered stone, A treasure sleeps in hidden light— A Gem aglow with stolen might. The Glittergold Gem, so bright, so sly, A bauble born to trick the eye. It holds the things that minds forget— And things not even learned just yet. They say it shines with thoughts once known, With songs and truths and minds full-grown. A clever thief who finds it whole, Might learn the secrets of a soul. It hums with words it never said, And glimmers blue, then gold, then red. And if you're brave—or foolish, too— It might remember things for you.

— A fey tale told to children along the edges of the Witchfire Marsh

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Miners' Song

The Under Wards Lament

No verses recorded yet. This song is known to exist — sung in the lower levels of Grollen during the week of mourning for the Silent Winter Riots — but no full transcription has been recovered.

Sea Chant

Merodyx, Turn the Tide

A working chant used by fishermen and sailors crossing the Brumous Sea. Sung as an appeal to the Brine Dragon for safe passage. Full text not yet recorded.

Sayings & Proverbs

Common phrases heard in taverns, workshops, courtrooms, and corners of Emmerick.

From Grollen

"You don't go down to Gehenna twice and come back the same person." — Said of anyone who has truly lost themselves to the festival underground

"The ground doesn't forget what you put in it." — Miners' warning against improper disposal of tailings and runoff

From Hauptort

"The lake was clean once. Ask your grandfather." — A bitter remark about industrial pollution, often used to silence apologists

"Rockgut doesn't ask what you deserve." — On the indiscriminate nature of occupational disease

From Himmelhaven

"Every coin spent in Himmelhaven spends twice — once on what you want, once on who sees you want it." — On the performative nature of wealth in the city

From Stahlwolke

"Parliament doesn't move fast. Parliament moves once." — On the deliberate, slow consolidation of political power

"The guards here don't look like guards. That's the point." — Whispered to newcomers about plainclothes surveillance in the capital

From the Concord Era

"Kristoph called us cultists. We called it Tuesday." — Attributed to early Concord members during the civil war

From the All-Father Forest Region

"Tragen doesn't cut living trees. Tragen doesn't need to be told why." — On the instinctive reverence of the townspeople, whose real reasons have been forgotten

Legends & Local Myth

Stories that have passed from fact into half-truth, and from half-truth into something older.

Sacred Forest

The Giant in the All-Father Forest

Deep in the All-Father Forest — the last sacred place of the All-Father in Emmerick — a storm giant sleeps. Most people in Tragen no longer know this. The full story has passed into instinct: a deep and sourceless reverence for the wood that cannot explain itself.

The older telling goes that, centuries ago, Tragen's loggers pushed too far. The giant awoke. It did not negotiate. It threatened scorched earth, and Tragen changed its ways immediately. But the generation that remembered passed on only the rule, not the reason. Now the people gather only fallen wood, and they do not ask why. They just know.

The Shrine of Roots — a hallowed outcropping just beyond the forest's edge — marks the spot where the original compact is said to have been made.

Lost City

The City Beneath the Dust

The fey tale of the Glittergold Gem references a city buried beneath the earth — a place of stolen knowledge and buried minds. Whether it refers to a literal buried ruin, a metaphor for forgotten history, or something in the Feywild is a matter of scholarly argument.

Some explorers near the Witchfire Marsh have reported finding strange architectural remnants that match the tale's imagery. None have returned with anything they could agree upon.

Sea Dragon

Merodyx the Brine Dragon

Sailors crossing the Brumous Sea know the name Merodyx. They know better than to say it casually. The dragon — a mature adult with seafoam-green scales — is not a legend in the sense of being unconfirmed. It has been seen. Ships have been taken.

What belongs to folklore is everything else: that Merodyx collects the figureheads of sunken ships. That it can speak every language of every sailor it has ever killed. That it has a name for every wreck in its domain. That it will let you pass if you leave something at the waterline.

Nobody agrees what you're supposed to leave.

Fey Portal

The Door in the Witchfire Marsh

The Witchfire Marsh is known to contain a portal to the Feywild. This is not quite myth — those who study fey geography accept it as fact — but the location of the door shifts, and the conditions for its opening are disputed.

Local lore holds that the marsh lights — pale blue and green wisps that drift above the waterline at night — are not fey creatures but echoes of people who found the door and didn't come back.

Beasts & Spirits

Creatures that live at the edge of what can be confirmed — between the natural world and something older.

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Merodyx

Brine Dragon

A mature adult sea dragon with seafoam-green scales. Rules the Brumous Sea. See: Legends.

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The Sleeper of the All-Father Forest

Storm Giant

A storm giant sleeping somewhere in the depths of the All-Father Forest. Last woke when Tragen's loggers cut too deep. Its current state — still sleeping, or simply waiting — is unknown.

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Royal Angeltrout

Anadromous Fish

Marked by vivid royal-purple fins and flesh. Swims upstream from the sea to spawn in Lake Rebefaul. Famed as a delicacy — Spulein is best known for cooking it.

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Marsh Wisps

Witchfire Marsh

Pale blue and green lights drifting above the waterline at night. Officially classified as naturally occurring fey luminescence. Locally understood as echoes of those who found the door to the Feywild and did not return.