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+{{wiki:clown_horse.png?0x300}}
+====== Foreword On Fiction Most Farcical ======
+Throughout [[Nave|Nave's]] history, there have been countless //**works of fiction**// woven by bards, swindlers, tipsy nobilitas, entertainers, those seeking to impress others with their worldliness, and no doubt many others.
+Often, the writers of these tales will borrow names and ideas from very real concepts, groups, and people, only to completely invent the remainder on the spot. It is not at all unheard of for swindlers to even commission unwitting artists for paintings of their yarns to profiteer from their proliferation.
+On this page you will find some of these stories, and you would do well to remember that they are //**non-canonical, often farcical works of fiction.**//
+════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════
+====== The Sarducaa Stories ======
+A collection of short stories and poems commissioned for the release of [[Sarducaa]] in //Mortal Online//, they were written without any regard to established lore and include entirely fictional characters, events, and general informational falsehoods.
+━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
+===== Kamin Mara - A Poem =====
+{{wiki:sarducaa_kamin_mara_with_dal_roba_wanderer.jpg?0x300|A Dal Roba wanderer standing above Kamin Mara.}}
+Most men stay far away from [[Sarducaa#Locales|Kamin Mara]], but the great [[Tindremene|Tindremic]] poet //Carolus Pingue// described the area with the following words:
+  Over the sea far to the west
+  there is a place of wonder
+  unknown how it came to be
+  the great mysterious Kamin Mara
+  Is it sculpted from the sky
+  or sprung from the ground
+  it brought heat from the gods
+  that melted the sand into glass
+  On a clear desert night
+  One might see it glisten
+  Beyond the high dunes and rock
+  deep in the south of Sarducaa
+  from the ridges to the petrified valley
+  the most hateful of dangers finds you
+  if you venture without eyes on your back
+  only the fool treads with heavy steps
+  an oasis without life
+  a salvation without hope
+  in what beauty and evil lie
+  and vipers come to die
+  No soul is alive to tell the tale
+  of what secrets that dwelles in the center
+  fortune or death awaits the brave
+  the burning agony of a thousand suns
+  The elements dance like mirages
+  guarding the greedy mens desires
+  where your blood will boil
+  in the gleaming cauldron of Kamin Mara
+━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
+===== The Lona Macta Cultists =====
+{{wiki:sarducaa_non_canon_cultists.jpg?0x300}}
+There are whispers coming from the ancient monastery ruins near //Arg Kepher//. Incoherent chanting and mumbling joins the sharp cracks of whips that echo through the broken stone walls. Then there is a sound that travels over the dunes and sends chills down the spine.
+A tortured cry from a beast in agony silences the desert night life. The warm blood flowing in the veins freezes to ice. Anyone who enters the fallen monastery stands in imminent peril. For therein reside the infamous Sarducaa cultists.
+Known throughout Nave as being a tribe of deeply sadistic believers with a far more extreme conviction of religion than most of the Sarducaans. Devout followers that are recruited as children and raised with hate for the heretics. They suffer long periods of starvation and chastise themselves to rise in the ranks. Only the most hateful and sinister can become curators, which is the highest of honors. But they all strive to die for the cause.
+They are believers of a prophecy that states a blood red moon, called //Lona Macta//, will bring the end of the world. It was told by the cultist prophet //Luz the Enlightened//* before the continent was united under the rule of the queen in Beth Jedda.
+He was the leader of a band of desert raiders that roamed the nomadic settlements, conquering the trade of //Krrft// and the loyalty of the nomads by fear and bloodshed. The cultists believe that Luz was visited by an //Akrep// spirit which told him to prepare for the //Blood Moon// by the sacrifice of the unbelievers' mothers before his own time in the desert would end.
+//Luz// preached his prophecy to his raiders and ordered them to gather all women from the nomads. Even young girls were taken to his camp, as they were thought to already been tainted by heretic seed. Under long and sadistic rituals he had drained all the captives' blood into a large bowl, in which he bathed and meditated. Not long after the bloodbath a man called //Ibn Kazar// came to his camp and single-handedly slayed all the raiders who stood in his way and took Luz with him to the arch of //Bos Talia//, where Luz was beheaded.
+The cultists think of him as the first martyr for the true belief and that the beheading was proof of his prophecy. They praise the prophecy by cutting the limbs of heretics and leaving them to bleed out in the sand. All bleeding is believed to be a sacred act and they cut their own skin during meditation.
+Though they are fierce warriors in battle, they have also been known to kidnap young //Goriax// and //Intrepredius// troll spawns and raise them to be guardians of the monastery grounds. To subjugate and make the spawns obedient, the Cultists torture them until adulthood. They then mutilate the adults by severing their arms and bind large sharp blades on the stumps.
+The gruesome and tedious act of transforming these beasts is done by the Cultist curators and is called //Val Gora//, which roughly translates to //"troll cutting"//. They see themselves as all knowing, and are rumored to always be aware of unwanted travelers near their grounds and therefore are impossible to surprise attack.
+By pain and bloodshed they are preparing the desert for the end of times. According to their prophecy it will happen when the sun is darkened by a moon with the colour of pure blood. The prophecy is called Lona Macta and they praise it by cutting the limbs of their enemies and leaving them to bleed out in the sand. To bleed is a sacred act, according to the cultists whom also cut their own skin in meditation.
+The monastery ruins are guarded by mutilated //Goriax// and //Intrepredius//. They are kept both as slaves or pets, and act as ruthless ruin guards that crave blood of intruders. Although mostly keeping to the ruins, the cultists also have a thousand eyes in the desert.
+Young tribesmen on trial are sent on long missions throughout the continent to recover valuable information on what is happening outside the monastery. One would be wise to stay clear of their path. Other could be soon to follow. Cultists are ever watching the sands.
+Ever craving the bloodshed of the nonbelievers. Ever waiting for the rising red moon.
+//(* = He was known as Luz the Hideous in most parts of Sarducaa.)//
+━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
+===== The Balar Elü =====
+{{wiki:sarducaa_balar_elü.jpg?0x300}}
+There are circles around a certain paths in the desert. The merchant nomads take great caution around these areas and walk silently between the winds struck dunes. Even the camels stride with the head closer to the ground. A screeching sound follows the line as they grind their front teeth in suspense. The foam from their lips drags along the sand as they listen with weary ears.
+The nomads know no horror worse than these parts of the desert. The slightest shiver of the ground strikes great fear in their hearts as the know what resides deep down beneath the sand. Weak-hearted riders have been known to be struck by such terror that they became blind. It is called //Glas Haka// and can only be the result of the sheer fright of the great desert snakes named //Balar Elü//.
+They say that the snakes are older than the desert and have been dwelling in the ground since the dawn of creation. One might say that they are as gods but are so greatly feared that they have never been worshiped. Even the evil and blood thirsty cultists will not speak their names.
+In ancient times, before the division of the continents it was said that they roamed the surface and jumped from their burrows high into the sky and swallowed everything in their path on their way down. Even though they seem to be immortal there are //Balar Elü// that are dead or dormant, but their insides still pulsate. Big enough to create tunnels through its digestive system.
+A scroll was found buried in sand by nomads long ago. The dried up leather scroll was written in blood by a blunt instrument. Possibly a finger. It is unknown how that scroll found its way to the surface but it told the story of a wanderer that got lost in the desert and suddenly fell into a hole. It reads:
+  "My hands clawed and dug in the sand trying to stop the fall down the steep hole. My struggle was futile.
+  The gaping mouth swallowed me whole and by grace of the Queens my body was spared from being torn apart by
+  the enormous sharp teeth that shone to the sky above. I got a last glance at the sun as I rolled down to the
+  deep of the Balar Elü. After brief disorientation I found myself in the deep tunnel of its body.
+  My leg was broken after the fall and I was not able to climb up its esophagus. I had no choice but to try my
+  luck by wandering down the snake. Hoping it would end in another part of the Saarduca surface. My first
+  intuition was that the snake was dead since it did not chew or swallow me as I fell. But under my horse skin
+  boots I could feel a pulse and the walls of its inside moved slightly as I placed my hand upon it.
+  I tried to follow the narrow network of the spine and rib cage. But after many days of limping down its dark
+  and damp insides I realized that I was going to die here like many other simple minded wanderers that got
+  lost in the desert. Mother forgive me. You did not raise me well enough.
+  My boots corroded by the acid that flowed under my feet. Soon I felt my skin and flesh started to slowly
+  decay and fall off my bones. When I fell to my knees, no longer able to walk, I felt the bone residue of
+  others like me that were doomed to be slowly consumed by this damned creature. I suspect that my death will
+  take weeks in horrible pain until my whole person is one with the snake.
+  Dearest mother, forgive me as I choose my dagger to my heart to end my simple life quickly. Who knows if this
+  creature ever ends or continues into eternity as the god of evil it is."
+━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
+===== Krrft =====
+The red glazed eyes of the Sarducaan people are not only the result of dry dusty winds from the desert, but also from a drug with a sinister origin. This drug is not farmed and harvested by farmers. It is not a mysterious potion concocted by a druid or spell maker. No, it can only be hunted and extracted with a method suited for those born without fear or nerves.
+You see, buried in shallow sand in the Sarducaa desert lays giant //Akreps// waiting for the next meal to pass by. The scorpions do not have a preference of food and will kill and devour anything with a beating heart passing by. Their sensitive leg feels the vibration in the sands even from the smallest snake or spider. Faster than a blinking eye it strikes the target with its heavy pincers. It clasps the target by the body and then strikes with the stinger and injects the target with its poison.
+When stung the heartbeat slows down and causes paralysis of the limbs. By the time the heart finally stops the body is already halfway consumed by the scorpion. This, of course is the case for its intended victims, greater beasts like the //Goriax//. For smaller humanoid victims the fate is far more terrifying. The sheer force of the pincers could easily cut a person in half like a twig.
+In panic the victim tries to move away from the scorpion, leaving the lower body behind with a trail of intestines. The swift eight legs of the //Akrep// would quickly scurry after the crawling upper body and crush its head with its strong jaws. And if, by skill or luck, one dodges the pincers and only get struck by the stinger, wearing no body armor, the telson will smash into the rib cage, cracking it open and then force its way through the torso and shoot out the spine from the back, with the heart hanging from the tip of the stinger. The latter death is considered to be the preferred and most painless.
+There are Sarducaan hunting guilds called The //Wardaki// that are specialized in hunting these horrible creatures. They wear a golden talisman of a scorpion on their capes. Their main reason for hunting the scorpions is the poison from the stinger called Krrft which is the source of the drug with the same name. Armored with scorpion breastplate and a //zahato//, a goatskin bottle attached to the breastplate, the hunter must lure the scorpion to strike its stinger into the //zahato// and inject the poison.
+After a successful gathering of poison the other hunters kill the scorpion with spears to harvest the hard shell from the body and meat from the pincers. The meat is regarded as a delicacy and the shell is a good material for making strong armor. It is forbidden for anyone other than the //Wardaki// to carry these items and those who do will be hunted themselves if caught. But if one escapes it could be worth the effort.
+After the daring extraction of the fluorescent oily poison, it is hardened to resin and smoked in long iron oak pipes. //Krrf// is a big part of the Sarducaa culture and is used by most adults recreationally. The user is said to experience the sensation of warm milk coursing through the veins. All worries leave the mind and the head feels light as a feather at same time the body feels as heavy as gold.
+Horse-mounted warriors are known to smoke before battle for taking the edge off fear and pain. But on foot one is not encouraged to smoke before fighting as it slows down the reflexes and movement. Heavy users are usually disoriented and paranoid under abstinence. Most elderly Sarducaans have these conditions permanently due to a lifetime of smoking.
+There is a saying among the Wardaki:
+  “If you taste the Akrep beast once, you will ride it for life. Mind and body become as slow and glowing as
+  the oil itself.”
+━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
+===== Ibn Kazar =====
+{{wiki:sarducaa_non_canon_ibn_kazar.jpg?0x300}}
+Not more than five generations ago the desert was a disarray of nomadic tribes and small settlements. Warlords had roamed the land longer than anyone could remember. With bands of mounted thieves and murderers they tried to gain control of the //Krrft// trade through ruthless violence and terror.
+And terror begat terror as the vendettas spiraled into a vortex of blood and punishment. The tribes drifted further and further apart and became more isolated. Fear, hate and suspicion were passed on to the children and the children’s children. The sound of thumping hooves still makes Sarducaans uneasy to this day.
+In the middle of it all was //Zanthenes//, the one city the raiding bands avoided. Since ancient times the city was ruled by //Labbah Madar//—//Mother of the Flame//—who governed this isolated sanctuary which was protected by huge walls and the strange magi in the nearby oasis of //Yesil//.
+This alliance seemed to have little or no intention of peacemaking, gathering tribes or ruling the lands outside of the small region—which probably would have been impossible anyway, should they have tried. The war of //Krrft// brought the prices down and the treasure chests slowly grew with the trade, however at the same time a high price had to be paid in blood and money by the caravans to and from the city.
+When times seemed most dire there was a humble man in the north desert. Born a bastard child of a raped mother, he was orphaned at the young age of seven by raiding thieves led by the warlord //Luz the Hideous//. A saddle maker found him homeless in dirty rags and begging in the village and took him on as an apprentice of his trade.
+The saddler raised him as his own and taught him all that a man should know, but for one thing, hate. The saddler was a pure pacifist and a believer. He saw it as his mission to end the vengeance blood thirst in the younger generations, and his young apprentice followed the peaceful code as he grew up to become a master of the craft himself and saw his teacher die of old age.
+He was a quiet and gentle man with the burly physique of a stone-cutter. Whenever the raiders came to his settlement he would shy away and stay out of trouble. He did what he was supposed to and spent the nights smoking the //Krrft// and praying to the gods. Then one day he found a little girl begging in the settlement. She was an orphan due to raiders just as he, and he adopted her and raised her to become a craftsman as well.
+There was something special about the girl he adopted her as his daughter. She made him smile and he began to greet his neighbors and sing when he tanned camel skin to leather in his shop. But his singing stopped when the raiders rode in to the settlement, one silver moon. They took all the women and bound them to their horses and rode off. No one heard from them for many days until a carriage dragged by a mule came back.
+The bodies were beaten and mutilated almost beyond recognition and the little girl whom the saddler loved lay on top of the pile. Her blue lifeless eyes pierced his soul as he lifted her off the carriage and carried her slowly through the settlement and out to the open desert. The tribe followed him and carried their own dead women and children.
+He finally stopped by the stone arch of //Bos Talia// and buried the girl by the eastern post. On the back of his camel he spoke to the tribe with a sword in his hand:
+  "I, Ibn Kazar, son of a murdered mother and father to a murdered child will not rest until I have sought
+  repentance from these thieves, murderers and rapists. And all of you will go home and wait for the next full
+  moon and then return to this place. You may not seek blood for blood on your own."
+The tribesmen wondered who he was to give such an order. They all wanted revenge for the raiders’ savage actions and cried for the heads of the guilty to be placed on spears. //Ibn Kazar// looked upon them and calmed the troubled tribe to silence:
+  "I am the chosen one and will be the last in this tribe to sully my soul in vengeance. If you feel your blood
+  boil in hate and you reach for the sword in anger, I urge you to reach for your pipe instead. To forget is
+  divine and to smoke the Akreps oil is godly."
+And so //Ibn Kazar// rode off to the next settlement and told them what has happened and what he intended to do. He learned that they too were mourning their women who had fallen by the hands of the raiders. With haste he rode from tribe to tribe, all over the Sarducaan desert and they were all victims of one and the same warlord, //Luz the Hideous//. The tribes wanted to follow //Ibn Kazar// and seek revenge, but he told them as he told his own tribe, to meet him under the arch of //Bos Talia// the following full moon and they agreed under the //Krrft// smoke cloud.
+It was close to dusk when he rode into the raiders’ camp on his camel. The sun was setting behind the ridges of //Bos Kamin//. In sheer confusion the savage raiders just watched him ride all the way up to the warlord’s tent. //Luz the Hideous// stormed out from his tent in rage and screamed for the raiders' attention. Within seconds //Ibn Kazar// was surrounded by a hundred raiders with swords and spears pointed at him. He calmly stepped off his camel and gazed into //Luz the Hideous// eyes.
+//Luz the Hideous// spoke, drawing his sword:
+  "What is the meaning of this? Are you a mad man who wishes to die?"
+//Ibn Kazar// replied, his empty hands in the air:
+  "I have come to seek your repentance. Ask the gods for forgiveness and promise to stop your wicked ways and
+  your life will be spared. I give you three chances to repent. Repent!"
+//Luz the Hideous// laughed, and the raiders joined in, pointing and laughing:
+  "You truly are mad. The Krrft oil must have rotted your mind!"
+//Ibn Kazar// steadily lowered his hands, shouting again:
+  "Repent!"
+They stopped laughing and moved closer. The tension rose and they could feel the vibrations in the air.
+Ibn Kazar shouted a third time:
+  "Repent!"
+Luz the Hideous pointed at him a screamed:
+  "Archer!"
+A single arrow flew through the camp and burrowed its iron in the camel's head. The camel fell to the ground instantly with a thud and thick dust blew up in the air. Quicker than an //akrep// stinger, //Ibn Kazar// drew his sword and swung it through the dust cutting one raider after another. With his swift feet he danced with his sword around the disoriented bunch.
+He slashed off a limb for every life they had on their hands. There were no raiders left standing when the dust finally settled, just hands, feet and heads spread all over the sand. //Luz the Hdeous// dropped his sword and fell to his knees crying. Begging for his life and promising that he would repent. //Ibn Kazar// kicked him to the ground and said that the time for repentance was too late and bound him on the back of a donkey.
+It was the night of the following full moon when they arrived on the donkey to the arch of //Bos Talia//. All the Sarducaan tribes had gathered and stood in silence as //Ibn Kazar// rode up a hill. He placed //Luz// on the ground and told him to stretch his arms to the sky.
+//Ibn Kazar// spoke:
+  "This is Luz the Hideous. He is the one who has plagued us with fear and blood in the desert. His followers
+  have already been punished, he is the only one left"
+Ibn Kazar and let his blade sever the reaching hands of //Luz the Hideous//, speaking once more:
+  "If you have a stone in your heart, take that stone and throw it at his head so there will be peace."
+One by one the tribesmen picked up stones and hurled it at //Luz the Hideous//. Soon his body was only a broken pile of flesh, blood and bone.
+The march of the thousand nomads began, and within days they arrived in //Zanthenes//. The //Labbah Madar// met them outside the city gates. Ibn Kazar knelt before her asked for her forgiveness:
+  "My queen, for too many generations have we been spilling blood in the desert, separated by hate and greed,
+  all because of the wealth from Zanthenes pouring into the chests of warlords.
+  This ends today if you accept my unified army of nomads as yours. Then will we be united as one single tribe
+  under the Labbah Madars' rule and keep peace in the desert. My requests are that the trade of Krrft is solely
+  handled by the desert tribes and that we have the right to live our lives in peace."
+The //Labbah Madar// agreed and exclaimed the nation of //Sarducaa// to be born. The city of //Zanthanes// became //Beth Jeddah//, //"Home of the Mother"//. She gave //Ibn Kazar// the title of //Protector of the Desert//, which he kept for the remainder of his years.
+The songs of the brave saddler //Ibn Kazar// are still sung to this day in the tents and huts of the desert.
+════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════
+====== Patch Notes ======
+This section covers non-canonical tales and information from now-ancient patch notes for //Mortal Online//, provided here for reference to prevent any confusion about their illegitimacy.
+━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
+===== The Lost History of Mana =====
+At the pinnacle of the [[Tindremic Empire|Tindremic Empire's]] influence prior to [[The Conflux]], its //Emperors// and //Nobilita//, lusting for more power, initiated a grand scheme: to control the [[Magic]] and //Mana// of [[Nave]] while isolating its use and knowledge within the //Empire//. Though //Mana// exists as a living force which all peoples can interact and feel, it takes great knowledge to manipulate and tame.
+The //Emperor// of the time ordered the beginning of the purge which left most of [[Myrland]] and southern [[Nordveld]] without a complete understanding of //Mana// and //Magic//, and further saw countless records and magical artifacts destroyed across all of //Nave//. Under the order, all forms and use of //Magic// except those permitted by the academy at the [[Tindrem#Pre-Irruption Magic & Science|Athenaeum Regalis]] were banned.
+The order banned not only the use of //Mana//, but also instructed the gathering and the immediate destruction of any related knowledge outside of [[Tindrem]]. With most of the recorded knowledge centralized, the //Tindremic Empire's// plan appeared to work...at least until //The Conflux//.
+Amidst //The Conflux// there was much political turmoil in //Tindrem//, with the changes in the //Nobilitas// and power structures stressing relations between the more influential families. While the tension in //Tindrem// grew, [[Tindrem#The Conflux & The Great Washout|The Great Washout]] occurred, taking //Vica Iudico// with it. As //Vica Iudico// sank, the //Athenaeum Regalis//—the revered //Academy of Tindrem//—too fell with it into the deep abyss. Although some of the books and artifacts were saved, it was a great catastrophe to the mages of //Tindrem// and //Mana// users across //Nave//.
+Not long after the catastrophe, the turmoil boiled over and the influential families clashed with some of the wisest scholars, leading to countless deaths on both sides. The remaining families, most notably the //Emperor's// own family and the //Praeco// family—keepers of the [[Tindrem#Pre-Irruption Magic & Science|Clerus Magica]]—were the only sources of verbal //pre-Conflux// magical knowledge. Despite the decline of //Magic// use, it persisted through limited writings and verbal history in very rudimentary forms. With the ban in place for generations, very few during this period ventured to seek further understanding.
+As the //Tindremic Empire// continued to wane prior to //The Irruption//, the //Emperor// repealed the ban on magical research and—in hope of returning to the glory of the //Old Empire//—created the //Imperial Order Renova Magica//. The //Order// stated that all those capable who claim allegiance to the //Empire// were charged to recover the lost knowledge of their ancestors. With the ban on //Magic// lifted, peoples across //Myrland// began to seek long-forgotten knowledge, and it was said that even those who could not control //Magic// already felt its awakening.
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+====== Inappropriate Tales for Tots ======
+A novel short story penned by //Mortal Online's// Creative Director Mats Persson on the game's forums as a Christmas-time joke about elves upon a user's inquiry. As it was written with humorous intent, whether it is canon or not even as a legend is unclear.
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+===== The Santa Elves =====
+Known as //Xsanthéa Elphes// on //Nave//, as //Xan// is an alternate [[Khurite]] spelling of //Khan//, and //Théa// or //θεά// means //"goddess"// in //Old Tindremic//. The term refers to when—according to legend—the //Khans// or //Moguls// of [[Myrland]] gave free passage to the goddess [[Gods#Themis|Themis]] over the plains by sacrificing one child for every obstacle she ran into.
+This event is also known as the //March of the Billungs/Hjukings// by the //Tindremenes//—//Billungs// being sporadic tribes caught up in the moment, //Hjukings// being healthy traditional ones.
+And as //Themis// was more than a little overweight, there were countless children tossed into streams and caves for sacrifice. Now once every decade the //"Xsanthéa Elphes"// are said to bring gifts to every tribe that helped with //Themis// crossing as compensation.
+Other legends simply tell about an enormous //Tindremic// device of cast iron that needed to be transported over the plains, costing many lives of those friendly //Khurites// helping out, and of the //Khurites// only being paid once in a whole year, when they got small meaningless things like //"toe-nail-cutters"// embedded in //colorful paper wrappings//.
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+====== Depreciated Developments ======
+Over the course of //Mortal Online// & //Mortal Online 2's// many years of conceptualization and development since 2005, a fair number of pre-development resources such as maps have made their way into the hands of players. This section is a catalogue of non-canonical assets which can sometimes be useful for speculation or gaining understanding of the development processes.
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+===== Maps =====
+The first example of this category is an early map of //Nave// depicting the continents in an alternative [[The Sundering of Asterra|post-Sundering]] configuration where, for example, [[Urmothar|Urmothâr]] found itself still-connected to [[Myrland]]. The map lists many locales which //may// still be canonical, though many no longer exist in the setting, have moved, been renamed, or have undergone other changes prior to the layout of the continents having been finalized.
+{{wiki:non_canon_early_development_map_of_nave.png?0x300}}
+Next is a map of //Myrland// which was presumably created after the above map of //Nave//, and is slightly closer to the finalized continent in //Mortal Online// and //Mortal Online 2//, now being disconnected from //Urmothâr//. Many aspects are still quite far off, however, especially with regard to town and city placements.
+{{wiki:non_canon_early_development_map_of_myrland.png?0x300}}
+//Mortal Royale// featured a slightly-modified continent of //Myrland// based off of //Mortal Online//, and its map reflected these adjustments. Included below is a work-in-progress version and the finalized map.
+{{wiki:non_canon_mortal_royale_myrland_wip_map.png?0x300}} {{wiki:non_canon_mortal_royale_myrland_map.png?0x300}}
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+===== Hexapod Dragons =====
+While [[Dragon|Dragons]] are still canonical to the setting of //Mortal Online// and //Mortal Online 2//, //hexapod// //Dragons// with four legs and wings were discarded early on in favor of //wyrm-like Dragons// with two legs and wings. The following concept art depicts the original, **//non-canonical//** //hexapod// design.
+{{wiki:non_canon_dragon_in_cave.png?0x290}} {{wiki:non_canon_dragon_treasure.jpg?0x290}}
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