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If you seek out the old ones among the avatars in There, and gain their trust,
you may hear tales over mugs of hot mead of a lost island
that was home to some of our long forgotten ancestors. That
island was New Hallas. Despite its barren appearance today,
New Hallas was our ancestors’ salvation. Without it,
our Therian avatar race might not exist today.
I’ve spent many late nights sharing hot mead with the
old ones, hearing tales of our brave ancestors and of their
legendary chieftain Aurelia, who led her people through the
jaws of death to an island where her people could live free
and bountiful lives.
I was hesitant to believe these tales until I explored the
new island and discovered Salvation Cove. Salvation Cove and
neighboring Beacon Island (today known as Taco Island) were
exactly as the old ones described. This is where Aurelia and
her starving people found refuge from their torments.
Their voyage began far away, in a now unknown land. They
were prairie dwellers who had never seen a sea, hunting and
roaming for much of every year across a vast territory known
as Hallas. It was only during Hallas’ frigid winters
that they settled down into their wooden towns. It was a good
life for this deeply spiritual people, a life that had existed
forever.
One winter it came to a harsh, sudden end when a brutal northern
race invaded, killing and enslaving all but a handful who
managed to escape under Aurelia’s leadership. With bloodlusting
invaders at their heels, they fled until they reached the
sea.
Bartering the few valuables they managed to rescue from Hallas,
these people who had never seen a sea acquired four decrepit
sailing ships and set sail. Three weeks out, a series of violent
storms separated the ships. When the storms finally ended,
Aurelia’s ship was alone. There was no sign of the other
ships.
The fickle seas and winds now became as still as they had
been violent, leaving the ship becalmed, with no land in sight.
Aurelia watched helplessly as their food and water stocks
dwindled.
The sea became as barren as it was merciless. Fishing was
futile. Aurelia imposed drastic food and water rationing,
sharply limiting adult rations so at least the children could
survive. Finally, however, the last of the food and fresh
water ran out. Pitiful wails of emaciated children echoed
throughout the ship. Dehydrated parents couldn’t even
shed tears at the suffering of their children.
Finally surrendering all hope of survival, they offered traditional
prayers of supplication to their gods, pleading for one last
storm that would make their inevitable deaths mercifully quick.
Families lay down to wait together for death.
Refusing to despair, when Aurelia no longer had the strength
to sit upright, she ordered her crew to lash her upright to
a mast so she would know when their gods brought them to land.
Days passed. Finally, nearly dead, Aurelia heard surf breaking.
At first everyone ignored her hoarse shouts, but when they
managed to get up on their knees, they saw an island, and
knew they were saved.
The island was rich with game. Fresh fruit was abundant.
The first thing Aurelia did when she regained her strength
was climb the peak on the little island at the mouth of the
cove. She built a bonfire there that she kept burning for
years, hoping that the other three ships would find them,
but to this day, no one knows whether they perished at sea,
or established colonies on islands elsewhere.
Aurelia declared the island’s name to be New Hallas.
The cove where they landed became known as Salvation Cove,
and the island with the bonfire became Beacon Island. During
their second year on New Hallas, their ship sank in a squall;
it probably sits to this day on the floor of Salvation Cove.
Aurelia lived forty years after landing at Salvation Cove,
and led her people well. They prospered in the temperate climate,
roaming year round, following and hunting herds of Snowy Bison,
using them for tents, clothing, and food.
A few of her people rejected that life, however. Breaking
off from the others, they began building and living in towns,
and engaging in farming, trading, and fishing. As the towns
prospered, New Hallas’ population exploded.
Within a few generations of Aurelia’s death, the Snowy
Bison were hunted to extinction, the forests were denuded,
and erosion was washing the rich soil away to sea. Fearful
and without a wise leader, people gradually took to the sea
in small groups, seeking islands that fisherman had spoken
of, today known as There, where they could start new lives.
When the last New Hallassian finally left, New Hallas was
sadly little more than a barren sand dune. |