legend

Long ago, about 500 or so years ago, there was a party of adventurers. There was one Drow sorceress, one Deva cleric (a devotee of Melora) and one Copper Dragon, who masqueraded as an Eladrin bard. The sorceress' one desire was to see her people freed from the grasp of Lolth the Spider Queen, and the awful stigma that went with it. The dragon wished to be appreciated for his wit worldwide, as many copper dragons want, as a legendary bard or comedian, but especially to be noticed by the Deva.

But the Deva's desire was perhaps the most grandiose. She wanted more than anything to be recognized by her goddess, to become closer to Melora. She wanted to ascend, become a Chosen or an Exarch or an Angel of the nature goddess. But no matter how many aberrant creatures she and her team slayed, no matter how many forests or temples or trees she saved, no matter how close she brought herself to nature, she could not gain the goddess' favor.

It would happen that one day, the Deva would be caught alone in a moment of desparity, by a strange man in a dark cloak by the sea. He asked her of her deepest desires, of her strongest wishes. He promised her that he could bring her closer to Melora, if she would allow him to perform a ritual upon her. In this moment of desperation, the Deva agreed to the man's offer.

For her, this would be a critical mistake. The man procured from the sea, a water elemental, and the two were fused in a horrible, unbearably painful ritual. The man wiped her memory of the event and replaced it with the idea that she had begun to earn Melora's favor and her physical appearance had changed because of it.

For a while, the sorceress and the dragon noticed nothing wrong with their friend, but soon she became manipulative and cold, and rather unlike herself. She began to start speaking nonsense about how Melora wasn't worthy, how she would purge the Astral Sea of her presence and take her place. She began to insist that if she were only gaining her favor now, then it meant she didn't care about her subjects. And if she didn't care about her subjects, she deserved to die. During this time, she began to draw the dragon ever closer, and pushed the Drow ever further away.

It would come to pass that one day, the Deva and the Dragon would vanish. Soon after that, more and more aberrant monsters began to appear. A great and ominous castle rose from the depths of the sea in that time. In truth, it is said that the Deva had tapped into the Far Realm's power to get Melora herself to come down from the Astral Sea.

And come down she did. The seas roared and the forests howled as Melora descended to the mortal plane to stop her former follower from allowing the Far Realm's power to swallow the land. It was a long, arduous battle, and much of the surrounding area was carved out from the sheer power. The Deva nearly struck the goddess down, when she found newfound opposition in her former friend the Drow.

Indeed, the sorceress' arrival gave Melora enough time to rise up, and together, the goddess and the Drow struck down the mad Deva. Her ability to reincarnate was forcibly removed, and she was sealed inside her own palace, and the oceans themselves rose up to wash away the palace where she was imprisoned.

It is said that just before she was finally sealed, the Deva used the last of her power to split her soul, and seal the shards in corners of the world where not even the gods might think to look. Legends also say that the Dragon escaped punishment, and still roams the island chain to this day, waiting for the seal on his maiden to weaken.