the birdman speaketh

“Many, many generations ago, this land was home to my people. Our true name has faded to lost memories now, and the legends only refer to us as the Deathborn, a hardy and brave people who conquered the far north under the banner of our creator, the Queen of Ravens. This temple was once one of many built by our hands, to strengthen our empire and our grip on the winterland.

But power draws those who would wish to take it, and the story tells of a proud and spiteful creature from the place beyond the stars, who slipped into our plane from the cracks in reality and keen to take what was not rightfully hers. She fell into conflict with our Queen, the two coming to blows after a long period of escalating scuffles.

Our Queen came out the winner, or so she thought; the star-beast was defeated, but not destroyed, and she called to her dark home beyond the stars to bestow a curse on our people, so beloved to our Queen. The curse crippled us, cast our empire in ice and erased all trace of it from the eyes of mortals. It stripped us of our gifts, of our mastery of the winter skies and the gift of poetry and song that once delighted those around us. Cast out, I was the last left, sheltered from the curse by our Queen as her oracle and forced to watch my wingless, voiceless siblings flee to the warmer places of the world, to hide from the beast.”