The Legend of Emeraxia
Avarice, a lesser chaos god, wanted. She wanted shiny things, eternal things… she wanted the world.
At the beginning of the Chaos Wars, before outright hostility broke out between the forces of Order and Chaos, Avarice went to Physera seeking a bet. “I can create the strongest and most beautiful creature in the land, stronger and more beautiful than anything you could create,” she boasted, “Let us see if I am right, and whoever wins shall own the world.”
Physera, seeking to rid the world of the Chaos Gods agreed, and bade Avarice to go first. Avarice created the Wyverns. Beautiful creatures with sturdy scales and shiny wings, they were a sight to behold. They could spew forth elements from their giant maws. Fire, poison, lightning, and more. They were also as greedy as Avarice herself, and sought to live in the places where they could hoard that which pleased them.
Physera admitted their beauty, but thought that their greed, like Avarice’s, would be their undoing. He created five great dragons, each with sturdy strong wings, and beautiful shining scales, larger and mightier than the Wyverns. He sent them to the Wyvern’s dens and each dragon ate the Wyverns whole.
Avarice realized her error too late, and proclaimed treachery. “You tricked me! I should be the one to have the world!” she claimed. Physera shook his head. “You fooled yourself in your greed. You allowed your haste to be your downfall. But I shall grant you the world nonetheless.” With that, he flayed Avarice, and crafted from her hide and power the sky which now surrounds our world.
-Herbati Folklore, The Tale of Avarice
In life, Emeraxia was the most cunning and greedy of the Wyverns at her mine. So old was she, that she learned the language of the Herbati who worked in her mines. So greedy, that she began expanding her territory and claimed hard earned treasures as her own whenever the miners uncovered new veins of shiny ores and gems.
In time, she brokered a deal with the tribe that worked her mine, and agreed to stop attacking them in exchange for a large portion of what they worked from her mines. When the Empyrean Army took over the mine, she brokered a different deal, and allowed them to work the Herbati and lay claim to their share of the mines yield. Thus the Herbati found themselves enslaved, trapped between a fierce Wyvern and the Empyrean Soldiers.
Decades later a young boy took it upon himself to free his tribe. He spread rumours that the heart of the mine had been found, and spoke long of its luster and glory. He even said that the heart had magical powers and that they could be claimed by those who touched the gem. He told both the Wyvern and Empyrean Army that each intended to steal it away from the other. Emeraxia swore that she would never part with this gem so long as she had a soul, and the Empire’s soldiers swore it’s power would be theirs.
When the soldiers went into the mine in search of the heart, Emeraxia followed behind. She sought to follow them to the heart, and lay claim to it before they could steal it away. The boy had other ideas, and as the two forces delved deep into the mines, he went to work with his tribe and laid many explosives behind them. Once done, the herbati set off the explosives, collapsing the mine and burying the soldiers and Emeraxia with them. Then, the Tribe fled the mine, and sought a new homeland.
Emeraxia returned, the power of her greed sustaining her beyond death. So great is her greed that even her lust for vengeance against the Herabati who slew her is not enough to pull her away from the mine, for fear that someone may spirit the heart of the mine away. So she waits, eternally guarding a treasure which may not exist.