On a recent starlit night, the waters of the Southern Seas began to
churn and boil angrily, tossing up a column of water that spiralled into
an immense cyclone. The cyclone raced towards the Western Sea, heading
straight for the Island off the Northern Vashnars as if sentient, or
guided by some sentient entity.

Reaching the southern coastline of the island, the cyclone tore free of
the ocean and continued its path over land, seeming to head straight for
the city of Mhaldor. As the citizens therein braced for impact, the
watery maelstrom passed the gates by and shot up the mountain, its
destination the cave where the fearsome monster known as the Leviathan
made its lair. The shrieking Leviathan held within its centre, the
cyclone made its way back to the shoreline and dissolved back into the
water, releasing the Leviathan into the Western Sea. Screaming in glee
at its newfound freedom, the Leviathan rampaged along the western
coastline of Sapience.

Sefyr, the usually reticent Guardian of the Western Seas, shouted out to
Notia, the fickle and mischievous Guardian of the Southern Seas, for an
explanation. Her only response was to deny any involvement. Sefyr moved
in to handle the matter himself as the Leviathan was causing tidal waves
wreaking havoc upon the western coastline. He engaged the Leviathan
south of the rocky isthmus to the Island off the Northern Vashnars.

Sefyr conjured hammers formed from seawater to pound into the beast.
Hurling aside in an attempt to avoid them, the Leviathan smashed into
the seaside cliffs south of the juncture of the isthmus and the
continental landmass. Before Sefyr could finish off the monstrous
intruder in his domain, he heard panicked squeals from his much-beloved
hippocampus herds, signalling a thief amidst their midst. Realising that
the Leviathan must have been meant as a distraction, he departed, the
battle unfinished.

Achaeans witnessing the battle found that the damage done to the cliffs
by the Leviathan allowed them to clamber down the steep clifffside and
enter the shallows. A Mhaldorian named Khelek was the first to scale
down this newly formed path and, unfortunately, the first to die to the
Leviathan there. Others soon followed and, exploring the waters from
there, found to their surprise a small isle further south. While the
isle itself was ancient, the havoc the Leviathan had wreaked in that
area had swept away barriers to it across the open sea. Antares and
Manuella were first to explore the mountainous isle, finding a path
through the mountains that led to a valley at the base of a small
volcano. Within the valley was found a village, and dwelling there, a
primitive tribe of people named the Haraekanewa.

Meanwhile, these questions remain... whose hand was behind the cyclone
that freed the Leviathan in the Western Ocean, and why? Was Notia's
denial ingenuous or a barefaced lie? If meant as a distraction for a
thief to enter Sefyr's hippocampi herds, what was important enough
therein to provoke such a dramatic ruse?

Penned by my hand on the 19th of Ero, in the year 412 AF.