Mythe is an island or a continent which is not located in the world of Aér'aí'chán, at least not in the same plane of existence. How it can be reached is still a great mystery, however, due to several reports of different travellers who managed to leave Mythe it seemsnow confirmed that the isle indeed exists. It seems most likely that it can be only accessed through magical means as it is only possible to leave Mythe with the help of magic. An invisble gate seems to exist in the Sea of Mists far to the west of the Sarvonian continent, but where exactly it is located cannot be said for certain. Together with a detailed map of Mythe some additional information on Mythean legends have also reached Santharia:

Map of Mythe by Artimidor.

The Legends of the Origin of Mythe. At the beginning of time the High Goddess Allyna created the Isle of Mythe, its forests and rivers, and its herds of cattle, goats, and sheep. Wishing to inhabit the land with Her seed she transformed the most powerful and dominant ram of the herd into Her Consort, the God of the Herd, Kythra.

Their Consummation produced twins, a male and female, who were placed amidst the paradise of Mythe. Kyrtec, the male, was instructed to tend to the herds and Hyrth, the female, was to tend to the forests and orchards. They were to come together at the third full moon to honor the God and Goddess with the Consummation Rite to ensure the fertility of the land, its animals, and themselves.

In disobedience Hyrth vowed to never give herself to Kyrtec, whom she viewed to be as bestial as his animals. Kyrtec had found pleasure with his sheep, himself being descended from a ram. The third moon waned without the Consummation being performed.

In anger the Goddess separated Her children by striking the land with Her sword, creating a ridge of mountains along the diagonal length of the isle. The God Kythra, seeing his children separated from each other, vowed that they should never venture away from Mythe, nor should the rest of creation be allowed to enter the land. So he created a barrier of sea fog to encircle the isle. He hoped that the children would die and Allyna, in mourning, would consort with him again.

Although Allyna’s will was perfect in every way Her Sword of Vengeance was not. A nick in the blade left a pass between the Arzus Mountains of the north and the Cryoiea Mountains of the south. As Hyrth’s forests withered and Kyrtec’s herds died off, the sixth full moon illuminated the pass and the two aging children made their way to each other. Repentant of their transgression they consummated.

After the gestation period of nine lunar months Hyrth gave birth to twins, male and female. She took the boy to Kyrtec, to be raised by him, and they vowed to meet again in three lunar months.

Pleased with Hyrth the Goddess Allyna began teaching her Magick, and restored the orchards and forests. Not to be outdone, Kythra began teaching Kyrtec as well, and his herds flourished.

So every twelfth lunar month before they died Kyrtec and Hyrth came together at the Consummation Pass and populated the land of Mythe. Afterwards their children kept the covenant, but soon the land could not support its inhabitants. Allyna chose the eldest son of Kyrtec and appointed him Counsellor and gave him the rule of the waning time of the moon.  She then appointed the eldest daughter of Hyrth as Queen to rule the waxing time of the moon. They were instructed to choose only one of each of their clans to participate in the Consummation Rite.

Several generations later, Syntok, a sacrificier of the God Kythra, was growing old without being chosen for Consummation. Kythra had pity on him because he himself had never again been allowed to consort with Allyna. He taught Syntok a spell to penetrate the mist-barrier in order to find a mate in a distant land. Syntok left at the time of the new moon and was the first to travel beyond Mythe. He encountered many adventures and strange people and found a mate in a foreign land. Near the time of his death he asked his eldest son to return with him to his homeland.

This son’s name was Cartus, and he did as his father wished. Having taught Cartus the penetration spell they sailed into the fishing village of Kyrtec, named after the first man of Mythe. Kyrtec had become the capital of the Order of the Dark Moon and its inhabitants were called the Dartk Ones. As they saw Syntok and Cartus coming out of the mist they were petrified with amazement and fear. They thought Syntok to be a ghost since he had disappeared so long ago. Cartus, they thought, must have been a demon from the Other World. They fell upon the two with chains and bound them. They would not listen to Syntok’s explanation.

The boat was set assail back toward the mist-barrier. But Kythra intervened and steered the boat to the southwestern tip of the isle. As they landed Syntok breathed his last and changed to Spirit. A rainbow appeared as the Goddess wept for the first traveler of Mythe. Afterwards the area was called Prysm Point.

Kythra loosed Cartus’ chains and commanded him to sail around the point and enter the Kingdom of the Wise, the female’s side of the isle. He would fall in love with a fair witch named Dyra. She had been chosen for the next Consummation Rite, but Kythra instructed Cartus to lie in wait for her Consort and to slay him.

At the Consummation Pass Dyra waited as the unsuspecting Chosen Sire approached. Cartus fell upon him and strangled him with the very chain with which he had been bound. He and Dyra then hid in caves in the Arzus Mountains throughout the gestation of their daughter Koya.

After finding the murdered Sire the Dark Ones searched the mountains and raided the towns of Wytra and Fyr in search of Dyra. Magick was more powerful than any weapons and many of both clans were killed. Their spirits are said to be in perpetual combat in the woods south of Fyr, the Spirit Woods.

Cartus and Dyra stayed in hiding throughout the war. When Koya was born they sailed from Prysm Point back to the land of Cartus’ birth. Dyra and Koya were both taught the penetration spell and at Cartus’ death they returned to Mythe. They were welcomed back to the Clan of the Wise because a prophecy had foretold the return of a powerful witch who could travel beyond Mythe.

And so the Power of Penetration was passed from the God Kythra to Syntok to his son Cartus to his daughter Koya. The tradition continued remaining in the family bloodline.

Time in Mythe. During the Third Age, known as the Age of Knowledge, two theories were presented as to the age of the Isle of Mythe. Scientific historians based their calculations on rare, but unreliable, written texts. Mathematicians, however, used calculations based on oral family histories and this theory was widely accepted.

Time in Mythe is measured as such:

• 1 year = 13 Lunar months

• 1 generation = 52 years

• 1 age = 13 generations

Thus the date: 14,07,42,02 corresponds to the 2^nd month of the 42^nd year of the 7^th generation of the 14^th Age. [This is the time of the wizard Krisstofier’s birth. He is 130 years old, or 2 generations and 26 years. So the year on Mythe at the time he left was 14,10,16,00.]

The First Plague. The God Kythra is an envious, spiteful entity. In times past he has stirred up the ambitions of the Dark Ones in order to gain more power and territory. In the year 2,12,24,00 he stirred the ambitions of the Dark Counsellor Kortykec, who wished to claim the southern tip of the isle, Prysm Point, and the orchards south of Ayr and the Spirit Woods.

So he sent ships from the capital of Kyrtec around Prysm Point and landed south of Ayr. Troops attacked the tenders of the orchards and headed north. The citizens of Ayr came to arms and sent word to their capital of Hyrth.

Weapons on Mythe were generally used for individualized, hand-to-hand combat. Magick was used for more widespread destruction. The Dark Ones conjured a rain of stones on the town. The Wise Ones countered with a hailstorm on the invaders.

In Hyrth, the Queen of the Wise, Indyra, invoked the wrath of Allyna to end the battle. Soon a fierce windstorm began to blow in from the Northwest. Split by the chain of mountains it brought destruction to both kingdoms.

In the Kingdom of the Dark Ones the herds were blown off their feet and tumbled end over end. Sheperd’s Lake was evaporated within the course of the day. The grazing fields were stripped bare and the Nor’wester turned into a dust storm.

To the east, the Kingdom of the Wise fared no better. The forests and orchards were stripped of leaves, nuts, and fruit. The branches of the eldest trees were ripped from trunks and propelled through the air. Younger trees were uprooted. By the time the windstorm hit the battle lines at Ayr, the entire isle had been devastated. When the force of the wind hit the combatants they were tossed and scattered like straw. Many ended up in the sea and drowned. The ships of Kortykec’s invaders were blown out to sea and never seen again.

When the disaster was over Kortykec and Indyra had no choice but to make a pact of peace and begin rebuilding their respective kingdoms. It was many years before the forests, orchards, and grazing lands were restored and the herds replenished.

The famine that lasted through these Lean Years Killed approximately one third of the population. Combined with the casualties of the battle and the windstorm the population had been reduced by half.

The Second Plague. In the year 5,11,48,00 a maiden of the town of Wytra had been chosen for the Consummation Rite. But when she had mated with the Chosen Sire she produced no children. The Wise Ones saw this as a bad omen. The maiden and her entire immediate family were killed by the Council of Princesses, the official intermediaries of the Goddess Allyna. The Council did not stop there. A group of assassins were sent into the Kingdom of the Dark Ones to search out and kill the entire immediate family of the Chosen Sire.

When the massacre was discovered the Dark Counsellor sent an army through the Consummation Pass to attack Wytra. Heavy fortifications had previously been built there, so the invading army cast a spell to cause the river to the rear of Wytra to overflow and flood out the town. The magick was more powerful than the wizards had anticipated. Soon, torrential rains dowsed the entire isle.

The rivers indeed overflowed, but the sea also rose, flooding the capitals of Kyrtec and Hyrth. Inhabitants of both kingdoms flocked to the high ground of the mountains for safety. Finally, before total destruction, the rains stopped and the water began to recede. Again the land had been scarred, and again half the population had died. The entire Council of Princesses had drowned.

The Third Plague. In the year 8,11,20,00 the evil Queen Sanya came into power. It was rumored that she gained the position by murdering her own elder sister. The Queen conspired with a powerful sorceress of the town of Fyr to destroy the land of the Dark Ones.

A spell was conjured to cause a drought on the Western side of the isle. No rain fell there for many months, but the Kingdom of the Wise was well blessed and the east side flourished. The Dark River and Sheperds Lake dried up. The grazing lands of the Nomadic Plains were scorched and the herds starved.

Wildfires began to break out and soon the entire kingdom, except the immediate vicinity of Kyrtec, was ablaze. The evil Queen thought her kingdom was safe with the mountains as a barrier. However, a strange atmospheric condition caused a huge fireball to jump through Consumation Pass and the Kingdom of the Wise began to burn as well. The town of Fyr was surrounded by flames and the evil Queen and her sorceress were trapped. To appease the Goddess Allyna and the God Kythra the townspeople bound the Queen and her accomplice and fed them to the flames.

Finally, a storm blew in. After about a month of days the final flames were extinguished. The land was scorched and useless. This time two-thirds of the population had perished. Only by the miraculous intervention of Allyna and Kythra was the isle restored in less than a generation.

The Fourth Plague. In the year 11,10,44,00 the Dark Counsellor Mytakor became obsessed with power and more territory. He proposed to take an army to the source of the rivers of Mythe in the northern Arzus Mountains and surprise the Wise Ones by coming downriver toward Eyrth. It was an arduous journey into the mountains, but they finally arrived at the spring, which fed the rivers. They then followed the river southeast to the territory between Eyrth and the capital of Hyrth. This put them behind the fortifications that had been built on the other side of the river. The army split and attacked both cities at once.

Eyrth was sacked, but Hyrth defended the siege. Reinforcements began to come from Wytra and Fyr, but the army of the Dark Ones held them back at the Second Fork. Hyrth was cut off, but ships from Ayr were able to bring provisions and reinforcements. The Dark Ones’ army was driven back and trapped between the two forks of the river.

In desperation, they conjured a disruption spell to enable retreat. The ground began to quiver and was soon rumbling as the distant mountains seemed to grow. Landslides occurred on both sides of the mountain range. The land moved in waves and opened up in places, swallowing the army of the Dark Ones and closing up again as the quake subsided.

Mytakor’s invasion had failed and he himself had been killed when a wing of his palace collapsed on him. Although the Wise Ones suffered fewer casualties, the towns of Hyrth, Eyrth, and Wytra were nearly destroyed.