Legend of the Two Brothers
Written by J-Haskell.
The Legend of the Two Brothers is a famous tale, one of the few universal ones among the Fireworm Clans, and tells of how the twin sons of Firemaw overthrew their mother and stopped her destructive rampage, saving the island. Each Clan's version varies, of course, and minstrels like to add their own flair to the telling. What is included here is a version told by the Basalt Clan.
. . .
Long ago, before even the Elder Drakes, there was only our island, ruled by the frightful goddess, Firemaw. She reveled in destruction, raining down fire and ash upon the then young Fireworms and driving us nearly to extinction.
It was then that her twin sons, the Two Brothers, were born. They were the gods of fire and ash, and they were quickly abandoned by their mother, for a goddess of destruction did not make a fine parent. Luckily the Brothers were found and taken in by a Clan, and raised among the Fireworms that their mother had so despised.
Firemaw returned when the Brothers were grown. They were now respected members of their Clan, more powerful than their kin, and when the goddess of destruction appeared, intent on devouring their adopted family, they could not stand by.
The Brothers faced off against their mother, allowing their Clan to flee to safety, and fought her for many days. It is said that the volcanoes erupted without end as their fight led them to the heart of the island, towards the peaks we now know as the Siblings, and the final confrontation between them began.
Firemaw fought tooth and nail, fire and wing; the Brothers could not defeat the goddess of destruction, not in a fight. They led her into the Clanless Valley and managed to trap her in a dark chasm, burying her under the earth. To this day you can feel her struggles to dig free in the tremors and her rage in the eruptions that plague our island.
After their battle was over the Brothers set out to find their Clan, but even after many years of searching, the dragons who had raised them remained lost to them. For, while they had battled their mother, many years had passed, and those dragons had passed on into another lifetime. When they realized this they were stricken, and one Brother left the other, heading into the Clanless Valley to live a solitary life and watch over their mother's prison.
The other, however, set out on his own, determined to make sure that when Firemaw escaped from her underground prison, the Fireworms would be able to face her.
He traveled from Clan to Clan, securing a promise that on the day that his mother claws her way to the surface and spread her wings to cloak the Realm in shadow, the Fireworms would stand united against her.
The Basalt Clan holds to this promise.
When that day comes, centuries from now, we will stand against the goddess of destruction alongside the Brothers and defeat her.