Ningo Legends

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"Faith consists in believing when it is beyond the power of reason to believe." - Voltaire
The Pre-Dawn

In the beginning, there was night and day. Two entities existed in this time known as the Pre-Dawn; Nocte and Ignis. Originally separate, these entities embodied their realms; Nocte was the name of night, and Ignis the name of day. Soon these two met and came to know each other, and so came the Dawn.

The Dawn

When Nocte and Ignis came together as one body, they gave birth to four new entities. Three gods, the children of the two gods of the Pre-Dawn; Mortuus, Caelum, and Aquae, and then there was also the mortal world (the fourth child of the gods), just as old as the other three but very different in form. When the world came into existence so did the original humans. Hundreds of humans came into being, known as the Proauctors. The Proauctors came into existence with all the knowledge needed to create civilization. Forming from nothing at the junction of three rivers, this would be their capital. The city of Cunabula was the result. Being the most advanced people in the West, these people quickly grew in power, expanding and claiming new lands.

The Gods
  • Nocte - Nocte is believed to be the king and father of the gods by the Ningo. He is viewed to be the embodiment of nature and the night. According to legend, he granted the Proauctors the gifts of resource gathering, the right to eat the plants and animals of nature, farming, domestication of animals of the land, knowledge of the production of garments, pottery, and knowledge of fermentation. Nocte is regularly asked for his blessing during Ningo marriage ceremonies for safe nights and the blessings of survival.
  • Ignis - Ignis is believed to be the queen and mother of the gods by the Ningo. She is viewed to be the embodiment of the day and fire. According to legend she granted the Proauctors the gifts of knowledge of fire, cooking, and knowledge of wedding ceremonies. Ignis is regularly asked for her blessing during Ningo marriage ceremonies for warmth and many days for the couple to be together.
  • Mortuus - Mortuus is the eldest child of Nocte and Ignis, and the brother of Caellum and Aquae. He is the embodiment of intelligence, wisdom, and the afterlife according to the Ningo. Legend says he granted the Proauctors the gifts of strategy, code of laws, cartography, knowledge of funeral ceremonies, medicine, philosophy, architecture and construction, and education. Mortuus is regularly asked for his blessing during Ningo marriage ceremonies for intelligent and cunning children, also for a delay in death's claim for the couple and their children. Mortuus is, of course, also prayed to during Ningo funeral ceremonies for a peaceful afterlife for the deceased and kindness for their loved ones.
  • Caelum - Caelum is the second child of Nocte and Ignis, and the brother of Mortuus and Aquae. He is the embodiment of the sky and war according to the Ningo. Legend says he granted the Proauctors the gifts of weapons, armor, tactics, forging, training beasts of war, training war mounts, and the right to eat the animals of the skies. Caelum is regularly asked for his blessing during Ningo marriage ceremonies for peaceful marriages.
  • Aquae - Aquae is the youngest child of Nocte and Ignis, and the sister of Mortuus and Caellum. She is the embodiment of the waters of the world and also desire. According to the Ningo she granted the Proauctors the gifts of recreation, desire, sanitation, how to transport water, art, fountains, the laws regarding brothels, the right to drink water, shipbuilding, and entertainment. Aquae is regularly asked for her blessing during Ningo marriage ceremonies for a passionate love life, beautiful children, and health to both the couple and their children.
The Trickster-God and It's Spawn

"We don't know where they came from. We thought they came to help us, a gift from the Old Gods to conquer the Abundant Lands. Yet it betrayed us, died by a foreign god, who lost their own life in turn. What remained were brought low, but the Spawn continue to come. They dwell in the corpse of their god now; they continue to gather there. They are too dangerous to live and too powerful to fight. They can dwell there and we shall not go near. They will be hated for all eternity for their deception." - Account of a Ningo soldier

What is known as the Great Battle of Dragons to the Kingdom of the Two Rivers, the Ningo view as the end of the War for the Abundant Lands. The dragons that arrived at the battle were viewed as a gift from the Old gods. When the god of the Two Rivers, Melgrath the Mighty, fought the largest of the dragons, it was viewed by the Ningo as a clash between two gods. The Ningo believe Melgrath and the dragon-god killed one another. The dragon-god's body became the mountains in the southeast of the lands of the Ningo, known to the Ningo as The Corpse. The other dragons at the battle eventually died, and since then more dragons have traveled from wherever they came from to The Corpse sporadically. The dragon-god is viewed to be a trickster god, it wasn't sent by the Old Gods, but instead was an evil entity that came on its own to ruin the fate of the Ningo to claim what is rightfully theirs.
Since that day the Ningo both fear and hate dragons, which they refer to as the Spawn, as they are believed to be the spawn of the trickster-god. The fear and hatred of the Ningo for dragons is so great they refuse to go anywhere near The Corpse. Over time that same hatred has built to the point that the Ningo have an almost instinctively violent reaction to the word 'dragon' being spoken. Not only is the spoken word for dragon in the Ningo language causes this reaction, but so does the same word in the common language of Felaguria. With so many soldiers from the Two Rivers shouting the word dragon in their language as well as fleeing from the creatures or pointing to them, this became the only word in the common language known to the Ningo until the alliance between the Ningo and Two Rivers in the year 675. Some Ningo have the self-control to not instantly react violently to hearing the word dragon being spoken in either of the two languages, it is still a serious risk to continue to do so within earshot. For most Ningo a violent, possibly even lethal, response to hearing either word spoken aloud is a serious risk. These words are known through written records, both the Ningo word and a phonetically written version of the common word.