Book of Corsair Myths and Legends

[Madvillain]

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Before the beginning of times our ancestors traveled an intergalactic course in a state of siesta.
They did so on board the Hispania , an arc filled with many lifeforms from Sol.
They originated from a technologically well advanced ancient civilization that thrived in a system called Sol.

Sol was a beautiful place fit for a warrior, where the legend says that great heroes fought glorious battles relentlessly.
Humanity prospered in the art of war but this paradise could not last.
An apocalyptic event transpired , tearing the lands apart.
It was in these times our ancestors built the Hispania and embarked on their journey to Sirius.
 
Their purpose was to find new lands after Sol’s destruction and they did so , though not as planned.
En route to a destination somewhere in Sirius they remained dormant for centuries,
leaving the cradle of mankind far behind their tracks.

After many years an inferno broke out inside the Hispania, awaking her passengers from their longest siesta.
Nobody knows for sure who or what started this fire and when or how it started.
some blame demons while others speak about barbarians who sneaked on board before the Hispania took off.
The arc took severe damage and it became quite clear that she could no longer guarantee a safe trip for all of the passengers.

This is what triggered the bravest sacrifice of our ancestors.
In an act of selflessness thousands boarded shuttles filled with meager supplies
and set course for the nearest system: Omicron Gamma.
in hopes of a better future for their brethren who stayed behind on the Hispania.
This is where our people’s history as inhabitants of Hispania came to an end.

As all endings mark a new beginning so did the end of our ancestors voyage with the Hispania
mark the first steps of humanity on planet Crete, the dark ages and our proud rich history filled with legends and myths.
Stories were passed on from generation to generation by word of mouth to be preserved from the sand of time
by the largely illiterate population of Crete.

This book attempts to capture some of these myths in order to preserve them for many generations to follow. 
So the people of Crete will never forget what makes them Corsair.

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[Madvillain]

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How our people regained the ability for space travel, and even built large fleets, is shrouded in mystery. However, many legends about prehistoric flight remain in our culture.

One legend tells of a Corsair named Icarus, son of the well-known dairy farmer and cheese maker, Daedalus. Daedalus, like many Corsairs, had a fondness for gold, which was, and still is, the most common form of currency on Crete. Business was going poorly, as many people fell ill from eating his cheese. Then, one uneventful day, a strange comet fell from the sky onto his herds’ grazing lands.

Glaring at the sky and asking the gods for a solution, Daedalus became firmly convinced that the nearby planet Cella Dor was made entirely out of gold. Because Daedalus had fallen from an olive tree during his youth, he suffered from severe height anxiety. This would not stop him, for he had a son who was just lazing around all day.

Crete, in the centuries after the ancestors of the Hispania made planetfall, was scarce in basic resources. The shuttles they had landed in long ago were now gone, scavenged for building materials. Wars had been fought over these technical relics, and naturally, they were out of reach for poor Daedalus.

If he was going to construct a shuttle to fly all the way to Cella Dor and back with loads of gold, he would carve it out of unsold cheese, symbolizing his dream colliding with harsh reality. He would then drag it to the nearby space elevator. In those times, the space elevator served two functions: ritual sacrifice to please the gods and waste disposal.
Daedalus decided to combine the two. If the gods would truly appreciate his offering of Icarus and his unsold cheese, his son would surely return from space with the gold.

For many months, Daedalus worked on his shuttle, preparing Icarus for the journey ahead. He thought of everything: a cow leather outer hull, a sail made of cow hides to catch the wind, and a rudder made of bone and cheese—the whole deal.

Time flew by, and the moment arrived. It was a bright and sunny day at the space elevator. Behind Daedalus, Icarus, and the cheese shuttle, there was a long line of people with litter and offerings. Some were throwing rocks and yelling at them to hurry up, but Daedalus took his time giving Icarus instructions. “Icarus, son of Daedalus, you will please the gods and bring me all the gold you can carry!” the father yelled, just before an impatient Corsair pushed the launch button.

With astonishing speed, Icarus took flight.

Under the massive air pressure, his shuttle quickly shifted into a leather-coated ball of melted cheese, with bones and Icarus inside. This is how Icarus became the first post-Hispania Corsair to travel in space. He also became the first post-Hispania Corsair to spend roughly a year in space.

Scholars calculated that Icarus’s flight path went straight through the sun’s corona towards Cella Dor, affected by its gravity, and curved back to Crete. It finally crashed down, ironically, near the same space elevator from which it had launched.

This couldn’t have happened at a better time. Another famine had broken out, and the village was hungry. Properly cooked from his space journey, Icarus’s cheesy remains fed the people for months, bringing wealth to Daedalus, who was promptly called upon to be the new village elder.

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[Madvillain]

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Long before Crete became the stronghold of the Corsair Empire, it was a young and troubled world, still scarred by the wreckage of Hispania and the devastating collapse of the ancient Sol system. The first generations of the Corsairs struggled to survive in the wilds of the planet, their society fractured and primitive. The Hispania, the last remnant of their once-great civilization, was little more than a distant memory: its technology scavenged, its grandeur forgotten in the face of a harsh, unforgiving world.

In those early days, Crete was not yet the united, proud home of the Corsairs. Instead, it was a storm of warlords, tribes, and rival factions, each with their own way of life, and each fiercely protective of what little they had left. The old ways of Sol of advanced technology and sprawling cities were beyond their reach, and so the Corsairs relied on their primal instincts: strength, cunning, and tradition.

It was during the Día de los Muertos, a time when the people of Crete remembered their ancestors who had perished in the fall of Hispania, that a new tradition was born. The day had originally been a simple remembrance, a time to honor the fallen and offer sacrifices to their memory. But one man’s pride and arrogance would change that forever.

This man was Nikandros, a fierce and ambitious warrior from the wildlands surrounding the earliest settlements on Creta. Though still young, he had already made a name for himself as a brutal fighter and an arrogant leader of his tribe. The people of his clan, the Sephardi, were known for their ruthlessness and unyielding strength, and Nikandros was their pride.
But his success in battle had given him an inflated sense of his own power.

As the Día de los Muertos approached, Nikandros grew increasingly dismissive of the ancient traditions that mourned the victims of the Hispania sleeper ship fire. He mocked the offerings made to the dead, saying, "The blood of the living is stronger than the ashes of the dead! I need no blessing from spirits to prove my strength." He boasted that he was a warrior of Hispania and that the beliefs of the old world had nothing left to offer him.

The elders of Crete, powerful leaders of clans and familias, saw Nikandros’s pride as a threat to the fragile unity that had begun to form among the scattered tribes. They knew that without respect for the traditions of the past, their future would be doomed. So one of the more influential elders, a mystic known as Elder Orpheo, took matters into his own hands.

In secret, Orpheo called upon the spirits of the dead who still lingered in the dark reaches of the universe. He offered them a pact: that the Corsairs would honor the dead with trials of strength, blood, and honor, and in return, the ancestors would guide them to a future built on sacrifice and unity. The spirits agreed, and on the eve of the Día de los Muertos, a new trial was devised. One that would forever change the Corsair people: Arena Sagrada de los Muertos.

Nikandros was called to a makeshift arena, build from rocks and wreckage, where this new trial would take place. Elder Orpheo, presented the attending warriors with masks made out of painted skulls of the fallen saying: “You fight for your people now, not for yourself. The ancestors will decide your fate.”

Though skeptical, Nikandros donned the mask and felt an overwhelming shift: his pride faded, and he realized the contest was about survival, sacrifice, and honoring the dead. Each gladiator fought not for personal glory, but for Crete’s future. After many battles, Nikandros faced his final opponent, the brave and ruthless female warrior Calista Espingaria, in a legendary duel.
Nikandros emerged victorious but not before, as a last action before her death, she ripped the mask from his face to reveal his true identity.

No longer the arrogant warrior, Nikandros became the first champion of Crete. Calista, the last of the fallen, was named the first aspect of Santa Muerte after her death. The Pontifex Maximus declared the Arena Sagrada de los Muertos the ultimate trial of strength and honor for Crete. From that day forward, the gladiator tradition was born.

The contest evolved from knife fights to battles in space, where warriors, masked and anonymous, fought for legacy and honor. Each year, to this day, as the Día de los Muertos candles fade, the strongest Corsairs face off in the skies, honoring the past and securing the future of their people. Elder Orpheo would go on to become the first Pontifex Maximus of a new religious order on Crete: the Order of Santa Muerte.

His bloodline would spawn many influential Elders involved in the foundation of the Corsair Brotherhood.

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