The Prophecy of the Three Moons

Long ago... before the Whorl of Tyrth and before the fowldyr... Tyrth had three pristine moons hanging in its starry skies... Legend has it that the first moon began to crack, and eventually the moon shattered and fell from the sky raining its broken fragments down upon the planet. In the wreckage of the Broken Moon a divine seed was planted... the consciousness of a moon god. However, the moon god did not have the strength to build themselves a body, and so the god allowed the seed to sprout into a great white tree. The tree did not grow like a normal tree... it fed on the emotional and spiritual energy that was so abundant in Tyrth. Waves of energy cascaded across the planet, an infinite resource that was easily produced but the creatures of Tyrth didn't seem to have any use for. The god filled this niche by absorbing the emotional and spiritual energy of the world until they had enough resources to craft a body of their own.

This is how the Artisan was born - the god that descended from the Broken Moon. The Artisan's soul is deeply entwined with the great tree that grew at the impact site - the Whorl of Tyrth is said to be the Artisan's vessel and the location of the moon god's soul. During the many years that the tree grew and the Artisan waited to be born, it cast its divine gaze across the realm of Tyrth and grew to love the creatures of the planet. It saw how much energy the inhabitants of Tyrth put into every aspect of their lives. The Artisan wanted to sculpt that abundant energy into a blessing for the realm... to breathe life into it.

The Artisan used its divine powers to create the fowldyr - creatures blessed with magic and immortality. Slowly these beings awakened across the realm and tended to the world like arcane shepherds. Each fowldyr is an extension of the Artisan, and so the moon god could care for the beloved planet through its many fowldyr fragments.

And so the realm of Tyrth entered the era of the Artisan and the fowldyr.

However... it was not long after the arrival of the fowldyr that a sharp crack cut across the surface of the second moon. The two remaining moons in the sky were now very easy to tell apart... one was unmarred and smooth... and the other had a large fissure running across its surface. And so the people of Tyrth began to refer to the two remaining moons as the Carved Moon and the Silken Moon.

The people of Tyrth did not fret when the first crack appeared in the second moon - for in their histories a moon breaking blessed them with a benevolent moon god. It was a joyous thing. So they carried on with their lives knowing that one day a new blessing would grace the realm of Tyrth. Maybe not in their lifetimes... maybe not in a hundred lifetimes... but some day.

However... the crack in the Carved Moon was not a blessing waiting to be born. It was an omen.

The Artisan knew what was writhing inside the Carved Moon... And what waited patiently inside the Silken Moon... For the Artisan was born with knowledge of a Prophecy. Tyrth was destined to receive three divine seeds...

The Artisan knew what was waiting inside the Carved Moon, and it was no blessing. When the first crack appeared across the surface of that moon, the Artisan sensed the wave of malice that pulsed from it. No one else seemed to sense it. Not the animals, not the fowldyr, not even the old gods that still lingered on the planet. This crack in the moon caused a shift on Tyrth... a distortion. And somewhere on the planet the First Calamity had already appeared.

The Artisan knew instinctively that the Carved Moon would continue to crack, and with each crack another Calamity would curse the planet - for this was the will of the entity within the second moon. However, it could be thousands of years before another crack appears on the moon... and eons before the Carved Moon finally breaks entirely.

The Artisan set its heavenly gaze upon the world and saw the harren frolicking in the meadows, the humans harvesting apples in their orchards, the fowldyr guiding the realm with their magic... the Artisan saw all of this and was struck with the wonder of it all. The sheer joy of life! They sing songs and tell stories and fly kites at their festivals. They cherish their lives and they savor every moment of them.

The Artisan observed all of the happiness in the world and knew it would not do the inhabitants of Tyrth any good to know the truth of the Carved Moon. Revealing their destiny would only cause them despair and misery. It was the duty of the Artisan to shoulder this knowledge alone. And so, the Artisan did not share this Prophecy with anyone - not even its fellow fowldyr gods the Arbiter and the Weaver. 

To this day, the Artisan is the only being on Tyrth with knowledge of the three divine seeds, and it is the only being who knows the connection between the cracks in the Carved Moon and the promised Calamities.