Secrets of the Czigany Past
A messenger got waylaid off while traveling through the mountains by the gaseous cloier which had broken through the aetherways in an experiment gone awry. Once the cloeir was vanquished, a strange cask was found that was meant for Jeremiah Gryphta, a Czyigany wanderer who has settled in the Basin of Life. Once Jeremiah received the cask, the history and the background of the Czigany was revealed.
While the Age of the Vernal Wars was known as a time of strife and conflict, there were moments when great cultures of elegance and artistry arose among the mortal races. Alas, these brief glimmers of accomplishment were too often soon extinguished during the cataclysms wrought by the Soulless Gods, leaving behind only a legacy of myth and fable.
One such civilization was the Cultural Province of the Czigany Coast. Those who sought the Czigany Coast were artists seeking to find kindred spirits and a place of belonging. The Cultural Province isolated itself from the rest of Lusternia in order to create great works of art that existed simply for their own aesthetic sake. At the height of its glory, the artists raised a Vernal Goddess of their own, who ascended to be known at first as Menestre of the Laughing Heart and later simply as Menestre the Fool. Little is known of Menestre, except she was not well regarded by the other Vernal Gods, with the exception of the Vernal Goddess Tzaraziko the Enigmatic who tried to protect Menestre when she could and it was reported that they often travelled together. Besides bits of myth and legend, the only remaining evidence of Menestre’s
existence is her Marvelous Motley Cap, which was kept in the Meliashmora of Imperial Secrets, a repository of vernal artifacts safeguarded by the Holy Celestine Empire before its fall.
In the end, however, the Cultural Province of the Czigany Coast met the fate of many such civilizations during the Vernal Wars. It was utterly annihilated by the Soulless Gods. Those who escaped destruction became wanderers, still devoted to their art, but never again settling down in one place. Their descendants came to be called simply the Czigany, who continued a nomadic life as they wandered throughout the far reaches of Lusternia. The Basin of Life knows of one such travelling group, the Czigany Wayfaire who shows up in times of celebration. Jeremiah Gryphta made the almost unprecedented decision (for a Czigany) of settling in the Basin to sell their strange artifacts, which some believe are derived from techniques long thought lost along with the demise of the Cultural Province.
Thus, when word finally reached Jeremiah that a group of Czigany has discovered the ruins of the Cultural Province, he realized the magnitude of the find, for the Czigany had unearthed the remains of curios created by their ancestors, objects of such wonder and marvel that merchants would travel from the far reaches of the world to collect just a handful, and retire with riches beyond their dreams.
Unfortunately, the curios have been broken, smashed and scattered by war, time and the elements. Slowly, however, sealed containers from the lost civilization are making their way for those collectors and enthusiasts rich enough to afford a memento from an ancient, though glorious, past.
