Swirling Mist Isle - History

The Early Years

From very early in the history of Azuyan a large herd of MerPonies inhabited Swirling Mist Isle. They enjoyed the fine sandy beaches, the warm waters for swimming, and the tropical climate. They mostly lived close to the sea shore, and as there were plentiful caves these were often used for habitation when shelter was needed. As time wore on the MerPonies explored further inland and found a large freshwater lake, and another settlement was formed there, which is now the town of Azurestede. The MerPonies lived simply but over time some found they had magic talents. Nothing too extreme, but enough to differentiate them from those ponies without such skills. They formed small groups and shared and practised their magic together, and their abilities grew stronger, allowing them to prosper. This aroused suspicion and jealousy amongst the non-magician ponies who eventually grew angry enough to throw the magician Mers off the island, putting them with their belongings into several small boats and telling them never to return, or they would be killed. The remaining ponies on Swirling Mist Isle became the two tribes of Jac'Spa and Jac'Uzzi which are known today.

The magician Mers cast off in their boats headed out to sea and after some hours the tides and currents soon showed them the shores of another island on the horizon, so they swam with their boats carrying all their worldly goods to reach it. In a few days, hungry and tired, the Mers reached the shores of the island they had seen, and pulling the boats onto shore and unloading their few belongings. They investigated and found the Isle was similar to the one they had been evicted from in climate, and so they decided to make the best of it and settle where they were. They named the island Jataiso, and their first village was called Doomsover. As the years wore on their magical abilities grew, and two powerful tribes of wizards grew up, one very experienced in Ocean magic (known as the Oceanics), the other in Twilight magic (the TwiMers). The tribes grew jealous and proud and guarded the secrets of their own magic from the other tribe. There were also other, smaller magicians on the island, but they soon learned to mind their own business and keep out of the two tribes' affairs if they didn't want to find themselves cursed. It was from these two feuding tribes that the Golden Mer's parents were to arise.

The coming of the Krysanthe the Golden MerPony

The Oceanics and TwiMers were at odds with each other but had agreed to co-exist as long as they kept themselves completely separate. However, one day whilst out walking in a remote part of the island a young female wizard named Grace from one tribe met a young male wizard named Argus from the other tribe and they found, after an initial period of suspicion, that they had much in common and agreed to meet again in secret. Over time they fell in love. Both knew that the union would be forbidden due to the rules of their tribes. They were both talented young wizards, Grace a TwiMer, Argus an Oceanic. As their union could never be expressed publicly, they decided that they would have one foal, who would be imbued with magic skills from both of them, and would be able to use those skills for her own good and for the good of those around her. Grace would give birth on a distant island, where the foal would remain. The young wizards also hoped that one day the foal would grow up to return to their island and reunite the warring wizard tribes.

Grace was able to hide her pregnancy from her family owing to the tribe's tradition of wearing long, voluminous wizard's robes. As the day for the birth drew closer Argus managed to get a small boat and smuggled Grace off the island in order to give birth safely. The island they chose was the neighbouring Swirling Mist Isle, inhabited by non-magician MerPonies as far as they knew. After the baby girl was born, who was all golden in colour, her father cast a spell of The Ancient Espousal of Water, thus imbuing his daughter with a special affinity for the element of water. Her mother then cast the spell of The Invocation of Just Compassion, giving her daughter an innate ability for twilight magic. They then left the foal safely at the foot of a tall cliff where the local MerPonies often passed, wrapped in a magic warm blanket, before they returned, with a mixture of both sadness and joy, to Jataiso.

Early the next morning a passing farmer named Owyn from Shell Sands found the tiny golden foal and, realising she had been abandoned, took her back to his wife Maddy. They had no children themselves and were quite poor, but even so decided to raise the foal themselves, and looked upon her as a great blessing in their lives. The foal was given the name Krysanthe after the local golden flowers that were blooming at that time of year near to where she was found. The local villagers loved the foal with her unusual colouring and sweet temperament. As she grew up, she had many friends and began to show her strong persuasive personality. Her water abilities were outstanding, the small MerPony carried off the winner's trophy each year at the Summer Festival. She also had the ability to divine other's thoughts and emotions, and this increased as she grew older, but she had the inner wisdom to use what she knew discretely and for good. As she grew up she also discovered a magic ability that was purely her own, enabled by her pure flame-colour hexes. She was able to make small flames and heat items intensely, which of course made her popular at beach barbeques.

However Krysanthe's idyllic foalhood, and those of her tribe, was rudely interrupted as the island's two tribes, the Jac'Spa and the Jac'Uzzi began a war due to a period of famine and poverty that descended upon the island. As the Swirling Mist Isles drifted on the sea of Azuyan they came close to the Desert Isles and as a result rainfall became scarce and local crops failed. A few MerPonies in the Jac'Spa tribe hoarded what produce they had and began charging the Jac'Uzzi tribe exhorbitant amounts of pony gold. As a result many of the Jac'Uzzi began suffering from starvation and so in desperation the strongest amongst them decided to take back what they thought was rightfully theirs, and staged a midnight raid on the Jac'Spa tribe, forcing them to hand over food and pony gold. Lives were lost in the process and this caused a bitter rift between the tribes, with many battles over the ensuing months.

Krysanthe was a teenager during this time and suffered deprivation and food shortage along with her tribe. Instead of this making her bitter as many of the others were, she instead sought to find a solution to the trouble. She began speaking of her ideas to the more important locals and they listened to her even though she was young, finding her ideas interesting at least, for she had a persuasive manner of speaking. To solve the problem of poor crops, Krysanthe used her own water magic and taught it to a group of young Mers who were interested to learn. The initial suspicion of the local Mers to using magic was soon overcome as they saw the positive results. Working along with local farmers and herbalists, they managed to breed crops that would grow under the more arid conditions. They learned how to conserve the sparse rain the isle did receive using non-magical methods and made use of the mists in the mountains to collect water using nets and channel it to the villages. Krysanthe showed how to use magic to increase seedlings germination and growth. For a currency she proposed using the local shells between the villagers for trading. The rarer the shell, the more valuable it would be. Anypony could go out and forage for shells, and so ensure that they would always have some currency with which to buy items. A shell currency bank was set up, using the six main shell categories found on the Isle. Trade once again resumed between the villages of the Jac'Uzzi.

When the Jac'Spa tribe saw that they no longer had a monopoly on food they stopped hoarding it and instead wanted to learn the new techniques for themselves, as they saw the Jac'Uzzi prospering. Krysanthe agreed to teach them with the understanding that they would never again hold the Jac'Uzzi to ransom, and that all killing and stealing must henceforth cease between the tribes. In a solemn ceremony witnessed by all the villagers, the tribal elders and Krysanthe placed their hooves in a damp mix of sand and clay, making an imprint of their hooves. The mould was then magically heated by Krysanthe to form a solid plaque, with the elders' hoof prints preserved permanently as a record of the agreement, thereafter known as the Jac Treaty of Unity (which is now kept in the Golden Mer Temple). Peace broke out again on the island, only this time the islanders were happier and more prosperous than before, thanks to their new skills. The Golden MerPony was duly named as their Leader, being the equivalent of just 25 human years by then. Over the years the Swirling Mist cluster drifted away from the Desert Isles back towards the First Isles, and their climate became wetter again. But the new skills the MerPonies had mastered meant that the ponies could now experiment with other crops and benefit even more.

The Golden Years

As time went by and Krysanthe presided over the island, she appointed various groups to carry out various projects. One group was the Herbalists, who grew all sorts of herbs, as well as collecting them from the Misty Woods. The whole area of the Misty Woods became protected by special magic from the Golden MerPony, in order to protect the herb's growing conditions, so that no matter where the Swirling Mist Isles may drift, the Misty Woods would remain a damp, cool growing area. This magic continues on to the present day, maintained by the Wizards and Seers associated with the Golden Temple.

From when she was very young Krysanthe had often gazed out to sea, with a great desire to travel. She felt she belonged in a place across the water, although she had no idea why or where. As she grew older, and once the troubles had been settled with the two island tribes, she often went to a quiet part of the beach and looked towards the horizon. Unbeknown to her it was in the direction of Jataiso, from whence her magician parents had originated.

Meanwhile, back on Jataiso, the feuding wizard tribes still carried on with their rivalry and anger. Krysanthe's real parents had continued to meet despite the dangers after Krysanthe was born, and did so for many years, but one day they were discovered and their families decided to punish them. They were forbidden to ever set eyes on each other again, and a strong Twilight magic spell was cast to ensure this was carried out. Their use of magic was also curtailed, and each was placed in a sort of invisible magic restraining bubble so that their magic could not be used or felt outside a radius of about a few inches from their bodies. The elders however never found out about Krysanthe, so well had her parents concealed her existence using their magic at the time of her birth.

One day Krysanthe took her usual walk to the sea shore to sit and contemplate the Ocean, when she felt suddenly as if some invisible connection had been cut. She no longer felt the urge to travel away or an attraction in the direction of Jataiso. Of course, this was the day her real parents' magic had been curtailed, so she could no longer feel their influence. From that day forth Krysanthe was unable to feel what she had felt in her early years, and knew her life was on Swirling Mist and nowhere else. She felt saddened somehow, but didn't know why. Nevertheless she carried on with her duties and leadership, guiding and helping the local ponies to live a peaceful existence. Her policy was always one of resolution of problems using negotiation and reasoning, rather than violence. If two parties had a disagreement, then they were brought to her to settle the issue. As time went on Krysanthe trained more Merponies to carry out this role, that of mediator.

Krysanthe did not neglect the possibility of attack on their idyllic island. So she organised the formation of a Protector class, made up of ponies who were trained in the art of peace-keeping and protection of the local inhabitants. The projects closest to her heart, though, were those of a more mystical nature, in keeping with her Jataisan origins. So classes of Seers and Sorcerors were created, and attracted many of the young to train in a disciplined manner to use their innate powers responsibly. A class of Healers was also created, the Merponies often succumbing to injuries or attacks from sea creatures, and their services were much in demand. Magic grew to be accepted again amongst the tribesMers, in its most positive form.

In this way Krysanthe kept the inhabitants of Swirling Mist Isle well-occupied and fulfilled over her many years as their leader. In time she grew old, although always a vital force to be reckoned with. However one day she felt it was time for her to leave the mortal world and, taking only the magic blanket she had been found with as a foal, one dark night she left her home and went back to the place she had been found. The next morning the locals found her body there, the beautiful magic blanket wrapped around it, Krysanthe appearing simply to be sleeping peacefully, a trace of a smile on her lips. The locals mourned her and decided to create a Golden Temple at that very spot as a mark of respect and place of worship for future MerPonies. As the years went by many stories and legends grew up of the Golden Mer's deeds and even miracles ascribed to her, so that she eventually assumed the status of 'goddess' on the Island. The legends say that when the Golden MerPony died she was carried up to the Celestial Sea by MerPonies who have already passed there and came to fetch her. The lasting legacy of The Golden Mer was her wish that the ponies left behind would follow her path of peace and diplomacy.

A New Era and the Golden Temple

Coming soon.

Azuyan's War affects the Isle

Coming soon.