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The Tale of the Cherry Tree[/centre]

Upon the rock old Mora sat, a bear as old as Time itself and greatest of the Victors. In times before he had been known as Morarom Oramomaro, but the traditions of the Treeminds had eroded from him - for the eons and the ages erode great mountains, and they erode the most dearly held habits also, and even one's culture and ways, with none around to preserve them, go the way all things must finally go. Why, even their mighty god, who had sat upon the altar of Time and read it to all, had at last been grinded by that never-ceasing grinder. For it was not the Jvanic Flesh which had caused Vowzra to be slain, but Time itself which had willed and caused. That Jvanic Entity had been naught more than a vessel, and through it did the mysterious hand of Time seize the Lord of Time.

'You ask me of the Cherry Tree,' old Mora finally said, looking down from where he sat, on that antique rock, upon the Victors who sat below, and the lay people of New Chronos, and the curious children who huddled close to their parents and stared at the great bear. And among them were Lifprasilians, and among them were Pronobii, and there were humans and there were hain, and there were ogres also and Treeminds, but no djinn. And to the side two other ancient bears stood, warrioresses unmatched, Zina and Sali who had, eons and ages ago, ascended with Mora to Chronos, and here had they all become Victors.

'It is said, and who knows if it is true, that the Cherry Tree was gifted by the Dream Goddess, Illunabar, to the Celestial Above in times before human or hain or even Treemind walked the plains of Galbar. For as you all know, our master the Bard is a child of the Celestial Above, but also of that fervent, starry-eyed goddess. And it is said that the Bard was created of wood, unlike ogres and men and beasts who are of clay, and unlike Pronobii who are of ice, and unlike Lifprasilians and hain who are of a mysterious source derived. And when the Celestial Above took the Bard, that Goddess of Dreams so missed her child - and so missed her lover! - that she would spend her days carving out of wood their missed and adored visages. And this Goddess of Dreams has many strange servants, some of glass and some of leaves and some of rust and some of metal and some of flowers made, and it did not please them to see their mother so lost in her own world - for it was not for the Dream Goddess to be lost in dreams and sighs for those she missed and could not see, nay! it is hers to entrap others in dreams within dreams and worlds within worlds and endless roads and skies and winding ways. 

'And so those many servants of the Goddess of Dreams gathered and argued for long, and they debated and there was much vexation, but at long last they came to an agreement and chose the servant of flowers made to go speak to their mother. And that flowery servant brought to her mother a little red fruit - and it is said that the Goddess of Dreams was so filled with passionate inspiration upon seeing it that the little servant of flowers made could not so much as utter a word before her mother had taken the little red fruit and banished the little servant from her sight.

'And for many days did the Goddess labour, until at last she had created the Cherry Tree, and she dedicated it to her disappeared lover and child and sent it forth into the land, where it grew. And so great was the passion of the Dream Goddess, so great her love, that the Cherry Tree grew even here, in Chronos. And that there is the Queen of all Cherry Trees, whose fruit are reddest, whose flowers are largest and brightest, whose leaves are greenest, whose branches are coiled with a passionate energy and whose benefits are so many and so great as to be impossible to count or record - even if one were to write for one thousand nights and days without pause in an effort to do so.

'And so, when you next look upon a Victor, and you see upon their noble, masked white face the Crest of the Celestial Above, and you see the ant and know of TOBIA, and you see the crows and know of Chao and Aeth, see also the Cherry Blossom, and know of the abiding love and loyalty of the Goddess of Dreams for our master the Bard, our progenitor the Celestial Above, and for us who are the creations of him to whom she gifted her heart in the form of a Cherry Tree.'

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[i]The Vowzrid Mark; Crest of the Celestial Above[/i][/centre]