Queen Leathides
Queen Leathides was a monarch of the Old Dynasty of Kasa in The Age of Settlement.
She was the successor of her parents King Mathidas and his wife Thela Thenn. [1]
She took as her consort a commoner who may have been named Kuro who vanquished the Char Wyrm and may have hailed from Kuro Orchard.[2] With her consort, Leathides had one son Prince Semmethep to whom she gave the Talzyre and one daughter, Princess Sashinja who married a Fennec prince from Ovi Talif [3] to whom she gave the Manzyre, two legendary cloaks.[4]
Her successor is likely Prince Semmethep also known as Hestu Sem and Sootmouth.
Monarch of Technological Innovation
She was responsible as a princess for inspiring the creation of porcelain and gahem salts by Aldebaran, [5] her father's Court Mystic after being captivated by Selka made glass. Although Aldebaran's experiments did not succeed, they created a number of other materials.
Queen Leathides had an Order of Porcelain Knights at her court and its crest was a flowering tulip. [6]
References
The story of the creation of porcelain stretches back to the third age. The daughter of a king became enamoured with Selkan glass and ordered her father to make glass objects right there in Braided Shore.
The king in turn ordered his court mystic to recreate glass. The court mystic tried many things to appease the princess but eventually landed on alchemically produced Porcelain as a glass substitute.
Once, a foreign merchant came to the court of King Mathidas. He revealed a stunning display of glass items, impossible to reproduce in Braided Shore. The King purchased all the glass baubles and gifted them to his daughter Leathides. The little princess was spellbound by the glimmering glass and asked her father to make more glass. The King, not wanting to disappoint his daughter, asked his Court Mystic Aldebaran to create sand that could be made into glass, magically. The mystic toiled for many moons in his laboratory, but it was for naught. Even with his brilliant mind, Aldebaran could only accomplish a sand-like powder, unsuitable for glassmaking. Dejectedly, King Mathidas returned to his daughter and said that creating glass with Braided shore materials was simply impossible. The princess shrugged, as she had forgotten all about the glass. Instead she requested a new spice to make her food taste less dull. Aldebaran, who had tasted the product of his sand-experiment earlier presented it to the princess who thoroughly enjoyed the new spice. The King congratulated Aldebaran and named the new seasoning after the Mystic's last name.
The ring bears the Flowering Tulip Crest of Queen Leathides' long gone order of porcelain knights.
Back during the Third Age, folk legends tell of the Char Wyrm. She was a daughter of the Great Serpent from deep below, birthed from a silver egg. She was possessed by a gluttonous obsession and folk fled when she swooped down from the mountains to devour cattle, people, even entire villages whole, so great was her hunger. Queen Leathides sent her porcelain knights to battle but none ever returned.
That's when a lowly servant from Leathides' kitchens asked for the chance to defeat the Wyrm. Seeing no harm in letting him try, the queen assented. The servant left for his hometown, a small orchard in the west and did not return for many moons.
The queen began to loose hope that anyone would be able to defeat the voracious fiend that plagued her kingdom.
The Wyrm moved closer and closer to the capital, eating every village in her path. But just as the beast reached the capital, the servant returned. "Halt, oh great half-Wind fiend. Oh great insatiable one. I beseech thee to allow this humble servant one attempt to satiate your appetite." The Wyrm halted and snorted a plume of noxious jade flames into the air. "Very well, servant." The beast replied with mirth "Should thee be able to satiate me, I shall leave and never return. But if thou fail, then I shall devour this kingdom whole. Starting with thou and thy queen."
The servant, full of confidence, began cooking. The kingdom looked on in suspense as he added a char-sulphur coloured paste to the dish. The Wyrm scratched her crescent-like claws upon the castle walls impatiently. "Thou must know that my stomach has no equal, and that no poison can harm me." The servant did not reply, he simply continued cooking. When the food was finished, he presented the dish to the Wyrm who devoured the food, plate and all in one bite.
Her eyes narrowed as she tasted the dish but did not attack. "I am not too proud to admit defeat. Though have calmed my frenzied maw and so I shall honour my promise to thee and leave. But only if thou reveal what the paste was that filled me with such fullness and warmth." The servant reached into his robe and produced a pot of Char Mustard. He told her that his family was poor, hungry and cold, and would often only eat Char Mustard because it was so filling, and gave your body a pleasant warmth, even in the coldest of nights.
The Wyrm left and the queen asked what boon the servant would ask of her for payment of his great deed. He simply asked to be allowed to continue cooking for the queen, so great was his love for her that he desired nothing else. She accepted his request but also decided to take him as her prince consort in marriage. His family was never cold, poor or hungry again and It is thought that one of the locations in the west was named after the servant boy, in honour of his deed.
There once was a Skald named Gillasen who wrote scalding critiques of everyone in power. The Prince is of common birth! They shouted. The Queen is balding! They exclaimed. The folk loved Gillasen's poems and they soon gathered more and more popularity. The Prince Consort did not mind the mockery, and the Queen ignored it. But when Gillasen made fun of the Court Mystic, he was enraged. The Court Mystic is a sham! Gillasen cried out with a smile as they were carried away by guards to the people's dissapointment. The Court Mystic brought Gillasen in front of the Queen and asked her to execute the Skald for their disrespect. The Prince adviced against it and the Queen took his council. "Very well, Gillasen, you have one night to write a hundred poetic odes to my beauty. If you fail to impress me then you shall die but if you succeed then you shall have a place as my Royal Skald." So spoke Queen Leathides.
Gillasen went to work, stop the prison tower, they began writing their hundred odes. The Court Mystic was further enraged and decided to sabotage for the Bard. The Mystic transformed himself into a sparrow and sat upon the prison towers' windowsill and chirped all night, with his aim of disturbing Gillasen's work.
Gillasen smiled at the bird and took a small pouch from his bag, he ate a small char root and offered some to the sparrow. The Court Mystic didn't want his cover to be blown, ate of the char roots and immediately began coughing. He flew away from the tower and transformed back, saving his life.
Come morning, Gillasen presented his hundred odes to the Queen and she took him as her personal Skald at once. And from that day forward, there was not a day that went by without the Court Mystic enduring Gillasen's scalding mockery first hand.
"To my son I gift Talzyre; the North wind. Around my daughter I wrap Manzyre; the South. Two cloaks to forever guard the lifewind of their lungs." So spoke Queen Leathides.