Machishou

Machishou is the Faleic name for a mythic Age of Heroes demi-god. The myth of Machishou was and remains the most popular mythic tradition of Rigini speachief peoples and the story remains well known throughout most of the ancestral and present Rigini lands. The wide spread of the legend throughout the Rigini speachief community indicates an ancient origin, as it seems likely that the myth was present in the ancestral Rigini speachief population of Falea before the Rigini culture spread to other regions starting in the 10th century BNE. The story tells the tale of a powerful demi-god who leads a life of tragedy and is forced to undertake an impossible quest for the mythical Essence of Life as punishment for a crime. Many details of the story based on regional traditions, including Machishou's homeland, but some core elements are common to all versions.

Core Legend
There are three main regional traditions of the Machishou myth, the Faleic tradition, the Ousilic tradition (which persists in Ializa and Imaria) and the Lascusalic/Nadaric tradition. Each tradition claims a different, local, origin for Machishou but some many important details of the story are shared in all versions.

Machishou is described as a demi-god and the son of a goddess of war in all traditions, with his birth mother abandoning him to a childless herding couple. All traditions include some version of an incident in which Machishou kills an alpha wolf with his bare hands as a small child and wins the loyalty of the rest of the pack, who protect him and his family.

All traditions relate an event in which an adolescent Machishou attends a javelin throwing contest in which contestants attempt to hit a target with a javelin from the greatest distance. Machishou, unimpressed, casually remarks to a friend that he could hit the target from twice the distance. The champion overhears this and forces Machishou to attempt the throw, hoping to embarrass him. Machishou eyes the target and asks to make the throw even harder, though traditions vary on how. The official gives him five javelins and he hits the target with all five.

Machishou's parents are killed by a bear while he and his wolves are out hunting when he is a young adult. He grieves his parents for a long time before his birth mother reveals his true heritage and begs him not to waste his life mourning mortals. He ignores her and continues mourning.

Machishou decides to travel to a new land after completing his mourning and runs afoul of a tyrant chief, who sentences him to death for some trivial crime. Machishou kills the chief and is proclaimed chief in his place, marrying the princess. Machishou has several children with the princess but is then either driven mad or deceived by a spirit, god, or sorcerer (depending on the tradition) and kills either his wife, children, or both. He is subsequently banished.

Machishou resumes wandering and is tricked into an act of sacrilege by a nymph or sprite. He is caught and once more sentenced to death by the local chief. He doesn't contest his guilt in this case, however, and instead pleads that he be given a quest to redeem himself and absolve his guilt. The chief, pressured by his advisers to show mercy, gives Machishou an impossible quest: to travel to the corner of the world and retrieve the Essence of Life for the chief, which in this tradition would grant the chief immortality.

Machishou recieves some divine guidance as to the whereabouts of the corner and begins a long quest that leads him through various barbaric lands and into conflict with a variety of monsters. Various heroes join him on his quest, though their identities are inconsistent even within traditions. The details of this quest are highly divergent among different traditions and few commonalities exist. All traditions contain some version of a story where Machishou defeats another tyrant and is offered the crown, but refuses because he is honor bound to continue the quest. All versions also contain an event where Machishou and his companions are captured by man-eating monsters and Machishou escapes by mutilating himself and slays the monsters.

The tale generally ends when Machishou reaches the sea. The guidance he received earlier advised him to continue traveling in a given direction until he reaches the corner of the world, so he builds a boat and continues on his way, either with companions or alone. He never returns or is heard from again.

The Malacho version, which generally follows the Faleic tradition, adds an additional chapter in which Machishou's boat reaches the Island of Anatha and helps the locals defeat various monsters on the island. This tradition also has Machishou dig several caves in the island and performs a ceremony at the site where Malacho would later be founded. He eventually sails away, never to return, in this version as well.

Faleic Tradition
The Faleic Tradition is the oldest and likely most conservative of ancient elements, as other traditions mix the tale with other local, indigenous Age of Heroes traditions.

In the Faleic version, Machishou's mother is Bahiu, the protector Goddess of Warriors, and she abandons him with goat herders in the hills of what would today be Binladua province. Machishou is 5 when he defeats the wolf and 12 when he watches the javelin contest. The champion hit the target from 212 paces, and Machishou is walked to 424 paces to attempt his throw. When he eyes the target, he asks to double the distance again, hitting the target from 848 paces. The nobles present at the contest beg for him to join with them but he insists on returning to herd with his parents.

His parents are killed by the bear when he is 17, and he blames himself for not protecting them. He stays at their graves in mourning, nearly starving himself if not for the meat his wolves bring him, for a full year before Bahiu appears and implores him to stop wasting his life. He refuses to acknowledge her as his mother, insisting that his true mother was the one who raised him, and remains at the graves in mourning for another full year.

He finally decides to leave to find a new life and sends the wolves away into the hills. He travels on foot into a nearby chiefdom, where he walks past a group traveling by horse. As he walks past the third horse, the rider reveals himself to be chief Maflocla, and sentences Machishou to death for failing to yield the road to the chief and his men. The two fight, and Machishou slays Maflocla with a single blow from his stone axe.

The people of the chiefdom, who lived in fear of the terrible Maflocla, celebrate and offer the crown to Machishou, which he accepts. He marries Maflocla's daughter, Fashula, and has two daughters with her. While the daughters are young, Machishou is deceived by the trickster god Ueshto into believing that Fashula is being attacked and mistakenly kills her while trying to defend her. The people of the chiefdom refuse to believe his story of being deceived and he is banished from the chiefdom.

He travels towards the hills hoping to return to his homeland but on the way he is lured by a nymph to bathe in a spring. The spring turns out to be a sacred spring of the river goddess Fhashte, who is Machishou's aunt. When the locals discovery Machishou bathing, they inform him of his sacrilege and take him before their chief, chief Kuecheteu of an ancient legendary chiefdom called Dheivuachaui who sentences him to death for this crime.

Machishou begs for a chance to redeem himself through a quest and Fhashte appears, impersonating the chief's wife, and demands that he be given this chance. Kuecheteu, fearing Machishou, agrees but gives Machishou an impossible quest to return the Essence of Life from the corner of the world.

Machishou realizes the quest is impossible but agrees, swearing an unbreakable oath on the name of all the gods. Many heroes come to join him on this quest, although the list varies between sources. Most sources list the heroes Maflomah, Lahfishou, Uumafle, and Kucave as joining for some or all of the quest. Machishou visits and oracle to discover the location of the corner and is told to travel roughly north-north-east until he reaches the corner of the world, and that he would find the Essence buried there.

Machishou and his companions leave Dheivuachaui and enter the mythic chiefdom of Teedhuukoo, where they are welcomed into a great hall by the chief, Bhameku, and offered a meal of flowers. Machishou's men eat the flowers but Machishou, who only eats meat, decides to hide his flowers and pretend he ate them, so as not to seem like an ungrateful guest. Machishou's companions soon begin to fall asleep, and Machishou, realizing treachery is afoot, pretends to fall asleep as well. Bhameku, who was unfazed by the effect of the flowers, calls his men in and they lift one of Machishou's companions onto an altar in the hall, preparing to sacrifice him in a ritual. Machishou finally rises and accuses Bhameku of being a sorcerer, and then kills Bhameku and all of his men.

Machishou and his men next travel to the mythic chiefdom of Mahshocu, where they learn that the people live in terror of their chief, Shtoubhledhu, who is a monster with the head of a cougar and who devours their herds in the night. The people recognize Machishou's great strength and beg him to slay the evil chief, but he insists that he must continue on his journey to keep his oath. Shtoubhledhu attacks Machishou's camp at night, however, killing several horses and several men before Machishou can stop him. Machishou wounds Shtoubhledhu repeatedly but he will not fall. Machishou finally decapitates him with his ax but realizes the chief is still not dead. Finally, he cuts out Shtoubhledhu's heart and eats it, which kills the evil chief.

The people of Mahshocu rejoice and offer Machishou the crown in gratitude. Several of Machishou's companions, including the demi-god Uumafle, ask him to accept, saying that his deeds have redeemed him and no one will blame him for abandoning his impossible quest. Machishou. Machishou reprimands his men for daring to suggest he break an oath sworn on the names of all of the gods. He places the crown on Uumafle's head and orders him and all of the others who recommended he stay to remain in Mahshocu. Later versions of this tale claim that Mahshocu is located in the area of Uumacuune (modern Umacune) and trace the ancestry of the chiefs of Uumacuune to Uumafle, but these claims are almost certainly later additions.

Machishou's remaining party leave Mahshocu and enter into a wilderness beyond civilization. Their party is attacked and abducted by a group of giant humanoid monsters known as Mahbhodheshtas, who appear in other Faleic myths and are said to come from the sea and eat people. The Mahbhodheshtas eat many of Machishou's men while they are imprisoned, including Lahfishou and Kucave, but Machishou is unable to break free from the cave where they are imprisoned to stop them. He prays to his mother for help, and receives a vision in which she tells him he must make a sacrifice from his own body to save his men. He cuts off his right thumb and the door to the prison miraculously opens.

Machishou does battle with the Mahbhodheshtas and is victorious, despite having crippled his right hand. Some versions of this story claim that springs sprung forth from the ground where the monsters fell and that Maflomah decided to stay at the site and founded the city of Lahtushe (modern Laduaen). This story is certainly a later invention, however, as Lahtushe was not founded until the 3rd century BNE, long after the story had passed into legend and spread to across the Carasala region. Even within Falea, most versions exclude this detail and Maflomah is generally said to follow Machishou as far as the ocean.

A final event that has worked its way into most Faleic versions, despite also likely being a more recent invention, has Machishou coming across a walled fortress city named Fluvushe near the coast where the people hide behind walls and refuse to either give Machishou passage or leave their city to do combat with him. Machishou gives them an ultimatum to either let him pass or send a champion out to fight him in single combat, but they refuse. Machishou scales their wall and slaughters their chief and his court, and calls on the gods to tear down the cowards walls. The walls miraculously fall and Machishou continues on his way. This episode was likely invented after the Faleic people came into contact with the Haraklina people, as there were no walled cities in ancient Falea and they would not have had contact with cities walled in stone prior to the Haraklina arrival in Dersialdara in the 5th century BNE.

Finally, Machishou arrives at the shoreline but realizes that he has not reached the corner of the world. Dismayed, he falls to the ground and prays for guidance for several days, but no guidance comes. Finally he realizes that the gods have told him everything that he needs to know already and that he must continue his journey by traveling along his original trajectory across the sea. He builds a boat and rows away with several companions, none of whom are noteworthy from other Faleic mythic traditions.

The Malacho version of the tale adds an additional tale where Machishou sails to the Island of Anatha and believes that it may be the corner of the world. He receives a feast from the local Anatheen people and helps them slay a giant eagle and a man eating python that were terrorizing the island. He then excavates many caves around the island, hoping to find the Essence buried within. Finally he travels to a natural cave near the center of the island (the site of modern Malacho) and performs a ceremony to beg the cave god, Ciloulo, to reveal the location of the Essence to him. Again, he receives no guidance and concludes that he must continue his journey by sea, leaving the island and never returning. No such tale exists in any continental tradition and it is likely these tales were invented after the ancestors of the Malacho people were brought to the island as slaves between 4 BNE and 42 NE.

Various other local traditions exist as well, and many areas in the Decariasa region where the story is said to have taken place have local legends attributing various local natural features and cities to some adventure of Machishou or his companions. Many other Faleic regions have traditions adding their local Age of Heroes figures to the journey, generally adding some important feat performed by this figure during the journey as well.

The Faleic Machishou tradition figures into several mythic traditions in non-Rigini areas as well, although these are surely later inventions by peoples who heard the story second hand from Faleic or other Rigini speachief peoples. This includes legends among the Anatheen people, who have adopted some of the Malacho legends as their own and embellished the role of Anatheen peoples in these legends. In these stories, Machishou is a helpful figure who is friendly to the locals.

The Faleic Machishou also appears as a minor figure in Malaenic legend, which claim that Machishou (Noulaenicized as Madithou in Middle Noulaenic or Madisou in High Noulaenic) passed through Calbaena on his journey to the sea. In stark contrast with the Anatheen legend, the Malaenic legend paints Machishou as belligerent and stupid. In these legends, Machishou attacks a Calbaenic tribe without provocations but is defeated in single combat by a Calbaenic hero, Dasaerthios, who spares Machishou on the condition that he leave and not return. Machishou soon reaches the coast and, deciding that this must be the corner of the world, proceeds to dig a number of massive holes along the coast, much to the annoyance of the local farmers and fishermen. He is outsmarted by another Calbaenic hero, Iacothios, who convinces Machishou to travel away into the endless sea by boat.

The Faleic tradition wasn't recorded in writing prior to the Noulaenic invasion of Falea but was preserved as an oral tradition despite Noulaenic attempts to suppress Faleic culture. Faleic priests first began to secretly write down Faleic myths in Noulaenic script in the 5th century. These stories are generally considered to have retained their Faleic character and the high degree of similarity between Faleic and Malachoic myths supports this belief. These myths, including Machishou, saw a resurgence during the inter-imperial period and Faleic myth remains a point of national pride into the modern era.

One notable difference between the Faleic tradition and other traditions is that Machishou is not explicitly described as a sorcerer, despite the fact that several of his actions fit typical descriptions of Age of Heroes sorcery. It's possible that older traditions considered him a sorcerer, and that his acts of sacrifice (i.e. eating a heart and amputating his own thumb to induce miraculous results) were acts of sorcery, but that later Faleic traditions removed this detail; other traditions consider those actions as acts of sorcery. Faleic people considered sorcery to be immoral by the beginning of the historical era, if not earlier, and may have modified their myths so that their heroes oppose sorcery and fight against it.

Ousilic Tradition
The Ousilic tradition follows the same core plot elements as the Faleic but modifies nearly all of the details. This tradition survives and is popular in the Ousilic region, where the names have been Noulaenicized, and in Ializa and Imaria where they retain their Rigini character. Machishou was known as Miaizau in the older Ousilic dielect and today known as Miaso in Ousilic Noulaenic, Miaizou in Ialini, and Maizau in Imariani. Miaizau was born in the Siliaric Hills south of Ousilia and was the daughter of Kriashri (Noulaenic: Cariasari, Ialini: Kiriashiri, Imaric: Crasri), an indigenous Ousilic warrior goddess. His adoptive parents were nomads who herded bison and lived near the edge of the forests near the later settlement of Lioomianioo (modern Liamiano). His journey is ascribed as tachief him Across and along the Ousilia valley, over the Daua hills, and across the Dersialdaric plain.

In the Ousilic tradition, the pack of wolves is consistently said to have 40 adult wolves and Miaizou is 7 years old when they attack. He doesn't kill the alpha wolf but wrestles it into submission, after which it becomes his loyal companion along with the other wolves.

In the Ousilic tradition, the champion javelin thrower hit the target from 200 paces, and Miaizou (age 11) also throws from this distance. Rather than aschief to be moved further from the target after eyeing it, the Ousilic tradition had Miaizou request to be blindfolded and he hits the target five times from 200 paces with the blindfold on.

Miaizou (now age 16) is hunting when bears kill his adoptive parents in the Ousilic tradition as well but the Ousilic tradition adds a detail that Miaizou hunts down the bears with his wolves, all of whom are killed in the hunt except for the loyal alpha wolf. Miaizou lives off of the bears carcasses while grieving for his parents for 6 months before Kriashri begs him to move on with his life. He swears he will move on once he has finished grieving and remains at the grave for another six months.

Miaizou dresses himself in bear skins and begins to wander downhill in the direction of the Doucusa River. He enters the chiefdom of Raibibiazioo, considered to be near the modern town which was later given the same name (modern Labiasu) where he unknowingly passes the chief on the road. The chief, Ziaaushioo, sentences him to death for failing to kneel, even though he didn't identify himself to Miaizou. Miaizou calls this sentence unjust and demands Ziaaushioo kneel before him instead, or he will kill the chief's entire party. The chief refuses and Miaizou kills the party, as threatened.

The people of Raibibiazioo, who hated Ziaaushioo, proclaim Miaizou the new chief and he marries the chief's daughter, Ditrioobria. The pair have twin sons, named Miairai and Miaishioo, who reach three years of age. An evil sorcerer named Edritioo, who figures into many Ousilic myths, casts a spell that deceives Miaizou into believing that he and his family are being attacked by four bears. In reality, Miaizou kills his family and loyal wolf while trying to fight the illusion. Miaizou is then banished from the chiefdom and forced to continue wandering.

He reaches the Doucusa River at its confluence with the Piamiaestu (Noulaenic: Biamiasu) River. He swims across the Doucusa and reaches the confluence of the Doucusa and the Staupriaestu (Noulaenic: Sataparia) Rivers, the site of modern Defalisadu. He encounters some herders who wish to travel down the Doucusa but who are unable to ford the deep and fast Staupriaestu River. He fashions a rope and hurls it across the river with a javelin, forming a cable for pulling a raft across the river. This story is claimed to be the origin of the cable ferry at Tevlaistu (modern Defalisadu) and is almost certainly a modern invention as the cable ferry was not operated until the 3rd century BNE, long after the supposed events of the story took place.

Miaizou does not cross the river but instead continues along it towards the Daua Hills. He encounters a wood sprite who lures him to a set of pools in the hills near Staupriashe (modern Sataparaen) where he stops to bathe. As with the Faleic version, the pools are sacred to a river goddess (the Ousilic Aitrou in this case) and the chief of Staupriashe, Chleshretioo, sentences Miaizou to death. As with other version, Miaizou begs for a chance to redeem himself through a quest. A Staupriashe noble suggests that Chleshretioo should send Miaizou to retrieve the Essence of Life so that the chief can live forever, and the chief agrees with this plan.

Miaizou swears on all the gods that he will complete the quest or die trying. Compared with the Faleic version, in which Machishou is certain he will fail at this quest, Miaizou is relatively optimistic. Heroes from the region, some of whom have Rigini culture roots and appear in Faleic legends and some of whom are native to Ousilic regional traditions, are said to come from all over the region to join this quest. As with the Faleic tradition, there is great variability in the list of heroes who join the quest and when they depart from it as well. All extant traditions include Miabraumai, Brioovutioo, and Tsautreviae but the total party ranges in size from 15 to 20 heroes with no other overlap between the Ousilic, Ialini and Imariani traditions.

The heroes first travel to the source of the Staupriastu to visit the oracular temple of Shrouupria. This presence of this site, like most sites in this story, is likely a recent addition as the oracular temple in question was constructed in 202 BNE. The oracle gives the same advice as in the Faleic legend, to travel north-north-east until the corner of the world is reached and dig there to find the buried Essence of Life.