The Legend of the Hero is the best-known story in Edthea: heroes chosen from among heroes, armed with weapons granted by the King of Hiden, will defeat the four Devil Beast Kings, and people will learn how big the world really is. It inspires Alicia, Shiro, Ray and many others, and the Eld religion’s scriptures share the same passage.
The five passages
The full text, as known in Boelate, has five verses:
- The Temple: Awakening on a stone altar and looking up at the light, the hero realizes their destiny.
- The Town of Origin (Beginning Town): The hero receives a divine revelation, faces trials and awakens to power.
- The Furnace: With flames housing divine power, the sword is forged, called a divine treasure, the hero’s one and only weapon.
- Heaven and Earth: Slaying many devil beasts and saving many people, the hero looks beyond the summit.
- New Horizon: Defeating the four Devil Beast Kings and guiding the people beyond the veil, the hero reclaims the world.
Popular versions are an embellished fairy tale in which the hero meets a sage chosen by God and wins love and friendship; the ending is never told. The original text is short, never mentions magic or Hiden by name, and omits the Furnace passage.
The truth
The legend was written more than 1,100 years ago by the summoned hero Wright, on the orders of Toa, as a grimoire to guide and empower Toa’s heroes. Using his skills, Wright infused each of its five volumes, the Books of Toa, with domain power and created a holy site for each. He then used the legend to turn the heroes against the Toans and to end the heroes’ resurrections. Drel concluded that the legend was a tool of manipulation and set out to destroy it, while Vordin and the Union tried to restore it to its original form.