You might not guess it given the amount of gantu who consider themselves religious is now less than 2%, but we were once quite a spiritual species. Unsurprisingly, there are hundreds of myths, legends, and stories of the supernatural from our early civilization. Today, even some non-religious gantu still hold these stories as truth, thinking them an exception from their typical skeptical views. Perhaps irrationally, and perhaps chalking them up to unknown magic species present in our early history.
I hope this article to be the first in a series I write performing a historical and cultural analysis of these various legends, how they may have come about, what impact they had, and more. As such, I wanted to start off with one of the more interesting cases: The legend of the water spirit which saved Panathea.
For those unaware, early gantu were solitary creatures. Males stayed alone, while females raised children until they were ready to leave them to fend for themselves. As our consciousness and intelligence developed, some gantu came up with the idea to live near each other in order to share ideas, resources, and defense. This small group turned into a community, which became a village, which became the first gantu settlement of Panathea.
This was a critical moment in our history. We could survive on our own, but we couldn’t become great without working together. This experimental community is, undoubtedly, the sole reason our species is as advanced as it is today. So, what would have happened if it were destroyed? It’s easy to see why the threat of such catastrophe would make for a good story. The legend goes like this:
Panathea, in the year 1034 GR, was thriving. Most gantu in the area had been drawn to it, while outsiders watched, debating if the idea would truly work or not. Several thousand gantu lived in the community, a large portion of the total gantu population. The village, however, was built along the banks of the Grato river. One day, the lone gantu living by the ocean saw the water mysteriously recede. Not long after, a monstrous wave appeared on the horizon. This great tsunami came, completely engulfing the mouth of the Grato and causing flooding to quickly break out down its banks. Gantu who lived further downriver tried to warn the village, but the waters moved faster than they could. Several kilometers from the river’s mouth, Panathea was surely doomed, and with it, the idea of a gantu community, and possibly the species as a whole.
The villagers, starting to see the waters come in, began to panic. Some could only stare in acceptance, knowing they couldn’t outrun the flood. But then, suddenly, a great being rose from the river. This being seemed to be made of pure water, taking on a vaguely gantunoid shape. Holding up its hands, the being called the water spirit seemed to magically divert the flow of the water. The lands surrounding Panathea were still flooded, but the water passed harmlessly by the buildings and families. Once the waters died down, the spirit disappeared, never to be seen again, leaving Panathea with kilometers of fertile soil.
Now, what makes this story so interesting? It’s the fact that our scientific findings actually support it. Sediment, soil, and fossil analyses around the area Panathea is known to have existed show that there was in fact a flood in ancient times, which seemed to abruptly stop following the course of the river and go around the banks instead.
So, was this story completely made up? Unlikely. Seemingly there was in fact a flood which could have destroyed Panathea, cutting our storied history short, and it was somehow averted. This could have been accomplished through some lucky river topography, or perhaps an effort by crafty early gantu who recognized the possibility of flooding from the river. Of course, there’s another explanation: water magic. While there’s currently no known native species from Olara which possess water magic, there could have been an undocumented, now-extinct species which was somehow utilized to prevent the flood, and this tale of water magic was slowly morphed into that of a large, singular water spirit that single handedly saved the town. It does certainly make for better dramatics, as well as giving our spiritual ancestors something to worship.