The Mouth of the Cyclops
I saw it that day. Not all of it--no one ever does--but I saw it. Massive. Horrifying. Terror incarnate. POWER incarnate. There’s nothing like this thing on Legere. My brother says it isn’t even from Legere. He tells me ancient scholars from the Dawn Wastelands once knew a creature--the Cyclops. A monster so large that its revolting scalp scraped the clouds from the sky. A being so tall and mighty that the planets that passed by its head were dashed as if they were snowballs striking fire iron. Its body was an indiscernible nightmare, and it watched the world it stood upon with one single eye. An eye, filled with cruel knowledge, with malicious intent--the same eye I saw that day. What was supposed to be a simple trip from Siman to Gong soon turned into a nightmare. From the depths, a shadow grew, so large and dark that I feared the sun had been struck down from the sky. It might as well have been. The creature reared itself up, the ocean churning with the intensity of fire. It struck the boat with its appendage--whether it was its arm or leg, I do not know--and capsized it with one swing. Its eye opened, and the sea poured into it--swallowing wreckage and sailor alike. Only I survived. Of course. Why would a beast as great as this care about a single, pathetic dun? My body escaped from that nightmare as it rode to shore on a plank of wood. But my mind is still stuck in the vortex of that mouth even to this day.
~Unknown Passenger of the Lost Ship Kanda
The Mouth of the Cyclops was an unfathomably massive organism that was so incomprehensibly huge that it drove those that saw it to madness. It was so enormous of an organism that it was never seen in full. Its features were unclear, as varying accounts shared many different details. There were a few details that remained consistent throughout many accounts:
- It possessed many limbs (tentacles, claws, hands, or a combination).
- It had one massive eye.
- Majority of accounts claimed the eye glowed, but other more reputable sources claimed that the eye itself was simply a vibrant colour. Most people described the colour as blue.
- The creature possessed an enormous mouth.
- Many details on this were disputed. Some accounts claimed that the eyeball itself was the mouth. Some claimed the eye was within its mouth. Some said the mouth and eye were separate. Whatever the case may have been, one thing was certain: the mouth was always hungry.
Fortunately for sailors, run-ins with the Mouth of the Cyclops were a rare occurrence. It seemed to prefer sticking to the depths of the ocean rather than surfacing, at least until it became hungry. Of course, nothing in the Cyclopean ocean was too big for the Mouth to eat. Ships were likely targeted by the Mouth since they resembled a large organisms.
Following the the rise of The Pharaoh and the fall of Jinifar, encounters with the Mouth have become increasingly rare, as most ship routes had little to no reason to travel that far south.
Old Ganpoumi Fi records contained some tales regarding the Mouth of the Cyclops. Most were glorious stories of the Klo Ming doing battle with the Mouth, using their "sun-fire" to smite it.
Legacy of the Cyclops #
Ancient historical documents from the ancient cities of the Dawn Wastelands claimed that the Mouth of the Cyclops was once part of a larger organism, simply called the Cyclops. It was the primary passenger of the celestial body known as the Vile Comet, which became the Nether Fountain. The accounts from the last days of the Cuprum Kingdom said that the Cyclops climbed from the smoldering crater, and laid waste to the surviving cities. The Cyclops was incredibly powerful, and by the time a solution was determined, many lives had already been lost. A mysterious magical weapon was used to behead the Cyclops. Its head rolled from what could be called its shoulders, falling straight into the sea. Its body slowly degraded over time--but it was not dead. Its corpse seeded what would become the Festerplains, a spawning ground for all manner of vile creatures. DHT zoologists believed the formation of the Bloodcoast Sea’s putrid waters was a result of the Mouth of the Cyclops gestating underwater for hundreds of years, regenerating itself and taking on adaptations before travelling south to deeper waters where it could grow larger.
There was also a common theory that the terrifying Moonbeast was but a parasite that had grown on or within the Cyclops’ body.
For info, read The Cyclops' Lavishment of Wretched Calamity.