Hendrith Kuldan was an Umantari T’ara Kul of no small skill, who lived in the 22nd Century in the land of Musira, then a possession of the resurgent Ocean Empire. Hendrith hoped to construct a new kind of golem, one powered by a true elemental. For over ten years he labored, and in the end he constructed a 15 meter long, 5 meter tall solid bronze statue of a giant serpent. It was made primarily of bronze, etched in exquisite detail, its flared head inlaid with designs of gold and silver, with eyes of polished steel, and the body articulated in 40 segments. All who saw it agreed, it was a magnificent work of art, utterly unique.

When the body was complete Hendrith summoned a powerful Orivax into his masterpiece to provide the artifact’s animus. He successfully summoned the metal elemental, an especially voluminous one, given the mass of the body being offered, and it did, indeed, animate the statue. The already beautiful artifact became something transcendent as it came to “life,” moving in a sinuous, almost sensual undulation, raising its head up over the mage and his gathered witnesses.

Whether it was his own distraction at the sheer majesty of what he had crated, or merely a failure of his will matched against such a powerful elemental, the reason hardly matters. The fact is, Hendrith failed to control the Orivax, and the creature promptly left to explore the material world in its splendid new body. The bronze serpent glowed cherry red, burning a hole through the stone of the distraught mage’s sanctum, and then plunged into the earth, burrowing so quickly that it was lost to sight in seconds.

Hendrith, and almost all of his guests, survived the renegade elemental’s departure, but over the next several years others would not be so lucky. The Orivax would emerge from time to time from beneath the earth to inflict great damage in various spots around the world.The most infamous of the creature’s rampages was in the city of Kol-Tiran – once renowned for its wide avenues and magnificent gardens, and now known only as the Lost City of Kol-Tiran.

Eventually, the Orivax wearied of its “material adventure” and it abandoned its metallic body, although precisely where and when no one alive knows. The moral of the tale is unclear, unless it is simply that when dealing with great powers, it is best to employ extreme caution… or simply don’t deal with them at all. And that, somewhere, there is a very large, very ornate, and quite valuable former host mass waiting to be found…