The first people ever to see Jazaka, some twenty years ago, are said to be the sailors of the Windwalker. She was a great sailing ship, such as the Torokel peoples have used since before the Skavarian’s came, to move cargo between the towns on the Hidden Sea. She would sail from Serukir to Eldinär loaded with amber and hides, and would sail back with pottery and precious metals.

As the ship sailed in the Seruin Gulf, it would use the top of Mount Ossüak to steer by. The mountain was tall and could be seen from many kilometers off, but it was a gloomy sight. The top was always shrouded in grey clouds, even if the sky was bright and clear. Some of the sailors said this was a bad omen, but no one gave the mountain any heed because it never changed and nothing bad ever seemed to happen near it.

But one night, as the Windwalker rested near a beach and the sailors drank and gambled, one of the men, named Tebik, noticed that something was different about the mountain. He looked closer and saw flame and lightning jumping from cloud to cloud. He told the others to look, and they did, but by then the flame and lightning was gone. Tebik tried to convince the others of what he had seen, but they did not believe him.

After the ship had set sail the next morning, one of the clouds left the mountain and started flying towards the ship. It came closer, easily outrunning them, and landed on the deck. The cloud was gray, and swirled first one way, then another. It seemed to some that perhaps the cloud was breathing: in, and then out. After a few moments, a voice came from the cloud. It was a voice like that of a man, loud and commanding. The cloud said:

“I am Jazaka, Master of the Winds, Ruler of Windheim. Yield to me your cargo, and no evil shall befall you. But if you refuse me, then shall you suffer.”

The cloud stayed on the deck, awaiting an answer. All of the sailors wanted to agree, but the owner was greedy. He asked Jazaka if they could keep some of the cargo in exchange for helping him unload it. The cloud changed color from gray to black, and a mighty wind struck the ship. Jazaka roared and changed again, from a black cloud into a black whirlwind which began to tear the deck apart. He flew towards the owner, picked him up in the wind, and threw him screaming into the water. The sailors jumped overboard, rather than face Jazaka’s fury.

As the sailors swam away, the wind grew powerful, and dark clouds gathered. Soon the swimmers were in the midst of a storm. Few of them survived this mighty storm Jazaka created, and fewer still survived Jazaka’s wrath.

He commanded his cloud servants to carry some of the men to his mountain. Tebik and two others were snatched from the water and taken to Mount Ossüak. As they were flown away, they begged Jazaka for mercy. He showed them none, for these three were never heard from again.

But the ones who survived the storm and were not captured by the clouds landed on the very beach where they had drank and gambled on the night before. Too exhausted to move, they saw small gray clouds fly from Mount Ossüak to fetch the cargo from sinking Windwalker. They flew until no cargo was left, and then Jazaka let out a mighty roar and threw the ship onto the beach, where it shattered into thousands of pieces.

The remains of the Windwalker lie still upon that beach on the island of Demith, teaching any that care to heed it the lesson that Jazaka should be respected and obeyed. And since the time, no ship sailing the eastern Seruin Gulf has been safe. Although no one can predict when it will happen next, Jazaka still occasionally lands on ships and takes their cargo, but he no longer speaks to any one. He has given his first and only warning…