The Legend of the Emperor's Penguins: GL v.

"It happened long ago, or so they say, when the world here was green and the snow was just an occasional visitor to these vast lands. The crops were plentiful and the warmth of the sun was enough to keep the cold and snow at bay. 

However one day something terrible was born. In the most Southern point of this world a small gust of wind was angry. It was upset that no matter how hard it tried those around it could easily withstand its gale and when it blew with all its might they simply laughed at its desperate attempts. With its anger festering the wind decided that it was time to become strong no matter the cost of doing so. 

It quickly started to absorb the life of everything around it. As it consumed others' lives it quickly grew in strength and size. At first this Southern wind simply stole the life of small plants, then it moved onto trees and when that was no longer enough for it, it began to consume the life of any creature who wandered by it.  High on the power it gobbled up the energy of everything in sight turning the once green and prosperous land into a cold and frozen tundra. Unable to live in this harsh new world most Animalian were forced to move northward to warmer areas, however as they attempted to run away from the Southern wind it simply laughed and followed them, consuming everything it could as it gave chase.

However, there was one small town, what is now known as windwall, that would not run. This land was their home and they would not let the Southern wind take it from them. Together they decided that the only way to protect themselves from the Southern wind’s attacks would be to construct a large wall and trap it in its cold southern home. As they worked together to build this giant wall the Southern wind tried its best to stop them. It would lash out at the villagers when ever they stepped out side and the Southern wind would steal the life of anyone who was weak or sick, but the Animalian of the town were determined. 

Despites the Southern winds best efforts, eventually the large wall was built  blocking it out from the rest of the world and trapping it on the other side in its frozen domain.

As a number of generations passed, the towns folk and their emperor (their leader who guided all the towns folk in how to maintain the wall) were dutiful in keeping the wall maintained despite the Southern winds nightly attempts to pull it back down.

 But it wasn’t to last. One night the Southern wind decided to try something different. Rather than trying to use its now diminishing strength to destroy the wall, it carefully poked at each segment in its structure looking for any sort of weak point. Finding a small opening, a tiny gust of the Southern wind slipped into the city. It traveled silently down the sleeping streets looking for its target, and eventually it found it, the Emperor’s home. Sneaking in it moved into his bedroom, however it was not foolish enough to think that it would be able to take the Emperor on. No, it was here for his wife, the Empress. Careful not to stir her lover it whispered in her ear giving her false promises and tempting her to follow it.

 Although she tried to fight it, eventually she fell under its spell and followed it beyond the wall to its domain.

The next morning the emperor awoke and upon seeing his wife missing panicked.

He searched all over his abode and after turning it inside out he searched the city, the townspeople helping him look in every nook and cranny for her. But she was nowhere to be seen. Having looked all over the town only to come up empty again, he fell into a state of panic and despair. As the sun began to set on the town the Southern wind started to laugh at the emperor’s despair. It poked fun at him, his people and there wall. After it was done dragging him down as far as it could, with one last chuckle it told him what it had done.

Through its chuckles it admitted that it had pulled her out of her bed late last night and convinced her to join it on the other side of the wall. Once fully in his grasp she had become desperately lost and was even now searching for a way back home, but was unable to find one.

Knowing that going beyond the wall was dangerous, but determined to save his Empress the Emperor packed his gear and left the town, and the wall to find her. 

The townsfolk waited for his return with many of them fasting in hopes that it would help him to return safely. However after a few days and no sight of him they knew that something terrible had happened. 

In order to find him, the villagers created small search parties, however as soon as they stepped past the wall the Southern wind would do its best to harm and confuse them. It created raging storms and made the falling snow so heavy that it was blinding, it did everything it could to stop the townsfolk from finding their leader. Each time the search party returned to the town a new one was sent out to look for him as the returning party rested. Weeks went by, then months, then years, and although they hadn’t found their emperor, the stubborn town would not give up looking for him.

But as they spent their time and energy searching for the Emperor, they had started to neglect the wall. The Southern wind would attack the now weakened wall every night, taking bit by bit of it down till eventually only a small part of the wall remained. As it freed itself from its prison the Southern wind would ravish the land once more, taking all the life it could find and laughing at the townsfolk for their failures.

Despite all this, the townsfolk still continued to look for the Emperor, or at least his remains as they would not allow the Southern Wind to claim both his life and his body. In fact they still search even to this day. 

The Guiding Lights are what remains of these search parties. We travel the frozen tundra looking for anyone stuck in the Southern Wind's clutches and pull them back to safety."