Captain Landess

Landess (215 Y.S.-285 Y.S.?) was an Egronian who captained the first ship to ever make the voyage across the great ocean between the east and the west. However, because he never returned to the east, his legacy and the telling of the story differs between the two places.

Eastern: Captain Landess as a Fool and a Cheat
The story of captain Landess is less well known in the east, although most Egronian children hear it as a cautionary tail about an overly passionate captain that set sale from Egron and was devoured by Leviathan in the Ocean. The story in the east highlights how the whole nation was taken in by Landess's untethered dream of sailing across the treacherous ocean. Much Gold was spent building the fleet of bronze ships, as the entire nation dreamed of making long lost contact with the other side of the world. All were united in a single ambition. The fervor for this voyage was so great that when it became difficult to find the raw materials necessary for the construction of the ships, the King of Egron ordered that the shields from nearly half his standing army be smelted down and used for there construction.

Landess set sail in the middle of the summer of 255. He was never again seen in the east.

The story goes on to tell how Egron was invaded by outsiders, who sewed great chaos over the land for many years. The armies of Egron were greatly diminished, having sacrificed so much to send Landess over the ocean. Though the invaders were kept at bay, Egron sacrificed much for a fruitless attempt to get across the ocean.

Some eastern tellings of this story suggest that Captain Landess never intended to sale west, taking the ships and the money for himself and disappearing in the Moranian wilds to live a life of wealth (this telling of the story is particularly popular among those that supported Moranian independence from Egron, though the tail is not widely told there). Others suggest that he used beguiling magic to convince members of the royal house to fund his endeavor, as well as key members of the community to whip the people into a frenzy (this telling of the tail is most popular in Egron, where Landess is demonized as a fool and a cheat).

Western: Captain Landess as a Historical Fact and Legend
While Landess never made it back east, he did eventually touch down in what would later be known as Brelyria. He met the locals, and the story of his bravery and cunning spread throughout the land. Not a single person living in the west has not heard and been inspired by this tail. Many in the west attempted similar voyages, although none were quite as successful. However, in an attempt to find a sea route east, some western sailors rediscovered Osica many years before any in the east were even aware of its existence. Unfortunately, by the time the eastern continent touched down in Osica, the west had abandoned sea travel.

Many historians have raised questions about the story. Some question why no attempt was made to establish a magical portal between the two continents, considering that teleportation magic was well known and used throughout the western world. It has been suggested by the historian [] that he either did not have the material means to do so (due to losing so much of his fleet in the journey, a lack of the necessary magical components, etc.), or that he was not interested in returning east (due, perhaps, to being a fugitive or an outcast), or that he was mysteriously unable to establish a portal across the Ocean due to distance or magical interference. This conflicts with the assessment done by [], who suggests that a magical portal was created by the Brelyrian and Egronian government, which accounts for Brelyria's sudden growth in magical and technological power, which [] believes started only a few short years after Landess landed in Brelyria.

Historical records commonly indicate that Landess set sail for the east again when he was in his 70s, but no one knows about his ultimate fate.