Conquest of the Horde

I was wondering, if this story fits with the Tauren lore, to tell as a story Icly.

A long time ago there were no stones on the earth. The mountains, hills, and valleys were not rough, and it was easy to walk on the ground swiftly. There were no small trees at that time either. All the bushes and trees were tall and straight and were at equal distances. So a man could travel through a forest without having to make a path.

At that time, a large Kodo roamed over the land. From the water, he had obtained his spirit power--the power to change anything into some other form. He would have that power as long as he only drank from a certain pool.

In his wanderings, Kodo often travelled across a high mountain. He liked this mountain so much that one day he asked it, "Would you like to be changed into something else?"

"Yes," replied the mountain. "I would like to be changed into something nobody would want to climb over."

"All right," said Kodo. "I will change you into something hard that I will call 'stone.' You will be so hard that no one will want to break you and so smooth that no one will want to climb you."

So Kodo changed the mountain into a large stone. "And I give you the power to change yourself into anything else as long as you do not break yourself."

Only Kodo's lived in this part of the land. No people lived here. On the other side of the mountain lived men who were cruel and killed animals. The Kodo's knew about them and stayed as far away from them as possible. But one day Kodo thought he would like to see these men. He hoped to make friends with them and persuade them not to kill Kodo's

So he went over the mountain and travelled along a stream until he came to a lodge. There lived an old woman and her grandson. The little boy liked Kodo, and Kodo liked the little boy and his grandmother. He said to them, "I have the power to change you into any form you wish. What would you like most to be?"

"I want always to be with my grandson. I want to be changed into anything that will make it possible for me to be with him, wherever he goes."

"I will take you to the home of the Kodo's," said their guest. "I will ask them to teach the boy to become a swift runner. I will ask the water to change the grandmother into something, so that you two can always be together."

So Kodo, the grandmother, and the little boy went over the mountain to the land of the Kodo's.

"We will teach you to run swiftly," they told the boy, "if you will promise to keep your people from hunting and killing Kodo's."

"I promise," said the boy.

The Kodo's taught him to run so fast that not one of them could keep up with him. The old grandmother could follow him wherever he went, for she had been changed into Wind.

The boy stayed with the Kodo's until he became a man. Then they let him go back to his people, reminding him of his promise. Because he was such a swift runner, he became a leader of the hunters. They called him Eagle Wing.

One day the chief called Eagle Wing to him and said to him, "My son, I want you to take the hunters to the Kodo country. We have never been able to kill Kodo's because they run so very fast. But you too can run fast. If you will kill some Kodo's and bring home the meat and the skins, I will adopt you as my son. And when I die, you will become chief of the tribe."

Eagle Wing wanted so much to become chief that he pushed from his mind his promise to the Kodo's. He started out with the hunters, but he climbed the mountain so fast that they were soon left far behind. On the other side of the mountain, he saw a herd of Kodo's. They started to run in fright, but Eagle Wing followed them and killed most of them.

Kodo, the great one who got his power from the water, was away from home at the time of the hunt. On his way back he grew so thirsty that he drank from some water on the other side of the mountain not from his special pool. When he reached home and saw what the hunter had done, he became very angry. He tried to turn the men into grass, but he could not. Because he had drunk from another pool, he had lost his power to transform.

Kodo went to the big stone that had once been a mountain.

"What can you do to punish the hunter for what he has done?" he asked Stone.

"I will ask the trees to tangle themselves so that it will be difficult for men to travel through them," answered Stone. "I will break myself into many pieces and scatter myself all over the land. Then the swift runner and his followers cannot run over me without hurting their feet."

"That will punish them," agreed Kodo.

So Stone broke itself into many pieces and scattered itself all over the land. Whenever the swift runner, Eagle Wing, and his followers tried to run over the mountain, stones cut their feet. Bushes scratched and bruised their bodies.

That is how Eagle Wing was punished for not keeping his promise to Kodo.

Well, most notably this would go against most ideas of the Earthmother and how she shaped the land; It is after all, her domain. The power would have to come directly from her, just like the kodo did. That's my second point, actually, is that the Kodo were made for the Tauren, to hunt, and to kill, and to use to sustain themselves. A Kodo trying to break this chain would by breaking a chain that the Earthmother forged with her own hands. Here's the story concerning that:

Quote:The kodo are the life of the tauren, and in turn, the tauren's lives are theirs. Long ago, the Shu'halo wandered Kalimdor lost and hungry, and so they called to the Earth Mother for respite. The world was new, just sundered, and the tauren lost everything in the great quakes that followed...

The Earth Mother granted their wishes however, and created the kodo from her own strength and spirit. She came to the tauren, pained from the making, and spoke unto them the following words, "I have heard your pain, and I have felt it too. This world is new, but you shall never be alone. I give you the kodo, and tie you to the great beasts as they are tied to you. The kodo shall be your food, your friends, your shelter, and your power. As long as you respect the kodo, honor the kodo, and love the kodo, it shall always be there for you."

She then set the kodo to wander the plains, to test the power of the tauren race, and ro prove her love for them. To this day, the tauren still honor and protect the great beasts of the plains. The kodo give them everything they need: Meat, and clothing. Weapons, armor, shelter. Nothing goes to waste; to do so would be to dishonor the Earth Mother's sacrifice. And still they remember the great gift the Mother gave unto them, and offer their thanks in prayer.

And finally, the Kodo are not known for their swift strides. They are if anything, rather slow compared to the other animals in and around the Barrens. Those being lions, hyenas, plainstriders, etc. Now that Plainstriders are brought to mind however, you could easily take every instance of the use of 'kodo' out, and replace it with Plainstrider. They're known for being notably fast, and have had just as large of an impact on Tauren culture without having much lore behind them as it stands. The only other thing I can really say is that I don't particularly understand the moral of this story, nor what impact it has on Tauren society? Is it saying that this kodo is responsible for the Stonetalon Mountains to the west, and the thorns that the Quillboar live in? Unless that's the point, and you'd like anyone that you're having it be told to have to think on it and mull it over... But there's a point where the connection to the point or moral (And all Tauren legends have a point or moral) is so strained that it doesn't make much sense. For inspiration on Legends, I have them all gathered here in my guide on Tauren:

Thank you