The Dawnfly: Old Wive’s Tale Turned Terrifyingly Real:

Chot Gable, Pathfinder Loremaster and Historian

Children from all over rural Avistan know the story of the Dawnfly, told most often around the winter
solstice by mothers attempting to entertain and bully their children into behaving. For posterity’s sake,
and those from more distant lands, the story is as follows:

It is said when the day is shortest, that the Dawnflower is at her weakest. It is said this is the day that the
Rough Beast anticipates most in the entire year. In the shadows of morning, the beast comes loose to
terrorize the world. From underneath, it erupts! The land comes alive with gnashing teeth and lashing
tongues, each grasping first for those most vicious of children and dragging them kicking and screaming
to be imprisoned in its belly for all eternity! Those children are forever lost, but if you believe hard
enough, if you have faith, if you’ve been good the whole year through, the Dawnflower will speed to
your aid, and throw down the beast once more in all her brilliant, burning glory… But only if you’re good.

Most commonly accepted as a fictionalized account of the mythic conflict between Sarenrae and
Rovagug, new evidence suggests that perhaps this tale isn’t quite as fictionalized or hopeful as
previously thought. For over a hundred years now, scholars have believed that the Beast mentioned in
this story is a Spawn of Rovagug, rather than the Rough Beast himself. Degmadu, the Shuddering Maw,
is widely whispered about among the creatures of the Darklands, even in the deepest vaults of Orv.

Ancient legends and accounts from these subterranean peoples speak of Degmadu as the Millennium
Polyp for its exceptionally rare excursions to the surface world. These sources say that the Shundering
Maw is “all mouth” akin to a vibrating funnel of stone teeth and feathered cable-like tongues. However,
if these accounts are to be believed, once Degmadu reaches the surface (which it only ever does on the
winter solstice) its behavior changes drastically. The beast bundles all of its energy and erupts in a
blinding light as the Dawnfly, a massive wasp of glass and chitin filled with roiling smoke and six
constantly vibrating wings that can lay low miles of farmland. By the time the sun falls however, the
Dawnfly has expended all its energy and must return to the earth, leaving behind a stunning, fragile
living glass husk up to 60 ft long. To the uneducated spectator, it may have looked as if the forces of
Sarenrae descended into devastating battle to vanquish the beast before disappearing into the clouds.

While these husks are few (I myself having been lucky enough to see one, albeit sworn to carefully guard
its location for fear of theft of such a magnificent artifact), their existence calls to question everything
formerly thought about this tale. Is our hesitance to destroy the hopes of children (as well as a story
many of us delighted in as children ourselves) inadvertently celebrating the life cycles of a horrid beast
and potential Spawn of Rovagug? Perhaps we may never know, but the facts remain: this story did not
come from nothing, and every thousand years, there exists massive glass insect husks found amid miles
and miles of destruction.

Insp: Wayfinder 2, Spawn of Rovagug: The Dawnfly