Limzu, Rib of Galzu

The Age of Giants ended long ago, but its remains can yet be found. Limzu, the Rib of Galzu, is as storied and ancient as that age, itself.

Galzu was a giant of old, birthed of the body of Earth with his quarrelsome siblings. He knew himself to be mightier than the others because of his  bronze skeleton, but his sisters, Adeb and Ukabi lured him to the maw of Faru, the Dark Lake, who drowned him, casting his vast, glittering skeleton over a waterfall.

In the time of great-great grandparents’ great-great grandparents, Lugash found one of his ribs, and from it she hammered Limzu. From the skin of Tuu was made a leather scabbard to hold the blade; from drops of Tuu’s blood came pomegranates and Lugash placed that first pomegranate on the pommel of the dagger. She placed two of Tuu’s eyes on either side of the hilt wrought of gold. The handle he formed of the jade from Yogam. Lugash looked at her work and declared it good, then hid it from the eyes of all Great Names, lest they become jealous of his craft..

It is said that one who holds the scabbard cannot be pierced, and the blade cannot be turned by bronze or by armor.

After Limzu, in the hand of Atu, cleft the breasts of the lion-men Kafabi and Kafabur, none saw it again.

But now, a traveler upon the river, Mushad looks down, hearing its whisper, and sees it glittering underneath a thin verdigris at the bottom. When he reaches into the silt to draw it forth, he speaks to it, saying, “Why do you wish to be drawn forth? Why should I not cast you back into the river whence you came?”

Limzu, the Rib of Galzu, says, “I have lain in silt and sand for longer than I can recount. I have lost my scabbard, and with it my ability to know right from wrong. Take me with you to find my scabbard and I will kill for you whenever I am bared.”

The traveler says, “We are agreed!”

Modular systems are a function of industrial society. But do people of The Fifth World still know how to agree to standards? With their acute interest in efficiency, I think they might have carried that lesson forward!

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