Legends of Nike Babies

by Eron12 with Hero Forge

-Akeem of Magicland, professor Emeritus of History

Assuming babies are born evenly throughout the year, 1.3% of all Scarterrans should be Nike babies. But according to the information from nations that take detailed censuses, only about 0.8% of Scarterras are born during this time.   This isn't a Nike issue, it's a winter issue. If I may be so bold, babies are more likely to be conceived during the winter than they are to be born during the winter. There are less chores to do in the winter and it's so cold people want to 'stay warm' so to speak. That is why so many people are born in the summer and autumn.

  Just by dumb luck, some famous people will end up with Nike birthdays.   Dyrik Mykrrún is the most hated villain in Meckelorn history and he is said to be Turoch Marked.   Fumaya the Half Elf was a great hero and the entire land of land of Fumaya and he is said to be a Nike Baby.   More than a few princes and princesses who died tragically young were Nike Babies. Many local heroes or petty warlords were Nike Babies.   Their births during the Month of Nike are matters of clear historical record. Fumaya often sponsored a feast on his birthday and the Meckelorner dwarves kept accurate records of every birth in their realm for that era though Dyrik Mykrrún was born under the name Atuk Strongmantle and later change his name   There is no record of Mordock the Destroyer being born a Nike baby, but Mordock made the claim. Though Mordock understood the principles of propaganda, so he could have easily been lying. But at least that is some evidence for his birthday.   In a lot of cases, we don't know the birthdays of famous historical figures. Bards and storytellers like to start stories of famous people describing a dramatic birth during the Nike. And it pains me, a lot of academic chroniclers will use their imagination to fill gaps in the historical records.   If enough people hear the tale or the read book, they will eventually take a person's birthday as given 'fact'.   The further back you go, the more Nike Babies you'll see. In the last five hundred years, I would estimate at least 10% of famous people are widely considered to have Nike birthdays. If you go back another five hundred years, it increases to 25%.   I would say three quarters of the famous names of the Red Era are said to be Nike Babies and almost all of the remembered names from the the Second Age are claimed to be Nike Babies by someone.   We know very little personal information aboutLensa Vaxidor, the greatest heroine of the Second Unmaking but is now considered common knowledge that she was a Nike Baby.   Delas the Diplomat, the most famous gnome in history, is also widely believed to to be a Nike Baby.   We don't even know what continent Lensa and Delas were born on. Some historians believe 'Delas' was actually a family surname, and that the famous deeds of Delas were accomplished by an entire family of gnomes. The idea that we would know their birthdays is almost laughable.   Unless they were royalty, it's almost impossible to confirm the birth date of any mortal born during the Second Age or Red Era."

-Beslyfle the gnome, matron of the Fumayan Tenders

 

"The five days of the Month of Turoch are considered unlucky and a lot of people claim to suffer unlucky accidents during this time. Infant mortality is fairly high for babies born during this time which has strengthened the legend that these five days are cursed.   I am not one to boast, but I have served as midwife for over 1,000 births. I have trained dozens of physicians and midwives and they have delivered north 10,000 babies. This makes me an expert on the subject of newborns.   Based on reliable accounts, I can say that Nike babies are less likely to reach their third birthday than babies born during the rest of the year. More mothers die in childbirth on these five days than any other five days you can name.

  I don't know this is due to a curse from the Void or is this simply be the cold nights. The five days of the Nike are the five coldest day of the year. If you take the two weeks before the Nike and the two weeks after the Nike, this is coldest four weeks of the year. Cold nights are rough on newborns and on new mothers. And cold nights decrease ones' resistance to disease. We tend to lose a lot of elderly during the winter too.   I have personally been the primary midwife for 13 Nike babies. I don't usually have to utilize my advance healing magic during while delivering a baby, but on five occasions, if Mera hadn't blessed with healing magic, we would have lost the mother or child or both.   I try to keep track of the babies I deliver as they get older, whether they were born under Turoch's Zodiac sign or not. Of the thirteen Nike babies that I delivered, One died before her first birthday due to illness. I sadly wasn't present during the time of illness or I could have helped. Three died before their adolescence due to accidents. Nine made it to adulthood. At which point I lost track of three of them (though I heard some of them may have sought the life of an adventurer). Eight grew up to live ordinary lives, they had jobs and families and lived to a reasonable old age. Two or three of them have some tall tales about weird thingsALMOST happening to them.   The ninth disappeared a while, but he came back as a successful adventurer with a sack of gold. He married the daughter of a minor noble family that was strapped for coins, and now his children are all Lords and Ladies.   Does this prove that Nike Babies are marked for exceptional luck? I don't know. But this does mean that Nike Babies grow up feeling pressure to prove themselves in some fashion."