According to tradition, on a temperate day, somewhat cloudy and light of heat, the Shepherd was tending to his flock. He noticed that one of his sheep wandering astray into a cavern and thusly the Shepherd followed. Inside, he saw a gaping hole emitting a glimmer of sunlight towards a patch of dry reddish land surrounded by a shallow bed of water. On its outer rim, shrubs that were greener than most.

At the nexus of the land patch, he saw a tree blackened in the likeness of Onyx, seemingly lifeless and wilted, yet having a spring to it. The sunlight made it gleam all the more.

He approached his sheep and saw it eating this blackened leaf, noticing how animated it became. Jumping, jaunting and chewing more away at the leaf. The Shepherd calmed his sheep and then examined the tree. He plucked a leaf from the tree and smelt it. A bitter earthiness and tinges of what could be approximated to honey.

The Onyx Tree then spoke to him. “Common shepherd, I grant my leaves unto this world and I have chosen you, a simple and humble man. Disperse my words and my leaves to all peoples, noble and common. Teach them of productivity, humility and an appreciation of life, thus which I created from its beginnings.” The Shepherd then felt a relaxed sensation. Thenafter he became animated and held faith to what it was saying. “Infuse my leaves into heated water, so that all peoples of my creation may prosper and live in paradise”.

The Shepherd then plucked the Onyx Tree’s branches and leaves, and put it in his coin purse. He took his stray sheep with him and now knew his calling. To proliferate the words and leaves of the Onyx Tree to all peoples in the Known Lands.

— The Shepherd and the Onyx Tree. Summary by Rénard Raenyx.