Most of the kingdoms of Dawn count their greatness by conquering lands and wealth. But the Red Tribe boasts for being ahead in the search for knowledge. The Twelve Galaus that ruled the tribes are responsible for such an advance. Historically, their most important leader was someone called Barefoot Lotus.
She was born in a humble family and spent her childhood inside a stilt house in one of the many lakes of The Furious Giant, connected by canals. From a very early age, she learned about plants and healing techniques with her grandmother, who had total knowledge of the medicinal arts. By the age of thirteen, little boats went on a search to find the girl with a flower’s name. Always barefoot, even during the winter, the young woman used to say that the mud, the sand, and above all, the wind, would tell her which portions and formulas were the most appropriate to make.
When she was seventeen, Barefoot Lotus was already regarded as of the authorities of medicine, almost like a deity. This made some of the elders jealous, they used to charge a high price for their practice, and felt that the prodigy was causing them harm. Due to their pettiness, they wanted to get rid of the young woman, and forced her to marry the Duke of High Pine, a part that now is the scary Rotten Forest in the Leafy Araucária region. She then antagonized the elderly, but had her parents and grandparents supporting her decision, and managed to dismiss the Duke. In the dark of night, she surprisingly left the Furious Giant, and crossed the Ink Sea in a raft towards the monasteries of the Salt Islands.
The monks, pacifists, amazed by the fact that she was not just a legend, but a real person, sheltered her. In this phase of her life, Lotus could amplify her knowledge about anatomy, botanics, chemistry and lived for 10 years with the last Confidants of Nature.
When she found out about a plague taking over High Pine, Lotus decided to come back to the Red Tribes, but failed to save her family, and ironically, the elderly who persecuted her also fell ill.
Such plague was so violent and mysterious, and so brutal to the araucaritians and the tribes. It all happened so quickly, as soon as someone closed their eyes, it spread more over the Rotten Forest.
Legend has it that in one stormy morning, Lotus, now a woman, remembered leaving her bare foot under the mud and with her arms open, she felt the wind and rain in her face, and heard the Firmamundo Messenger speak. Then she knew what to do, Barefoot walked until a swampy region where she found a massive closed Lotus flower, and when she touched the petals, it opened, like an enchantment. An energy ran across her body and made her levitate over the plant that transmitted light and peace.
At that moment, the fearless woman received the touch of Firmamundo, known as “Healing of Healing”. With such power in her hands, she rose a barrier of fog and petals that isolated the forest and purified all the affected regions.
Finally, as the plague ceased, everything was much calmer. The Galau of Galaus, known as Anduz Hawk, designated her as one of the twelve leardes, the serpent, the one who knows the Healing Arts. She became the third Galau of the twelve Red Tribes. As the third leader, she founded the School of the Herb Masters, which still stands today. It is a center of reference in medicine and the most imposing construction of the tribes.
By the age of fifty, she became the first woman who got the title of Galau of Galaus, and she led until she was seventy. Her motto was “While many go to war for visible and palpable things, we should pay attention and fight against the invisible and impalpable, those indeed are the true elvis”. She lived until she was eighty tree, always barefoot. Some people say that the day she closed her eyes, a warm summer breeze blew over and thousands of lotus petals accompanied her through the Furious Giant.